Up close - but not too personal: The 'intimacy workshops' giving actors guidelines for sex scenes

Close but not personal: O'Brian has made a code of conduct for sex scenes

It’s mid-afternoon at Camden’s New Diorama Theatre and two actresses are practising a sex scene — without touching.

Instead, they’re saying every action out loud: “I’m looking at you and smiling, I put my hand between your legs, I turn my body and lift my buttocks, I go down.” Across the room, a male and a female actor are rehearsing an on-stage kiss as a director watches on. They begin by establishing boundaries: “Can I touch the side of your neck?” “Yes.” “The back of your neck?” “Yes.” “The front of your neck?” “No.” She doesn’t give a reason. They carry on, discussing whether the kiss should portray love or lust.

It sounds remarkably scripted but that’s the point. This is one of a new set of “intimacy workshops” for actors, producers and directors by professional movement director Ita O’Brien. Together with London casting agency Carey Dodd Associates, she has developed a set of guidelines for approaching simulated sex and nudity in theatre, TV and film in the post-Weinstein era: a code of conduct, if you like, for getting intimate on stage and on screen.

O’Brien’s reasons are two-fold: to equip cast and crew for this type of scene, and to keep them safe. “It’s about helping to address something that’s often embarrassing or pushed to the side,” she explains. Talking about it takes away that embarrassment and opens up a conversation to ensure “everyone is on the same page”, from the actors to the crew.

Crucially, it’s also about safety. After more than 30 years in the industry, O’Brien recalls many “upsetting” stories from actors she’s worked with, and just this year Oscar-winning actor Geoffrey Rush has been accused in court of touching an actress inappropriately on stage in a production of King Lear. According to documents, the touch was “not directed or scripted by any person or necessary for the purpose of the performance of the production,” and left the female cast member “visibly upset”. In 2013, the lesbian sex scene in Abdellatif Kechiche’s film Blue Is The Warmest Colour brought the actor-director relationship into the limelight after actress Léa Seydoux revealed it had been “extremely difficult”, “humiliating” and “gross” to shoot. She said she was made to feel like a “prostitute” filming the scenes, which reportedly took 10 days to film, and said she would never again work with Kechiche.

Post-#MeToo, O’Brien says it’s more important than ever to “equip” actors for these sorts of scenes. “It’s not about being a whiney actor, it’s about saying let’s discuss this so I can work to the best of my ability as an actor. For student actors, it’s about going out into the profession in a more empowered way. Being ready to work doesn’t mean opening yourself up to being abused — it’s that element of being able to say no.”

O’Brien insists that her guidelines are “not a set of rules” but a code of conduct for best practice. Similarly to off the stage, the key word is consent. The nine principles include asking actors to consent to scenes of an intimate nature, agreeing strategies for halting action if an actor is uncomfortable and setting pre-agreed times when nudity will be used. It may sound restrictive but actors say it leaves them feeling free. “You discover so many other things that might not happen ‘in the moment’,” says actress Maeve O’Sullivan.

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When it comes down to it, the guidelines are simple: treat sex scenes in the same way you would a fight scene, O’Brien explains. Actors should identify the shape of the scene, agree “danger zones” and areas of physical touch, choreograph physical actions using plain words, identify emotional content then integrate the physical actions with it. For scripts of a particularly sensitive nature, she suggests employing a suitably trained “intimacy director” to help formulate the scene — a role she practices herself at her workshops.

The majority of people who come say they simply want to find out more. O’Sullivan says it’s a “misconception that actors are love-y people” who are “open to whatever”. She says the workshops have helped her to feel “braver”.

Some have had a bad experience with what directors expect from them. One student says she’s had many kisses forced on her in past auditions. “It’s like using tongues in a kiss,” she says. “It should be something that’s specifically spoken about and nothing should ever be a surprise. That’s where people can take advantage of situations because it’s like ‘Oh, I’m just in character’.”

O’Brien says ultimately it’s about professionalism. The stage is a workplace for those in the industry, and “everybody deserves to be treated in the workplace with respect”. She hopes her guidelines will be formally adopted by the industry. Lamda introduced them last year: the workshops now take place as part of the induction week programme for BA and MA actors and Mountview drama school in Wood Green now works with O’Brien.

“The intention is that just as people wouldn’t dream of not having a stunt co-ordinator for a fight scene, if there’s an intimate scene they wouldn’t dream of doing it without making sure they’ve agreed consent or employed an intimacy coordinator.” She wants that to become the “absolute standard” industry-wide. “It’s a more efficient and streamlined way of working and it creates exciting and believable sex scenes: a safe space to be sexy.”

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