Alison Brie and Dave Franco are busy promoting their body-horror movie, Together, which required quite a few intimate scenes. That’s why, as a married couple, they have a hot take on a controversial Hollywood topic.
Intimacy coordinators are described as “advocates… between actors and production, and a movement coach and/or choreographer in regards to nudity and simulated sex and other intimate and hyper-exposed scenes” by the actors’ union, SAG-AFTRA. It’s a newer behind-the-scenes role that emerged out of the 2017 #MeToo movement and has become an integral part of TV and movie crews.
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Still, there are some who have criticized having them on set. That’s why Brie and Franco’s perspective is a fascinating one.
TOGETHER, from left: Alison Brie, Dave Franco, 2025. ph: Germain McMicking /© Neon / Courtesy Everett Collection
“As a couple, we didn’t need an intimacy coordinator,” Franco explained to The Times. “We’ve been together almost 15 years; we know what we’re doing and we’re pretty comfortable with it.”
Even with her husband by her side, Brie admitted that it wasn’t always easy.
“In our new film, Together, we play a couple whose reliance on each other leads to some quite horrific outcomes, and I’ll admit there are some parallels between what’s on and off screen,” she added. “Not the horrific outcomes, but we play a couple who have a solid history together. The film also involves lots of intimate scenes, which was kind of weird. Doing what we had to do in front of a hundred people was a new experience.”
Franco even directed her through a sex scene with actor Dan Stevens in the 2020 film, The Rental. Brie revealed there was no “jealousy” on Franco’s part because they “understand the separation of real emotion and something you’re doing at work.”
While it sounds like Brie and Franco are open to the idea of an intimacy coordinator if they aren’t working together, so A-listers are very opposed to the situation, including Michael Douglas, who seems to prefer the old-school way of making movies.
‘I’m sure there were people that overstepped their boundaries, but before, we seemed to take care of that ourselves. They would get a reputation and that would take care of them,” Douglas told The Telegraph in April 2024.
The Oscar winner has had quite a few intimate scenes over the years, from Basic Instinct to Fatal Attraction, but he still stands firm on his opinion. “But I talked to the ladies, [because] I did a few of those sex movies – sexual movies – and we joke about it now, what it would have been like to have an intimacy coordinator working with us…,” he trailed off.
Actor Sean Bean also complained about intimacy coordinators in 2022, claiming they “spoil the spontaneity” and “inhibit [him] more because it’s drawing attention to things,” per The Times Magazine. But performers need to remember that the intimacy coordinator is there to protect all parties involved in the scene — from the actors to the crew.
The role will continue to be a hot topic of debate in Hollywood, but hopefully, as time goes on, it will have a greater level of understanding.
Before you go, click here to see which other stars got naked on camera.
Penelope Cruz
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