Stunt co-ordinators for action scenes, Sex co-ordinators for sex scenes.
The new trend changing how Hollywood does sex scenes
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By NY Post
There’s a new method behind the way that movies and TV shows are creating sex scenes — and it’s becoming widespread.
TV shows use stunt co-ordinators for action scenes, but they haven’t done the same for sex scenes.
Until now.
Caitriona Balfe in Outlander [S3E13]
“This is all new,” says Deven MacNair, a seasoned stunt co-ordinator and, now, also an intimacy co-ordinator.
“I would say it’s picked up steam in the past year.”
MacNair, who’s also a former GLOW wrestler, has worked on a wide range of films and shows such as Claws, The Walking Dead, Treme and Cloak & Dagger.
HBO made headlines in October by announcing that, going forward, all of its shows featuring sexually intimate scenes will have an intimacy co-ordinator on the set.
MacNair says you can expect this practice to become widespread.
“For the liability alone — it is safer and cheaper to have an intimacy co-ordinator on set than to not,” she says.
“Not only are you taking care of the actors and actors and crew, but if you’re checking in and making sure everything’s going as (smoothly) as possible, you’re also protecting the producers and the production. There’s going to be no liability or bad press or issues.”
MacNair fell into this work almost by accident, simply by being a woman in the stunt world.
“I’m one of very few women who were stunt co-ordinators,” she says.
“So producers who could choose who they wanted as stunt co-ordinator for an intimacy scene, and knowing there’s going to be a half-naked vulnerable actor there … they could either get a 6-foot-4 linebacker stunt man or they can call me. And I just found myself over and over getting these positions. It almost seemed like a niche.”
Victoria Carmen Sonne in Melon Rainbow (2015)
So what does this job involve? It’s basically the opposite of what director Bernardo Bertolucci infamously did in his 1972 film The Last Tango in Paris — in which he filmed a rape scene without actor Maria Schneider’s consent, which led to psychological damage.
“They need to have someone there checking in,” says MacNair.
“The thing people don’t seem to understand is that the lighting guy is focused on lighting, the director is focused on the scene, the producers are sitting around on a calculator.
“Don’t get me wrong, we’re all human beings and looking out for each other, but there’s no one specifically whose job is to make sure everyone is safe and comfortable.
“With intimacy co-ordinating, for instance, this summer was a challenging one where we were dealing with a 14-year-old girl getting sexually assaulted by other teenage boys,” MacNair says about a forthcoming project whose title or details she could not reveal.
“I talked to her and her mum weeks in advance of this scene. We made sure her crotch area was padded — we put a female cup, it’s very similar to a male cup — (and) we even talked about where this guy could touch her, where it was padded only.”
Raquel Martinez gets fruity in “Diet of Sex” (2014)
MacNair also checked in with the actor between takes to make sure she felt OK during filming. MacNair herself even had to violate the actress’ wishes (she wanted to stay in character between takes).
“I say, ‘If you don’t want me to comfort you, I won’t, but I am checking in with you after every take, and I don’t care if you don’t like it’,” she says.
“‘Yeah, you’ll break character, but oh well.’”
For some jobs, MacNair gets called in at the last minute.
“A stunt co-ordinator called me up and said, ‘I’ve got a whole male crew here, can you please come and check the actor and go into the dressing room with her, because it’s either you or me.’ Someone has to do this, and this MeToo movement, which is so appropriate — it’s time to have more stunt women there so there’s no liability issue.”
Natalia Dyer from the upcoming Season 3 of “Stranger Things”