The Hollywood Reporter interview notes that Woodley’s 2020 film Endings, Beginnings features her character in multiple involved love scenes. “I’ve never felt uncomfortable doing intimate scenes because I’m very vocal,” Woodley explained to the outlet. “I always sit down and talk with the director, the other actor. We always have conversations of, ‘How are you planning on shooting it? Is nudity necessary? Is it going to distract from the scene, add to the scene?’ We know exactly what the boundaries are. And I’ve never been in a situation where those things haven’t been honored.” For more celebrity news delivered right to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter. Woodley speaking up for herself is important, but film and TV sets have also increasingly been using intimacy coordinators to help actors feel comfortable during sex scenes and to be sure that no one is rushed into anything they haven’t agreed to. Using intimacy coordinators became more widespread following the Me Too movement. “Intimacy coordinators play an important role on set,” explains the SAG-AFTRA website. “An intimacy coordinator is an advocate, a liaison between actors and production, and a movement coach and/or choreographer in regards to nudity and simulated sex and other intimate scenes.“ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in April, Ewan McGregor shared that he worked with an intimacy coordinator for the first time while filming the miniseries Halston. “This was the first thing I’ve ever done where we had an intimacy coordinator,” McGregor said. “It was such a relief. It’s about f****** time. The temptation in my experience is just for the director to go, ‘Just do whatever.’ It’s embarrassing. That’s not fair on either actor to do that.” Michaela Coel, the creator and star of the acclaimed drama I May Destroy You, thanked her intimacy coordinator, Ita O’Brien, in her BAFTA’s acceptance speech for Best TV Actress earlier this year. “Thank you for your existence in our industry,” Coel said (via Insider), “for making the space safe, for creating physical, emotional, and professional boundaries so that we can make work about exploitation, loss of respect, about the abuse of power without being exploited or abused in the process.” RELATED: Ewan McGregor Says This One Thing Makes Every Sex Scene Better. In an April 2020 interview with the New York Times, Woodley said that she wasn’t huge on working with intimacy coordinators, personally, but understood their purpose for others. “For me, intimacy coaches make me uncomfortable because it feels like another set of eyes that I don’t need,” she said (via CinemaBlend). “But I have no problem stopping production when I’m uncomfortable, and I don’t think that’s the case for a lot of people, so I think it’s wonderful that there’s a lifeline that people can lean on to know they’ll be protected. That being said, the best thing a director could do is ask an actor right off the bat: ‘What are you comfortable with? What are your boundaries?’” RELATED: The Most Heartbreaking Movie Couples of All Time.
