Intimacy Coordinator reveals how Sex Scenes are staged and How actors are protected

Brooke Haney Author Photo Courtesy of Taylor Hooper

From Basic Instinct to Call Me by Your Name, Coming Home to Fifty Shades of Grey, P-Valley to Outlander, sex scenes play a vital role in movies, TV shows, and plays spanning genres and subjects. Yet, as dramas and comedies increasingly reflect the reality of diversity, depicting acts of intimacy in a way that’s genuine, affecting, free from entrenched stereotypes, and respectful to audiences and actors is a challenge.

In The Intimacy Coordinator’s Guidebook: Specialties for Stage and Screen (Routledge; April 1, 2024; Original Trade Paperback; ISBN: 978‑1‑032‑53147‑2), Brooke M. Haney reveals how intimacy coordinators use their cultural competencies and specialties in practice to create the most compelling storytelling.

As Haney stresses, the job requires competency in the language of choreography — every move performed for the camera or a live audience, from a passionate kiss to a chilling assault, is meticulously choreographed, just like a dance or a fight scene — along with training in tools like modesty garments and props. In addition, an intimacy coordinator must possess excellent communication skills and the ability to read situations and respond proactively. What’s more, every intimacy coordinator must find their unique lens. (For instance, some coordinators are specialists in bondage, whereas others are specialists working with minors.)

The book features other intimacy coordinators’ stories. It includes conversations with Olivia Luccardi (a producer and actress who played Melissa in The Deuce, the first television show to employ an intimacy coordinator), Tai Leshaun (a Black actress in Thunder Force and The Other Black Girl), Becca Blackwell (a trans actor, performer and writer), Jimmy Smits (an Emmy Award-winning Latino actor known for roles in TV dramas from NYPD Blue to Sons of Anarchy) and other Hollywood insiders who have worked on projects involving intimacy. Chapters explore the particular nuances and challenges of:

• Working with minors, ethically and effectively, with an understanding of developmental psychology, privacy concerns and legal aspects.

• Nudity, attention to each actor’s emotional and physical comfort levels, and proficiency in working with prosthetics and modesty garments.

• Intimacy and disability, including an awareness of and sensitivities to non-apparent disabilities. (For example, Selena Gomez has lupus, Orlando Bloom has dyslexia, and Daniel Radcliffe lives with dyspraxia, a neurological condition that impairs movement and coordination.)

• Working with overweight actors, Black Americans and Queer intimacy, including the mechanics of positioning, gear and toys.

• Stories of trauma and acts of sexual violence, with an awareness of triggers among cast members, the ability to choreograph disturbing scenes, and more.

Brooke M Haney is one of the First Qualified Intimacy Professionals Recognized by SAG/AFTRA