Variety - May 31, 2022

34 Pages·2022·9.9 MB·English

Lead
Actress
NATASHA LYONNE had a plan for
“Russian Doll.” Then she threw
it out the window.

By Jennifer Maas

6 ● VARIETY + 05.31.2022
B I Z B U Z Z
Intimacy
Coordinators
Ease Sex Scenes
Protecting actors so they
can perform comfortably is key
O
B
H
By Selome Hailu aldi/
hir
c
S
Marci Liroff wants you to know to help manage the physical ul
a
one thing for certain: “This is not demands of acting in a show about e: P
porn. This is make-believe.” sex work. This led to the well-pub- uc
e
coLoirrdofinf watoorrk oend Saes athsoen in 2t iomf athcey lnicaitzoerd A hliicriian Rg oodf iisn.timacy coordi- Starz; D
Starz drama “Hightown,” which Liroff worked in film and TV for ey/
features plenty of sex and strip- decades as a casting director, until awl
H
ping — but did not have anyone she went looking for what she calls na
a
to coach those scenes in the first her “second act,” a chance to use n: D
season. her skills for something new, when ow
“I thought they did a terrific and she read about Rodis. ght
Hi
convincing job in the first season “I just started digging deeper e)
g
without an intimacy coordinator,” and deeper,” Liroff says. “And it led pa
she tells Variety. “But I knew I could me to a woman named Amanda his
T
make it better.” Blumenthal, who was the first inti- k; (
Intimacy coordinators started to macy coordinator in Los Angeles. erals
be more in demand after #MeToo- Her first job was ‘Euphoria’ — they op
D
era conversations about sexual threw her into the deep end of the an
D
misconduct on film and TV sets swimming pool.” by
expanded to include the ethics and Riveted by how Blumenthal ph
a
protocol surrounding on-screen managed to facilitate such intense ogr
sex. Notably, “The Deuce” star sexual content while maintaining hot
P
Emily Meade approached HBO safety and comfort for the actors er)
in 2018 about needing someone on set, Liroff decided that intimacy Starz’s “Hightown” (top) and HBO’s “The Deuce” used intimacy coordinators on the set. Cov
(

05.31.2022 VARIETY ● 9
coordination was the job for her. David Thackeray
She learned that Blumental had worked as
the intimacy
begun a six-month program to
coordinator on
train others for the same job and
Netflix’s “Sex
joined the course’s second cohort. Education” after
“It’s in my DNA to speak up for Ita O’Brien.
those that don’t have a voice,”
Liroff says. “In casting, I’ve always
been protecting actors and trying
to set a scenario for them to be as
good as they can be.”
British intimacy coordinator
David Thackeray, who worked
on Season 3 of the Netflix comedy
“Sex Education,” began his enter-
tainment career as an actor and
director, working across several
short films and plays. Then he
learned about Ita O’Brien, who is
arguably the industry’s premier
intimacy coordinator. She pio-
neered the position after begin-
ning her career as a movement
director and making headlines
for helping build the critically yeah.’ I’m going to take that as a intimate scenes are permitted Ultimately, that delicacy is
lauded sex scenes in the Seasons no. I want to see that they are fully to see what’s happening: this there to enable good acting and
1 and 2 of “Sex Education,” Hulu’s comfortable with this.” means no set photographers are good storytelling.
“Normal People” and the HBO Then, the coordinator works allowed to attend and that on-set On her experience working with
limited series “I May Destroy You.” with attorneys to write nudity monitors must be tented so that O’Brien while starring in Hulu’s
A major factor in Thackeray’s riders for the actors’ contracts, so only approved personnel can see “Conversations With Friends,”
decision to pursue this line of that the production is account- each shot. star Alison Oliver tells Variety:
work was his own negative expe- able for respecting performers’ The most complex part of inti- “You know the choreography
riences acting in intimate scenes. boundaries. macy coordination is attempting and physicality of what you’re
“I had to be fully nude on stage The intimacy coordinator’s to gauge all the nuances in the going to do, and so there’s muscle
as an actor once. I was promised involvement in choreography room during a shoot. Thackeray memory there. You can actually
a closed rehearsal that didn’t varies from set to set; some film- says the listening skills he devel- just go in and play the scene and
exist,” he says. “I ended up doing makers direct the movement oped as an actor help him intuit think about how your character
it in tech [and in front of the full themselves with the coordinator’s whether a performer may need might be thinking in that moment.”
cast and crew], rather than in the supervision, while others step some additional support to con- “Hopefully, those scenes are
actual rehearsal space. It wasn’t back and ask the coordinator to tinue — or even whether the extensions of [the characters’]
done properly.” handle it all. This point of the pro- shoot needs to stop altogether. conversations, rather than there
The work begins in pre-pro- cess often involves collaboration “You have to be able to shift all for gratuity’s sake,” adds co-star
duction. First, an intimacy coor- with the costume, makeup, prop, the time. Really sense the mood Joe Alwyn. “It’s an important part
dinator will meet privately with stunt and camera departments. of the room,” he says. “That’s why of how these two characters com-
a director or producer to assess “A lot of what we’re doing is conversations beforehand are so municate. They’re not very good at
the goals of each intimate scene. cheating and masking, so that it important, because then you know all at saying how they feel, or even
Liroff doesn’t only focus on body looks really good, but they’re not how you’re going to [feel] when knowing how they feel, but they
parts and sex acts: “Sometimes actually doing the act,” Liroff says. working that day. But then again, have this connection physically.
it’s passionate, hot and crazy. “Part of that is the modesty gar- when you come in, that may have It’s often in those moments where
Sometimes it’s very loving and ments that we help actors choose changed. The artist may have had they’re able to be freer and more
sensual,” she says. and sometimes put on [for them], a really bad morning. Maybe their joyful than the way they are with
Aspects, tone and pace are and the barriers that we might nerves are showing in a different other people around. You can see
important to get consent on, too. bring to a scene. Those could be way. [It’s important to be] aware the sweetness that sometimes gets
The next meetings happen one- pieces of foam that we attach to of when you can have a joke and bottled up.”
on-one between the coordinator the actors, or sometimes a small have fun and when it is time to The legal jargon, rehearsals and
and actor, without any filmmakers Pilates ball that most of the air is deliver. Do we need to move the sensitive conversations are all a
present. “We were taught in our taken out of, and we can put that scene a little bit quicker here? Do major part of intimacy coordina-
Netflix tsriaaisntiicn gc oton gseetn wt,h’ ”a Lt wiroe fcfa slla ‘yens.t “hIuf -I ibnr ba eintwseeretns othre am lit. Stloem pielltoimwe. Ws Ie u’vsee Io nveeerd-c thoe cchkeicnkg i.n I?f Ayondu tahsekr es’os malseo- taisopne. Bctust o wf hthene ijto’sb d aocnt ein r isgehrtv, tihceo soef
or/ ask an actor, ‘Are you OK with your all gotten very, very creative.” body if they’re OK [too many] storytelling — of unbottling the
m Tayl partner squeezing your nipple?’ Only cast and crew mem- times, they’ll start questioning if sweetness and other stories some-
a And the actor says, ‘Uh … um … OK, bers absolutely essential to the they are OK. It is delicate.” times hidden in the sheets.
S
10 ● VARIETY 05.31.2022
A Star Rises
in Midst of
Lockdowns
Sam Jay didn’t create
one show during the
pandemic — she worked
on six different projects
By Michael Schneider
series “Bust Down,” which Jay to shows. Because there were no One of Sam Jay’s In “Bust Down,” Jay plays
co-created and stars in alongside shows. So it took maybe a whole many projects is Sam, the level-headed member
Peacock’s “Bust
Chris Redd, Langston Kerman year before I would go out to the of a group of friends working
Down.”
and Jak Knight. With so many Cellar and be on stage, and notice dead-end jobs in the Midwest.
gigs all at once, at this year’s that people would clap louder Then there’s “Pause With Sam
WGA Awards, Jay pulled off a than they did before.” Jay,” which she produces with
triple nomination in the comedy/ There will be plenty of stories Prentice Penny. The hybrid series
variety sketch series category for in the years to come of projects features Jay and guests talking
her work on “SNL,” “Michael Che” delayed or even canceled due about various topics, which
and “Pause.” to the pandemic and the work then lead to sketches, interviews
But here’s the thing: This all stoppage — followed by the emer- and more.
happened mostly during an age gence of a world consuming con- For “Pause” Season 2, which
AWA R D S C I R C U I T of lockdowns, social distancing, tent in different ways. But then returned at the end of May, Jay
quarantines and masks. So it’s there are also the positive stories was able to expand the show’s
How did you spend your pan- only now that Jay is finally start- of talent whose star power coin- scope thanks to relaxed COVID
demic? Here’s how Sam Jay got ing to experience the effects of cidentally rose during that same protocols. She also describes this
through these past two years: this success. time frame. season as “more personal.”
Her Netflix special “Sam Jay: “Weirdly, when the [Netflix] And that is clearly Jay, who grew “We’re really starting to get to
3 in the Morning” debuted in special came out, we were in the up in Boston and worked in other the specifics of my journey and
July 2020. While continuing to pandemic,” she says. “So it wasn’t fields before trying her hand in things that I’ve been through and
work as a writer on “Saturday like one of those things where I stand-up comedy in her late 20s. the things that are directly affect-
Night Live,” she also wrote on got to go outside, and people She was already at “SNL” when her ing me and attacking them in a lot
k
HBO Max’s “That Damn Michael were like, ‘Oh, I saw your special!’ programming output started to more of a personal way,” she says. oc
c
a
Che,” served as a consulting pro- I made it in this bubble where I explode in 2020. As for the accolades that have e
P
ducer on NBC’s “Kenan,” and then didn’t really know who saw it, or “I haven’t made a show outside come, “It just made me feel like, ova/
launched her own talk show, what it was actually doing in the of a pandemic, so I don’t know ‘Oh, this is resonating.’ The goal is mik
HBO’s “Pause With Sam Jay.” world. I couldn’t tour immediately the difference there,” Jay says. just to be able to make things for Vos
Still not enough? In March, after to get a sense of whether “Outside of ‘SNL,’ I guess, but that’s as long as I can, and have creative ella
b
Peacock debuted the comedy more people were coming out like its own little world.” outlets for as long as I can.” a
Is