Florence Pugh talks about her stance on intimacy coordinators and her experiences
Intimacy coordinators have been in the spotlight since their inception, largely in response to the #MeToo movement in Hollywood around 2017, and more recently, Academy Award-winning stars like Jennifer Lawrence and Mikey Madison have made headlines for their stance on whether they want to work with one or not.
Florence Pugh added her nuanced take on the issue, appearing in a new episode of The Louis Théroux podcast to discuss how she has had both positive and negative experiences collaborating with workers below the line.
“It’s not about inconveniencing, it’s not about confusing, it’s not about making things more complicated or making things more inconvenient,” said the Love at first sight* explained the star. “It’s just about making sure everyone is happy with what they’re creating and that you’re also creating things that are meaningful to them.”
The Oscar nominee Little women The star continued, “I’ve had some good ones and some bad ones. I did a lot of my sex scenes before it was even a job, and I think I’m pretty confident and pretty happy in my own skin, and I was always able to make sure I was heard. That being said… there’s a lot of things that I remember where it was just completely inappropriate to ask me to do that, to have directed me that way.”
In the end, the We live in time The actress said the relatively new title was still working out its – for lack of a better word – issues.
“But my perspective is also changing on this, because I now have fantastic experiences with intimacy coordinators,” she said. “However, that being said, I also had a shitty example where someone had made things so weird and so awkward and really wasn’t helpful and it was kind of like wanting to be part of the set in a way that wasn’t helpful, and I think that’s a job that’s still discovering itself.”
Speaking about her most successful experiences, Pugh said that great intimacy coordinators provide an extra layer of depth to the project at hand, helping to create the story behind the type of sex explored on screen, how the characters would realistically touch each other, and what that would entail based on the given relationship history. All of this, Pugh said, is facilitated by the use of safe words, discussions about what is prohibited and the presence of a designated person outside of the costume department who is in charge of coverage.
“When I worked with a fantastic coordinator, I said to myself: Ohthat’s what I was missing, understanding the dance of intimacy, as opposed to just filming a sex scene,” she concluded.
Next, Pugh will be seen in Dune: Part Threereprising her role as Princess Irulan; Avengers: Apocalypsewhere she will once again play Black Widow mercenary/ex-assassin Yelena Belova and a limited television series East of EdenNetflix’s modern interpretation of John Steinbeck’s classic novel.
