The women behind Britain’s steamiest SEX SCENES
Wonder why TV is so X-rated? Blame it on the new intimacy coaches who, armed with ‘nipple daisies’ and strapless thongs, are teaching romping actors how to say yes, yes, yes!
FROM bodice ripper Bridgerton to gay drama t's A Sin — steamy love cenes have had as much time as Boris and his s past year. rom being titillating asides, d in to keep the attention of n with worryingly easy access porn (as well as their Fifty Shades Of Grey-loving parents), sex scenes drama are now considered both an art and a science, around which a whole new industry has sprung up.
Britain has 20 registered intimacy coordinators — all but three female — to thank for expertly choreographing such scenes as daphne and simon’s passionate encounter on the library stepladder in Bridgerton to the eye-opening ‘wham, bam, thank you mam’ collisions between staff at a london investment bank in BBC2 series Industry. It is a tricky path they tread making these encounters plausible and pleasing to the eye as well as respecting the wishes, and understandable insecurities, of some actors performing a role that can be emotionally, as well as physically, exposing.
‘Choreographing a sex scene is very much like choreographing a dance,’ says
words, such as ‘short’. there is no pre
Vanessa Coffey, one of the UK’s leading intimacy coordinators who worked with Billie Piper on last year’s sky Atlantic series I hate suzie (now out on DVD) and the second part of the BBC’s adaptation of h.g.Wells’s War of The Worlds. released later this year, it stars Daisy edgar-Jones, one of the first actors to talk about her positive experience of working with an intimacy coordinator while shooting normal People.
‘The actors need to know exactly where hands are going, where body parts are going to be, what’s going to be visible or not visible on camera,’ says Vanessa. ‘Many have areas, whether that’s nipples or their intergluteal cleft (bum crack, to you and me) that they’re not comfortable showing on screen, so we have to respect and accommodate that with careful camera angling.’
We’ve come a long way since Keira Knightley says she had a director holler at her: “W*** him off!” mid scene, while filming Atonement 15 years ago.
‘of course she understood what that means, but it’s obviously only going to be simulated, so as an actor I wouldn’t know what I needed to do to demonstrate that to a viewing audience,’ says Vanessa. ‘That requires proper structuring.’
In the same interview on the graham norton show in which Keira recounted this experience she also revealed how she had been asked, by director David Cronenberg, over skype to demonstrate her ‘sex faces’.
KeIrA, who has said she won’t be appearing in any more sex scenes in films shot by male directors, then suffered the excruciating indignity of the screen freezing mid-expression.
Aussie Vanessa, who married a Brit and settled in glasgow where she lectures in intimacy coordinating at the royal Conservatoire of scotland, is horrified that actors were still being subjected to such humiliating direction in the 21st century.
she is also aware that, in an industry which for so long ignored casting couch predators such as harvey Weinstein, her role would not exist, were it not for the #MeToo movement.
The lawyer-turned-actor ‘fell into’ her role in 2017 after being asked by colleagues to cast a legal eye over contracts and even accompany some of them on set when they felt uncomfortable filming intimate scenes.
It turned out it wasn’t just the cast who appreciated Vanessa’s support, but also the crew.
Perhaps they viewed her presence as an insurance policy against accusations of impropriety at a time when so much wrongdoing in the industry was coming to light. They also appreciated her role as go-between, sparing them conversations about sexual positions and degrees of nakedness.
‘Initially we were seen as the fun police, a PC brigade trying to stop these sorts of scenes from happening,’ says Vanessa. ‘nothing could be further from the truth and now everyone is seeing the effect of what we do and enjoying the results.
‘Directors are relieved that, far from intimacy coordinators interfering and detracting in any way from these scenes, it’s clear that, when an actor feels safe, knows exactly what is expected of them and that their wishes are being respected, they give their best performances. I’ve heard stories of actors being given no further direction than “just go for it” during a sex scene, something that would never happen with, say, a dance or a fight scene. Leaving it to an actor to do “whatever comes naturally” in bed, because everyone feels uncomfortable talking about the specifics, is bound to lead to feelings of vulnerability.
‘It’s tantamount to saying: “show us how you kiss or thrust,” when what is needed is for them to stay in character and let this scene, like all the others, be part of the storytelling.’
Another aspect of Vanessa’s role is to pay close attention to what is, and is not, anatomically possible in these scenes.
For instance, when sex is meant to be happening standing up, the woman must be in a more elevated position than the man, not something that would necessarily occur to the actors, or even directors, when they are merely playing at it.
An intimacy coordinator also ensures there is no actual contact between the actors most intimate parts, with coverings for both and pillows discreetly placed between bodies. only the parts of the body that need to be filmed are left exposed so, unbeknown to the viewer, an actress may be wearing jogging bottoms, or a camisole top, if only one half of her body is in a scene where she appears to be naked.
The moment the director says cut, nobody is allowed to move until the actors have been wrapped in dressing gowns. And to remove the risk of actors feeling ogled, Vanessa is one of only a handful of crew allowed to be present for these scenes.
‘We also make sure nobody else has access to monitors so the performers can really give it their all without thinking: “oh gosh, is my driver watching this?” We always have a safe word — usually “pineapple” as it’s so unlikely to be part of any script — in case one of the actors needs a break.
‘That might be because of an erection. We recognise those things happen when people are thrusting and there’s a lot of friction and they may need a moment to step aside.’
Vanessa acknowledges that the more experienced an actor the less daunting these scenes are. Billie Piper is no stranger to performing simulated sex scenes with a string of leading roles under her belt, including that of high-class escort Belle de Jour in secret Diary of A Call girl.
Consequently, she took a masturbation scene, as well as numerous sexual encounters, very much in her stride in I hate suzie.
While Vanessa helped with the scene, it was Billie’s less experienced co-stars who were more in need of her support. ‘Billie has done plenty of intimate scenes before so she’s very clear on what her boundaries are and what props and coverings she does and doesn’t need,’ says Vanessa.
‘so, we needed to make sure her male co-stars felt just as comfortable and knew where their hands would go and what was required of them.’
But it’s not just sex scenes that require input from an intimacy coordinator, as Vanessa found when she was hired to support the cast on netflix teen drama, Fate: The Winx saga. ‘There are partial nudity and kissing scenes and the crew wanted to make sure that the young cast felt safe and supported,’ says Vanessa.
‘I read that Kate Winslet had hopped into the boot of a car while her on-screen daughter was shooting a kissing scene. she felt that the actress needed some additional support.’
Kate also revealed she wishes she’d had an intimacy coordinator, saying: ‘I could have done with having that friend to say, “Can you just ask him not to put
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