Intimacy coordinator


An intimacy coordinator is a staff member who ensures the well-being of actors who participate in sex scenes or other intimate scenes in theater, film and television production.

Function

According to Intimacy Directors International, a nonprofit organization founded in 2016 by Alicia Rodis that advocates for the function, an intimacy coordinator is expected to ensure that:
The role of intimacy coordinator is not to be confused with that of an "intimacy choreographer", who specializes in the techniques of staging intimate scenes.

History

Tonia Sinia, later one of the founders of IDI: Intimacy Directors International, wrote her MFA thesis, entitled at Virginia Commonwealth University in 2006.
Demand for the role grew in the U.S. entertainment industry after the 2017 Weinstein scandal and the Me Too movement highlighted the often routine nature of sexual harassment and misconduct in the industry. Actors such as Emily Meade began to demand professional safeguards for their well-being on set, noting that given the structure of power in a production, actors might otherwise not feel able to speak up if directors, staff members or other actors disregarded their consent or previous agreements regarding intimate scenes. In 2017, the London talent agency Carey Dodd Associates fronted a campaign for an industry standard in handling scenes of intimacy using guidelines developed by Ita O'Brien.
In October 2018, the television network HBO adopted a policy of using intimacy coordinators for all its series and films with intimate scenes. Intimacy coordinators and intimacy workshop teaching best practices for intimate scenes were also beginning to be used in London theaters as of 2018.
In January 2019, Netflix released Sex Education, its first production that used an intimacy coordinator, Ita O'Brien.