BBC’s intimacy ‘expert’ needed a handbook
SHE was roped in to offer expert advice on how to portray erotic scenes ‘authentically’ on screen.
But the BBC’s intimacy director Ita O’Brien has revealed she had to scour books on ‘lesbian sex’ before working on the drama Gentleman Jack.
The mother-of-two, 54, who is straight, had to swot up same-sex intimacy before helping Suranne Jones and Sophie Rundle perform passionate scenes.
Miss O’Brien read The Whole Lesbian Sex Book: A Passionate Guide for All of Us and lesbian Kama Sutra in her preparations.
The six-part series stars the Doctor Foster star as the ‘wildly promiscuous’ Anne Lister, an 1830s landowner who beds a string of lesbian lovers, including Miss Rundle’s Ann Walker.
‘I had to do quite a lot of research for Gentleman Jack,’ Miss O’Brien said. ‘The important thing was to have a template: If you have a text that explains what positions the women favour and how they make love, then you can really honour that.’
The former actor and movement coach said: ‘I came in and I spoke openly about body parts, clearly gave out directions... and choreographed the scene through to orgasm, using anatomical language, so everything was dealt with in an adult fashion.’
Executive producer Faith Penhale said last week she wanted the actors to feel comfortable filming the scene, adding that the role of intimacy director has been created in the film and TV industry partly in response to the recent #MeToo movement.
She said: ‘For a long time we’ve had specialists on stunts and all different areas, but we’ve never had anyone really closely work with us to help us think about how to approach these scenes.’
It comes after Miss Jones, 40, hit back at claims she should not have taken the role of a lesbian character, saying ‘actors are just the face of a project’.