On the latest episode of The Louis Theroux Podcast, Florence Pugh explained why she thinks some intimacy coordinators are “s–t” and just serve to make things more “awkward” between co-stars. Pugh added her voice to a growing number of female actors, including Jennifer Lawrence and Gwyneth Paltrow, who have dismissed or questioned the need for on-set intimacy coordinators.
Pugh Has Mixed Feelings About the Position
“It’s not to get in the way. It’s not to confuse, it’s not to make things more complicated or make things more awkward,” Pugh explained of intimacy coordinators, a job which sprang up in the wake of the Me Too movement to facilitate more professional photography of intimate scenes. “I’ve had good ones and bad ones.” She added that there have been times on her own films where an intimacy coordinator has been necessary because someone “completely inappropriate” took it upon themselves to direct the sensitive scenes.
'I've Had a S--t Example'
But mostly, Pugh relies on her own instincts to guide such scenes, adding that she is “quite confident” and “quite happy in my skin.” “However, that being said, I’ve also had a s–t example where someone just made it so weird and so awkward and really wasn’t helpful and kind of was just wanting to be a part of the set in a way that wasn’t helpful,” she explained, “and I think it’s a job that’s still figuring itself out.”
Pugh continued: “I will say that I’ve been able to understand better meaning now through working with great [intimacy coordinators] in sex scenes” in order to find “the story of what it is, what kind of sex is it, how do you touch each other, how long have you been having sex for.
“Everybody’s just kind of working away to chip away at the scene. And I think when I worked with a fantastic coordinator, I was like, ‘Oh, this is what I’ve been missing, understanding the dance of intimacy as opposed to just shooting a sex scene,'” Pugh said. “There are good ones and bad ones, and it’s through the good ones that I have learned how effective it can really be.”
Pugh Joins a Growing Chorus of A-Listers
Pugh isn’t the only Hollywood star ruffling their eyebrows at working with intimacy coordinators. While the position has been hailed a game-changer in certain corners of the industry, stars such as Lawrence and Paltrow sometimes feel stymied by the lack of creative autonomy. Paltrow recalled asking an intimacy coordinator to “step a little back” while she and Timothée Chalamet were filming intimate scenes for Marty Supreme. “I don’t know how it is for kids who are starting out,” Paltrow said, “but… if someone is like, ‘Okay, and then he’s going to put his hand here,’ I would feel, as an artist, very stifled by that.”
Lawrence, on the other hand, recently revealed that she and Die My Love co-star Robert Pattinson did not use an intimacy coordinator while shooting Lynne Ramsay’s dark domestic drama because the Twilight star “is not pervy.” “We did not have [an intimacy coordinator], or maybe we did but we didn’t really [use it],” Lawrence said. “I felt really safe with Rob [Pattinson]. He is not pervy.”
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