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“Sex Education”, “I May Destroy You”… sex scenes are his domain

2020-07-18T21:29:48.412Z


Many excellent series called upon Ita O'Brien, intimacy coordinator, to prepare and frame their carnal scenes.


Dancer then actress by training, Ita O'Brien then immersed herself in studies on body movements for the theater. When addressing the topic of consent on the boards, she realized the lack of a framework for staging intimacy. When the Weinstein affair broke out in 2017, she launched her company Intimacy on Set, in order to define guidelines to follow on set. Today, Anglo-Saxon television series are tearing it away.

“We would have no idea, for a fight scene, to say to the actors: Get up and go, without any preparation. Intimacy scenes are the same, you have to work them upstream. For Ita O'Brien, it is a certainty: for too long, the sex scenes have been taken too lightly on the film sets. This 55-year-old woman, who has worked in the entertainment world for thirty-seven years, is now a privacy coordinator. "My teams and I work mainly in the United Kingdom and the United States, but we have increasing demands from Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and more recently from Italy," explains Ita. O'Brien. When we spoke to her at the start of the year, she even assured that she would start receiving calls from France.

Workshops for all teams

But then, privacy coordinator, what is it? "It is a practitioner who establishes an open communication with regard to the scenes of intimacy," describes the specialist. He sets up a process on the shoots which allows to obtain the agreement and the consent of all the parties on each gesture which is due to touch. The scenes are choreographed in a clear manner before the shooting so that everyone is well aware of what is going to happen. "

For example, on the British series Sex Education from Netflix, one of the first to use the services of Ita O'Brien, the coordinator organized workshops for all the teams. “Everyone must be involved, not only the actors: producers, directors, assistants, director of photography… We discuss schedules as much to devote time to rehearsals as the placement of the camera. "

To her detractors, who denounce the lack of spontaneity resulting from such preparation, she retorts: "It is precisely thanks to all the rehearsals that the actors leave their nervousness aside. Once they know the gestures, they can devote themselves to their game and express their talent, as in any other sequence. Whereas in the past, some actors gave the minimum in these moments, just to get rid of them. "

When we see the result on the series "Sex Education" (Netflix), "I May Destroy You" (OCS) and "Normal People" (StarzPlay), we can only agree with it, so much each of these fictions, in shades yet very different, causes powerful emotions.

"It's nice to have someone who guides us"

Obviously, the work of the intimacy coordinator concerns scenes of sex, love or rape, but also kissing. “Any intimate contact, in fact, insists Ita O'Brien. At no time should an actor be surprised by any damage to his body. For a kiss, the general rule is without the tongue. But if the director feels that it is necessary, then, once again, we talk about it with the actors, to get their consent. "

However, unexpected things can happen. “In the middle of a sex scene, it might be natural to feel aroused, but obviously it's not appropriate to have an erection in a workplace. In these cases, or for any other reason, the actor may request a break. We resume when the actor or actress feels ready to continue. As for the actresses, it's also important to talk about their menstrual cycle with the production, in order to try to plan intimate scenes outside of their rules or to adapt the costumes, for example. "

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The artists who worked with Ita O'Brien are unanimous: his contribution is essential and necessary. For Emma Mackey, who plays Maeve in “Sex Education”, a series dealing with teenage sexuality, “it's nice to have someone who guides us, to be able to talk about our anxieties. A sex scene is like a dance, there are times to respect. "Michaela Coel, creator, co-director and performer of" I May Destroy You ", which talks about rape and sexual consent, abounds:" Ita could devote herself entirely to the well-being of the actors. With my co-director Sam Miller, we had to think about so many things that we couldn't have had this guarantee without it. »Privacy coordinator, a profession for the future.

Source: leparis

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