Actors could enlist partners for virus-safe sex scenes
‘Intimacy in the Time of Covid-19’ guidelines ask directors to come up with new ways to convey desire
ACTORS could recruit real-life partners as body doubles in sex scenes, under new guidance on Covid-safe filming.
The partners could be brought in when a scene demands characters get closer than the two-metre rules allow.
Directors UK, the professional association of screen directors, has issued a new set of guidelines titled Intimacy in the Time of Covid-19.
“In exceptional cases, the production might want to consider using a real-life partner as a body double for limited intimate moments (particularly if the partner is a performer and is willing to step into ‘work mode’).
“However, our overall advice would be to avoid imposing on a real relationship just to get a shot; it’s always better to find a creative alternative for the scene,” it states.
A similar suggestion has been made by the Nordic Film Guide, and partners are being used in US soap The Bold and the Beautiful for scenes in which hands touch faces and other body parts.
However, Directors UK warned of potential problems. “Will partners feel comfortable being brought on a set full of strangers for the sole purpose of being a sex object?” the document asked.
“Furthermore, when you have two performers who have been diligently trying to portray the lived experience of a shared relationship, bringing in their respective real-life partners is unlikely to help.
“There may be a level of discomfort for performers and crew where reallife partners are being asked to touch one another (possibly sexually) and it is unfair to put them in that position.
“Portraying intimacy on screen should be separate to a performer’s private life.”
The guidance also asks directors to weigh up whether sex scenes are really necessary – citing classic films where lovers did no more than kiss.
It says: “Be innovative and come up with new ways to convey sexual desire or intimacy without resorting to conventional tropes. You may even find inspiration by revisiting classic film such as It Happened One Night (1934) or Casablanca (1943) – some of the greatest screen romances ever made and all filmed under the Hays Code, which prohibited the depiction of sex on screen.”
The Hays Code, named after Will H Hays, the Hollywood executive, was published in 1930. It stated that “excessive and lustful kissing, lustful embraces, suggestive postures and gestures, are not to be shown”.
The Directors UK guidance, produced in conjunction with Vanessa Coffey, an intimacy co-ordinator, says productions that must feature physical contact could put actors in quarantine for two weeks but it notes that this would be “extremely disruptive for performers”. It mandates masks and gloves for crew in close contact with actors.