{"id":2011267,"date":"2025-09-10T11:12:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T11:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2011267"},"modified":"2025-09-10T11:12:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T11:12:09","slug":"intimacy-coordinators-speak-up-about-keeping-actors-safe-exclusive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/intimacy-coordinators-speak-up-about-keeping-actors-safe-exclusive\/","title":{"rendered":"Intimacy Coordinators Speak Up About Keeping Actors Safe [Exclusive]"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Welcome to Long Live the Sex Scene<\/a>, a special project by Cosmopolitan that explores why these steamy television and movie moments truly matter, especially right now. Join us as we rewind, replay, and then rewind them all over again.<\/p>\n

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Another day, another heated debate over the role of intimacy coordinators in film and television. In July, TV Insider<\/a> asked NCIS: Tony & Ziva star Cote de Pablo whether she and costar Michael Weatherly used an intimacy coordinator on set. \u201cDid not need one,\u201d Cote said. \u201cThey asked me first, I think because I\u2019m a female and blah, blah, blah, and I said, \u2018I don\u2019t need one. Thank you for offering.\u2019\u201d (Much of the coverage of Cote\u2019s comments failed to mention claims of sexual harassment on set<\/a> by Michael\u2019s previous costar, Eliza Dushku.) <\/p>\n

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\"text<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Cote de Pablo might have been comfortable without one, but as experienced intimacy coordinators will tell you, this isn\u2019t only for the actors involved. In fact, that\u2019s just one of the many misconceptions of the job.<\/p>\n

Having an intimacy coordinator on set only became common practice in the past decade or so, but they\u2019ve helped architect some of the most beloved sex scenes in recent years. Bridgerton famously used intimacy coordinators in every season, giving us the hot onscreen sex we crave while also ensuring everyone on set was professional and, hopefully, comfortable. The job of an intimacy coordinator depends on the project, but they also liaise between departments behind the scenes\u2014often with wardrobe and props\u2014and ensure that sets are closed when needed.<\/p>\n

However, despite this wide range of responsibilities, intimacy coordinators typically only make headlines when celebrities like Cote de Pablo, Sean Bean<\/u><\/a>, Michael Douglas<\/u><\/a>, or Jennifer Aniston<\/u><\/a> call them unnecessary.<\/p>\n

For example, back in March, Gwyneth Paltrow<\/u><\/a> said she and Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet told an intimacy coordinator<\/u><\/a>, \u201cI think we\u2019re good. You can step a little bit back\u201d when working on their upcoming film, Marty Supreme. She told Vanity Fair that she would feel \u201cstifled\u201d if her sex scenes were heavily choreographed. <\/p>\n

So, while we often hear from A-list celebrities about the ways intimacy coordinators suppress creativity, we rarely get the intimacy coordinators\u2019 perspective on the debate. Do they have a role to play in keeping performers and production crew safe on set? Is it frustrating to deal with doubters or just part of the job?<\/p>\n

To find out, we spoke to two of the cofounders of the SAG-AFTRA accredited intimacy coordinator training organization CINTIMA<\/a>, Yehuda Duenyas and Jaclyn Chantel, and longtime intimacy coordinator Nicole Callender whose credits include American Gigolo, The Undoing, High Maintenance, Happy Gilmore 2, and Sirens.<\/p>\n

Many celebrities have publicly criticized intimacy coordinators, saying that they don\u2019t need them on set. What kind of pushback have you experienced? <\/h2>\n
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\"nicole<\/p>\n
Nicole Callender<\/span><\/p>\n

Nicole Callender<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Callender: Some people are just like, \u201cIt\u2019s just so unnecessary. It\u2019s over the top. It\u2019s just a kiss, or it\u2019s just a hug.\u201d And sometimes it is, but it could also turn into something else. Or sometimes maybe you\u2019re there for a particular person. Maybe it\u2019s a young person and their first kiss is onscreen, and you\u2019re there to help support that. And it might not be much, but them knowing that you\u2019re there is a big deal.<\/p>\n

I read many articles about intimacy coordinating and sometimes they\u2019re harsh. We\u2019re really just trying to help people and do our jobs and make a living. Usually, I can shut out the noise. Sometimes on set, if I get pushback from other departments or people on set, I do find that challenging.<\/p>\n

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\"jaclyn<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Chantel: There\u2019s so much more that goes into this role than showing up on set and making sure that things are going well. You have to assess a script and [flag] things that that a production might not be aware of or might need help coordinating. For instance, if I\u2019m using a prosthetic of some sort,1<\/sup> that\u2019s a budget item. So if people are just throwing out the word \u201cprosthetic,\u201d do we know how much money we have for the prosthetic? Do we have enough time? Those are things that fall under our role and responsibility.<\/p>\n

1. Think the penis in <\/u>The White Lotus<\/u><\/a> season 3.<\/sup><\/p>\n

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\"yehuda<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Duenyas: We make sure that the sets are closed, we make sure monitors are flagged, we make sure personnel necessary to the filming of the scene are on set. We\u2019ll take the Gwyneth Paltrow situation, where she\u2019s like, \u201cWe asked that intimacy coordinators step back and said, \u2018We\u2019re good.\u2019\u201d In my mind, that\u2019s the relationship working out great. The intimacy coordinator did their job. They talked with the actors, they got the writers together, they spoke with a director, they created a space where the actors felt comfortable doing what they were doing.<\/p>\n

Callender: Some people in the camera department don\u2019t always realize that somebody might be naked from the waist down, and when you open up the set for the crew to come in and start adjusting lenses and lights, they might accidentally walk in on somebody whose pants are down, and that\u2019s jarring for them as well. Having an intimacy coordinator on set will help keep the set closed until everybody is dressed and ready to go, and then we can allow the crew to come in, and then the actors are protected and covered. Maybe we just need to provide a modesty garment, or maybe we need to shift the camera angle. We\u2019re mediators between all of those people. <\/p>\n

These critiques can essentially be boiled down to loss of creativity or spontaneity in intimate scenes. How do you respond to that?<\/h2>\n

Duenyas: We\u2019re creative collaborators, so if an actor does revoke consent for a particular act or a particular angle or they don\u2019t want to show a body part, we are trained to be able to tell these stories and to work within those parameters. <\/p>\n

This helps the actors feel more comfortable and more supported and it helps home in on what the story is. We want to create a framework of consent and safety so that the actors can go to those emotionally dangerous places that they want to go to. <\/p>\n

Callender: It doesn\u2019t stifle creativity; it allows you to be creative without harming your partner. The story, in and of itself, is a framework and is a boundary. We have to make sure we\u2019re all telling the same story, and if the story for one person is saying, \u201cI can do this, that, and the other and grab here,\u201d and the other person\u2019s like, \u201cWhoa,\u201d then they\u2019re not telling the same story. They\u2019re on totally different pages. We get clear on everyone\u2019s physical boundaries, we know where it is okay to be touched, and, most importantly, we know where it is not okay to be touched. And within that framework that we\u2019ve built now, the actors can create. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.cosmopolitan.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to Long Live the Sex Scene, a special project by Cosmopolitan that explores why these steamy television and movie moments truly matter, especially right now. Join us as we rewind, replay, and then rewind them all over again. Another day, another heated debate over the role of intimacy coordinators in film and television. In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2011268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[310910,367886,285977,285684,367885],"class_list":["post-2011267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-content-type-feature","tag-contentid-ab59a218-a082-4b7b-87a0-9b06426754ac","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-locale-us","tag-shorttitle-intimacy-coordinators-are-ready-to-have-their-say"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Intimacy-Coordinators-Speak-Up-About-Keeping-Actors-Safe-Exclusive.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2011267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2011267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2011267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2011268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2011267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2011267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2011267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}