Controversial ‘intimacy coordinator’ university course scrapped at short notice

Actors have debated the need for ‘intimacy coordinators’
Normal People
Normal People
PA
Robbie Griffiths27 July 2023

A much-debated “intimacy coordinator” university course has been scrapped at short notice, leaving students in the lurch.

In March, Peckham-based Mountview theatre academy announced a two-year Master’s degree, backed by the University of East Anglia, to specifically train students on how to make actors feel comfortable while working on sex scenes. It was going to be run by Ita O’Brien, whose technique got famous after her work on the BBC’s steamy Normal People, starring Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones.

The need for intimacy coordinators has sparked debate, with Sean Bean saying they spoil spontaneity. “It would inhibit me more because it’s drawing attention to things... Somebody saying, ‘Do this, put your hands there, while you touch his thing… I think the natural way lovers behave would be ruined by someone bringing it right down to a technical exercise" he said.

Sir Ian McKellen agreed, saying “I can imagine there are situations when you have to be careful and people find it difficult to be intimate, and therefore a coordinator is just the thing... But why can’t it be the director who does that? Why has it got to be somebody who’s been trained in how to do it?” .

But Dame Emma Thompson says they are a good thing, saying: “Intimacy coordinators are fantastically important”, and that thinks that actors will say: ‘it made me comfortable, it made me feel safe, it made me feel as though I was able to do this work’.”

She went on: “I think if you’re a young woman on a set, which is largely peopled by men, the crew will be 90% men and the women won’t be on the set with you, because generally speaking we do not have parity on any level on film sets, it’s all men. And that’s a very uncomfortable position for a young woman who’s starting in the industry, but it is absolutely essential that there is someone there to protect them”.

Variety reports that students were set to pay over £15,000 a year.

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