I got here via your really great analysis re: intimacy coordination in Heated Rivalry. I really enjoyed reading your takes! Something I've been worried about with the success of the show is networks/producers/etc. taking the wrong lessons and deciding to churn out sexually explicit shows with unknown actors while not supporting intimacy coordinators and not taking the effort to create safe environments. Do you have any thoughts on that? Am I overthinking this?
thank you!!! good question!! it’s a bit of a tough one to give you a factual answer on how the attitudes of the industry are on a larger level, and i do know some of this is gonna be sweeping generalisations; there’s still a lot of bad eggs out there, but broadly it’s what seems to be mostly true right now, or at the very least, what i HOPE to be true. so this is just my own opinion on it!!!!
i think that if networks and studios are taking anything away from HR, it’s that the success of that show is exactly why they NEED intimacy coordinators. i don’t think many of them can look at its success and think, “yeah, but they could’ve done it without one.”
there’s been a slow shift in the way the industry is viewing and understanding intimacy coordinators. people are talking about ICs more, they’re understanding what we do better, and it feels to me like people are stepping away from the view that ICs are just the sex police and just there for wokeness’ sake.
they’re starting to see us on a creative and functional level now. they’re starting to see us like we’re as valuable as stunt coordinators or accent coaches or sfx or medical consultants or health and safety teams etcetcetc. you wouldn’t burn down a fake house without the guys who know pyro. you wouldn’t crash a car without a stunt team.
they’re starting to see that our job is not just about “don’t do xyz” but “do abc” as well. because it looks best. because it translates really nicely on camera. because it’s safest, because it works. because we know how the body moves, and how to cover intimacy garments properly, how to creatively construct a beautiful simulated sex scene. we know how to take fake sex and show that effectively on camera while not actively putting anyone in harms way.
i think it looks bad on studios and networks if it comes out that they’ve taken a stance against intimacy coordinators when such a large part of the (unionised) industry seems to support working with ICs. especially when the only negative they can come up with is about how “natural” it looks/feels/is lmao. AND heated rivalry PROVED that to be false. it’s explicit by industry standards and it was done safely. any argument against ICs at this point just does not hold up imo.
production houses and networks and studios are under way more “pressure” now to have intimacy coordinators than they were before. performers are advocating for themselves more than they could before. some studios have guidelines that say they have to have intimacy coordinators for simulated sex scenes. sag-aftra guidelines right now say that if the performer requests an IC, the production has to do everything in their power to make it happen. they’re beginning to pave the way for making it mandatory, which really would be huge.
more actors are learning about intimacy coordinators when they’re training. we learnt about them in film school. it’s becoming more and more normalised!! which is great!!
so for larger studios and networks, i don’t think it’s a massive fear. the way the industry is looking, i don’t think many of them would take the risk. but then again, because its still not mandatory, there of course still is a risk. it’s not a nonexistent fear. there’ll always be a risk that someone sees how well sex seems to sell, and they’ll think to themselves, okay, we can do that, but CHEAPER! until there’s more air tight guidelines about it, it’s never a 100% guarantee. but there really is a lot more pressure for these productions to at the very least try to be safer about it.
on the other hand while these bigger productions and studios are trying to make it as normal as a stunt coordinator, the small, ununionised indie productions are not facing the same kind of pressure. so yeah, there’s a worry that those productions would take the risk to work without one, but i really would hope that there’s not a production in the world that has seen how seemingly marketable sex is without seeing that it could not have been done effectively and safely without an IC.
i think in general people do WANT to be safer. i think people want happier and safer crews, they want better sex scenes, they want what ICs have to offer. i don’t think as many people are willing to stand for Big Production putting cash before safety anymore.
of course, it’s not a totally alien concept to imagine a company pumping out sexually explicit content that they filmed without an IC, with unknown actors who can’t say no yet, just because they’ve seen how well it can do - i just don’t think they can really get away with that kind of thing anymore. but it’s still so largely unregulated that you never really know.
maybe its naive, i don’t know. speaking as someone outside of the unionised industry, outside of the US, i feel like i can see attitudes changing as a whole. i really would hope that if they’ve taken ANYTHING away from the success of heated rivalry it’s 1) the difference an IC makes, 2) how much even the audiences are talking about intimacy coordinators and 3) how actually fucking cool it must be to work with someone that knows how to work with simulated sex in the same way a stunt coordinator knows how to work with a fight scene.
tired rambles so i hope i’ve worded that all correctly <3
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