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Why Are Intimacy Coordinators Still the Butt of the Joke?

Photo: Netflix

Intimacy coordinators oversee so much more than scenes involving sex and nudity on a set. They choreograph physical touch between actors playing parents and children, like “picking kids up, cuddling them, or kissing them,†explains intimacy coordinator Adelaide Waldrop. That was some of the work she did on the set of Aftersun, the coming-of-age film featuring Paul Mescal and Frankie Corio as his fictional daughter. Intimacy coordinators also work on scenes where there’s implied nudity, like those with urination or menstruation. Waldrop has worked on a range of projects and scenes involving all kinds of intimate scenarios, so it was irritating for her to watch the discourse unfold around The Idol. In the pilot episode, an intimacy coordinator tries to intervene during a photoshoot and is locked in a bathroom. “I think it’s really indicative of how a lot of people see our job,†Waldrop says. She also laments a general lack of imagination about sex and nudity in many film and TV productions. “We’re not seeing interesting textures and explicitness of intimacy, like condoms, lube, sex toys, none of that stuff.†Listen to the full episode of Into It and subscribe below to learn more about the misconceptions people in Hollywood still have about intimacy coordinators all these years after Me Too first brought attention to the role.

Into It with Sam Sanders

Why Are Intimacy Coordinators Still the Butt of the Joke?