Actress Maggie Gyllenhaal once questioned whether she needed an intimacy coordinator on set, but her first-hand experience eventually changed her mind.
Now, the actress’s comments about protecting performers during intimate scenes have resurfaced online, prompting a heated debate over whether Hollywood actors need these safeguards.
Some question why intimate scenes need special precautions, while others argue actors should be able to change their minds without production pressure.
“Do you not read the script to what you are acting in? Real simple, don’t want to do it, don’t do it!” one netizen wrote.
Maggie Gyllenhaal admitted she initially thought she did not need an intimacy coordinator on set
In September 2019, Maggie Gyllenhaal appeared on Tell Me Everything with John Fugelsang to discuss the third and final season of HBO’s The Deuce.
The series is a drama about the adult content industry in New York in the 1970s and 1980s.
The show was among the early major television productions to bring an intimacy coordinator on set.
Gyllenhaal explained that she initially didn’t think she needed help, having performed intimate scenes for nearly two decades.
“I have been doing s*x scenes since Secretary, right? Or maybe even a tiny bit before that. It’s almost 20 years,” she said during the interview.
“And it used to be you just figured out how to deal with it. And there were tons of compassionate people around to help you. You just figured out who those people were.”
Maggie said she also took it upon herself to make sure younger actors were comfortable during intimate scenes.
However, she began reconsidering her approach after other actresses questioned why productions routinely hired specialists to manage potentially dangerous stunts but didn’t have equivalent professionals for intimate scenes.
She recalled asking, “Why is it that whenever there’s a fight scene, anything, someone grabs your neck, you know, but it’s like nothing. There was always a stunt coordinator and a fight coordinator there, no matter what. Why is there never anybody there for s*x scenes?”
Although Gyllenhaal initially welcomed the coordinator, Alicia Rodis, primarily for the benefit of younger actresses, she eventually discovered that the professional could help her, too.
The 48-year-old actress explained how an intimacy coordinator helped her feel more comfortable filming intimate scenes
“And then in season 3 [of The Deuce], I have a lot more. And, um, here she comes into my trailer, and I’m like, okay, cool, I’m good. And, um, and then she was amazing. Amazing!” the actress recalled.
“For me, I’m not particularly concerned about n*dity. I think n*dity is a really interesting way of communicating things on film,” she added.
“I am concerned about, like, actual contact with another person, especially somebody who I don’t know.”
During the first season of the HBO series, her character, Candy, shared scenes with numerous men, prompting the actress to request a physical barrier between herself and her scene partners.
“I was in bed with so many different men, and I wanted there to be a real physical barrier between us,” she said, explaining that the crew cut up a yoga mat, put it in a pillowcase, and used it as a barrier.
With Rodis on set, Maggie said she had someone who could help her work through such concerns and explore different options.
“She comes in and says, let me know if you have your period,” Gyllenhaal recalled, adding that she and her co-star Emily Meade had previously discussed how they handled such situations.
Maggie argued that actors should be allowed to change their minds even after signing n*dity agreements
One of her most significant points concerned the difference between agreeing to film an intimate scene and feeling comfortable going through with it when the time comes.
The actress acknowledged that, as a mature performer and producer, she felt confident speaking up if a scene no longer felt right.
“But that is not true of a 22-year-old who’s gotten this gig, and she’s psyched, and maybe she signed an agreement and gets to set and doesn’t feel comfortable,” she explained.
Gyllenhaal said Rodis helped create an environment in which performers could reconsider their boundaries without feeling they had to challenge the production themselves.
Marina Rodriguez/Variety via Getty Images
“If you don’t feel comfortable, you come and tell me, and we will have it changed,” Maggie recalled the intimacy coordinator saying once.
“The reason you have a n*dity rider, which is like a legal agreement, is so that you wouldn’t come to set and go, oh no, no, I changed my mind. And then the whole shooting is stopped, and hundreds of thousands of dollars are lost or whatever,” she said.
“But there’s something kind of f**ked up about that, right? That’s not real consent.”
The actress continued, “So on our set, even if you signed a n*dity waiver, it’s not binding at all. If you change your mind, it isn’t what you want to do, you’re not going to do it.”
Social media users questioned the need for intimacy coordinators, comparing intimate scenes to dangerous on-set stunts
As the interview resurfaced, some social media users pushed back against the idea that intimate scenes require dedicated professionals to protect performers.
One commenter wrote, “These people are so insanely soft. Don’t sign onto a movie if you don’t want to do the s*x scenes. Simple as that.”
Others questioned Gyllenhaal’s comparison between intimate scenes and stunts, with one asking, “Because stunts can result in serious injury and s*x scenes are fake?”
Another commenter argued, “Take responsibility. If moving your career forward is worth doing n*dity with no help or protection, blame yourself, not the bad system. It’s elective.”
“Car scenes should have a car coordinator. Walk scenes should have a walk coordinator and grocery store scenes should have a produce coordinator as well,” a third user quipped.
Another comment read, “One way to not be in an uncomfortable situation is to just not agree to it when you sign up for a role.”
Others expressed, “You can’t agree to do the scenes, cash the check, then cry 2 decades later!”
“If you mess up a s*x scene, you make a mess. If you mess up a fight scene, people lose their life,” one netizen wrote
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