Everything Celebrities Have Said About Working With Intimacy Coordinators on TV and Movie Sets

Credit: Stephen Lovekin/Shutterstock; Stuart Wallace/Shutterstock

Everything Celebrities Have Said About Working With Intimacy Coordinators on TV and Movie Sets

Behind-the-scenes support! Outlander, Sex/Life and more TV shows and movies have hired intimacy coordinators to manage sex scenes — and the stars have found these roles make them feel safer.

“I brought on board the intimacy advisor Vanessa Coffey because, with intimate scenes, it’s important that everyone is protected, but also we find a way to explore these scenes and actually maybe get something more out of them,” Sam Heughan, who portrays Jamie Fraser on STARZ’s Outlander, said during a March 2022 appearance on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast. “I think this season we’ve done an even better job with those types of scenes because she really helped us understand what we are doing and how we build up this relationship and take it somewhere else, so she’s been terrific.”

Outlander, which debuts its seventh season in late 2023, premiered in August 2014 at a “very different time” in Hollywood. Heughan, for his part, has been candid about filming his character’s difficult sexual assault scene — and how he felt some of the production’s direction seemed unnecessary.

“This wasn’t a moment where I felt that being naked would add to the horror of what Jamie undergoes in that castle dungeon as a form of punishment, subjugation and humiliation,” the Men in Kilts alum wrote in his Waypoints memoir, which was published in October 2022. “I pushed back, reasoning that nudity sexualized a horrific experience for my character, and it sparked quite a debate. Creative conversations are a feature of all productions, good art is made by questioning the truth and we all want to get it right.”

Heughan added at the time: “It would have been handled differently [if it was filmed today]. Times have changed. The [full-frontal] shot was unnecessary and did betray my trust in the creative team a bit. We don’t need to see the horror to imagine what the characters go through. Imagination is way more powerful.”

Sex/Life — which premiered its first season on Netflix in June 2021 — also features plenty of racy, NSFW scenes between stars Sarah Shahi and Adam Demos, who sparked a real-life romance on set.

“My task early on in the season was No. 1, to check in with them and go, ‘OK, so you’re together this season, how can I help you feel safe?’” intimacy coordinator Casey Hudecki exclusively told Us Weekly in March 2023. “‘How can I help you protect your relationship as your characters go off and have other relationships? How can I help the actors who are … being their scene partners to feel safe and to feel free even though they know that, you know, Adam and Sarah [are] together?’ So there’s a lot of talking.”

The L Word alum — who was previously married to Steve Howey, with whom she shares son William and twins Violet and Knox — and Demos debuted their relationship in 2020 while filming season 1. By the drama’s second season, they were pros at their steamy scenes.

“I think with Adam and Sarah, they feel safe together and they’re very comfortable with each other,” Hudecki recalled to Us. “I think in their scenes, they’re free to have a lot more fun and play with each other.”

Scroll below to read more actors’ candid quotes about working with intimacy coordinators:

Credit: Stephen Lovekin/Shutterstock; Stuart Wallace/Shutterstock

Everything Celebrities Have Said About Working With Intimacy Coordinators on TV and Movie Sets

Behind-the-scenes support! Outlander, Sex/Life and more TV shows and movies have hired intimacy coordinators to manage sex scenes — and the stars have found these roles make them feel safer.

“I brought on board the intimacy advisor Vanessa Coffey because, with intimate scenes, it’s important that everyone is protected, but also we find a way to explore these scenes and actually maybe get something more out of them,” Sam Heughan, who portrays Jamie Fraser on STARZ’s Outlander, said during a March 2022 appearance on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast. “I think this season we’ve done an even better job with those types of scenes because she really helped us understand what we are doing and how we build up this relationship and take it somewhere else, so she’s been terrific.”

Outlander, which debuts its seventh season in late 2023, premiered in August 2014 at a “very different time” in Hollywood. Heughan, for his part, has been candid about filming his character’s difficult sexual assault scene — and how he felt some of the production’s direction seemed unnecessary.

“This wasn’t a moment where I felt that being naked would add to the horror of what Jamie undergoes in that castle dungeon as a form of punishment, subjugation and humiliation,” the Men in Kilts alum wrote in his Waypoints memoir, which was published in October 2022. “I pushed back, reasoning that nudity sexualized a horrific experience for my character, and it sparked quite a debate. Creative conversations are a feature of all productions, good art is made by questioning the truth and we all want to get it right.”

Heughan added at the time: “It would have been handled differently [if it was filmed today]. Times have changed. The [full-frontal] shot was unnecessary and did betray my trust in the creative team a bit. We don’t need to see the horror to imagine what the characters go through. Imagination is way more powerful.”

Sex/Life — which premiered its first season on Netflix in June 2021 — also features plenty of racy, NSFW scenes between stars Sarah Shahi and Adam Demos, who sparked a real-life romance on set.

“My task early on in the season was No. 1, to check in with them and go, ‘OK, so you’re together this season, how can I help you feel safe?’” intimacy coordinator Casey Hudecki exclusively told Us Weekly in March 2023. “‘How can I help you protect your relationship as your characters go off and have other relationships? How can I help the actors who are … being their scene partners to feel safe and to feel free even though they know that, you know, Adam and Sarah [are] together?’ So there’s a lot of talking.”

The L Word alum — who was previously married to Steve Howey, with whom she shares son William and twins Violet and Knox — and Demos debuted their relationship in 2020 while filming season 1. By the drama’s second season, they were pros at their steamy scenes.

“I think with Adam and Sarah, they feel safe together and they’re very comfortable with each other,” Hudecki recalled to Us. “I think in their scenes, they’re free to have a lot more fun and play with each other.”

Scroll below to read more actors’ candid quotes about working with intimacy coordinators:

Credit: Lionel Hahn/Shutterstock

Toni Collette

"I think it's only been a couple of times where intimacy coordinators have been brought in, and I have very much trusted and felt at ease with the people I was working with," Collette told The Times in March 2023. "It just felt like those people who were brought in to make me feel more at ease were actually making me feel more anxious. They weren't helping, so I asked them to leave."

Credit: Stephen Lovekin/Shutterstock

Amy Schumer

“Appreciation post for the role of intimacy coordinators on set,” the Trainwreck actress wrote via Instagram in March 2023. “Worked with Nicole Callender and she should be the gold standard. Every set should have them in a meaningful way to protect the performers.”

Emily Ratajkowski, who worked with Schumer on I Feel Pretty, cosigned the idea. “Yes,” the model replied.

Credit: Atilano Garcia/SOPA Images/Shutterstock

Sam Heughan

The Scotland native implored the Outlander team to hire their first intimacy coordinator while shooting season 6, which premiered in March 2022.

“We really didn’t know what we were doing [when the show started],” he told Josh Horowitz on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast at the time. “We were thrown in the deep end and had to learn through the experience, so I think it’s been really great to bring Vanessa [Coffey] on board to help younger actors with less experience.”

Credit: David Fisher/Shutterstock

Sarah Shahi

“I’ve often felt that when you have sex scenes in film and television — unless it’s a lesbian piece — they’re kind of depicted through the male point of view. It’s often the woman having sex the way a man wants to have sex,” Shahi exclusively told Us in June 2021. “I thought [Sex/Life] was a real opportunity to flip that on its head. Now, you have female sexuality represented by women on screen. … I felt like this was such a statement, to show that we are these incredible sexual beings.”

She added at the time: “I have always been trying to get into projects like this. I just never got hired. Everyone would always hire me to be the tough chick and paid me to keep my clothes on. More importantly, I think once I found out too that this is a piece that was written by a woman — all the writers are women [and it’s] directed by all women — it was just such an ability to stand for something, to stand for femininity, to be able to be a voice in a way that I felt was really important for women. … You can be a mom and still want to be the sexual goddess at the same time.”

Credit: James Veysey/Shutterstock

Jonathan Bailey

Bailey, who plays Anthony Bridgerton on Netflix’s Bridgerton, filmed a handful of steamy scenes with TV love interest Simone Ashley during season 2.

“It’s amazing how that whole industry has just come on, even in a year. There are new tricks to the trade – little cushions – and it’s amazing what you can do with a half-inflated netball,” Bailey gushed to Radio Times in March 2022 before detailing the set coordinator’s special tricks. “If there are two people doing a sex scene, the rule is they must have three barriers separating them and there are certain acts where a half-inflated netball can allow for movement without having to connect physically. It’s pretty silly really and we have some hilarious moments, but it makes it less awkward.”

Credit: Gregory Pace/Shutterstock

Michaela Coel

The I May Destroy You alum dedicated her Leading Actress trophy at the BAFTA TV Awards in June 2021 to her set intimacy coordinator, Ita O'Brien.

“Thank you for your existence in our industry, for making the space safe, for creating physical, emotional and professional boundaries so that we can make work about exploitation, loss of respect, about abuse of power without being exploited or abused in the process,” Coel gushed in her speech. “I know what it’s like to shoot without an intimacy director. The messy, embarrassing feeling for the crew, the internal devastation for the actor. Your direction was essential in the show, and I believe essential for every production company that wants to make works exploring the themes of consent.”

Credit: Zabulon Laurent/ABACA/Shutterstock

Phoebe Dynevor

Dynevor, who plays Anthony’s younger sister Daphne on Bridgerton, dealt with filming her own racy sex scenes in season 1.

“You feel very vulnerable in those scenes. We did the intimate scenes like stunts — we blocked them out, so you have yoga balls in between you and all sorts of things that never make you feel exposed in any way,” the Younger alum recalled to Glamour in January 2021. “You always feel safe. I'd rehearse with Regé-[Jean Page] so much that we both knew what we were doing. It felt very practical.”

She added: “If we didn't have an intimacy coordinator, it would be our director, who was a male, coming up to me and telling me what to do. That would have been awkward. I felt so safe in the knowledge that Lizzy [Talbot, our coordinator] was there, so that if something went wrong or the director wanted something different he could speak to her first. I think it would have been a very difficult experience if Lizzy hadn't been on set protecting me and looking after me. No one wants to be told how to perform orgasm [on set] by a man.”

Credit: BabiradPicture/Shutterstock

Sydney Sweeney

“I had my first intimacy coordinator on Euphoria, and it changed my approach to everything,” Sweeney, who plays Cassie on the HBO drama, told Roger Ebert in May 2020. “I love having one and I think they should be considered a necessity on every set. I actually brought my intimacy coordinator, Amanda Blumenthal, onto my Amazon movie, The Voyeurs. I wish that more productions were aware of this and we made it a priority.”

Credit: Anthony Harvey/Shutterstock

Emma Thompson

“You might find that people go, ‘It made me feel comfortable, it made me feel safe, it made me feel as though I was able to do this work,’” the Love Actually star quipped during an August 2022 radio appearance on Nova FM. “And no, you can't just let it flow. There’s a camera there and a crew. You're not on your own in a hotel room, you're surrounded by a bunch of blokes, mostly. So, it's not a comfortable situation.”

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Rachel Zegler

After Game of Thrones alum Sean Bean condemned the use of intimacy coordinators, claiming their employment spoils the “spontaneity” of romantic scenes, Zegler slammed his opinion.

“Intimacy coordinators establish an environment of safety for actors,” the West Side Story actress tweeted in August 2022. “I was extremely grateful for the one we had on WSS — they showed grace to a newcomer like myself + educated those around me who’ve had years of experience. Spontaneity in intimate scenes can be unsafe. Wake up.”

Credit: Anthony Harvey/Shutterstock

Daisy Edgar-Jones

“You need more protection because it is a stunt, with physical maneuvers that you need to make look realistic – just like in a fight scene,” the Normal People alum recalled to Net-a-Porter’s Porter magazine in June 2020 of working with O’Brien. “Mentally, it’s a really vulnerable place to put yourself in. You need to feel like you have the control and agency in those moments so that you can feel relaxed and give a better performance. If we didn’t have Ita, those scenes wouldn’t be nearly as passionate. Paul [Mescal] and I could always speak up if we wanted to.”

Credit: David Fisher/Shutterstock

Ciaran Hinds

The Game of Thrones alum told The Independent in March 2023 that he was “put off” by the amount of “sexuality that was going on” in the HBO series, noting that it took “away from the actual political storytelling.” 

He added that the concept of having intimacy coordinators on set seemed “strange" until speaking with his daughter, Aoife Hinds, who is also an actress. 

“I didn’t come from that generation. Anything we had to create together, in scenes of a sexual nature, we just talked about it,” he explained. “It’s about how we tell the story together, so I didn’t understand why intimacy coordinators were suddenly everywhere. As actors, you let your own spirits inform what you’re doing. Aoife said, ‘No, it was fantastic because your own emotional context was put on hold, and it became not quite balletic, but not your libido.”