Lily Allen finds the concept of intimacy coordinators “weird”.
Lily Allen didn’t find intimacy coordinator helpful
The 39-year-old singer and actress had an intimacy coordinator on the set of her six-part TV series ‘Dreamland’ when she filmed steamy scenes with her co-star Kiell Smith-Bynoe but admitted she wasn’t a fan.
Speaking on her ‘Miss Me?’ podcast with co-host Miquita Oliver, she said: “I don’t know how helpful I found it [intimacy coordination] personally. I would have preferred to just have just thrown myself in the deep end and let it happen.
“But what I found difficult is you had to ask the person’s permission if they were okay with you putting your hand somewhere before you did it and I just couldn’t.
“I’d be like, ‘Kiell, are you happy with me putting my hand on your… I just didn’t understand the format, it was a bit of a mind bog.
“I was like, can we just snog? It’s like you’re making it weird… this is making it weird.”
Lily’s opinion is different from that of many of her fellow actresses, who have welcomed the inclusion of intimacy coordinators on set.
‘West Side Story’ actress Rachel Zegler previously tweeted: “intimacy coordinators establish an environment of safety for actors. i was extremely grateful for the one we had on WSS— they showed grace to a newcomer like myself + educated those around me who’ve had years of experience. spontaneity in intimate scenes can be unsafe. wake up.”
And, Dame Emma Thompson said on the Fitzy and Wippa podcast: “You might find that people go, ‘It made me feel comfortable, it made me feel safe, it made me feel as though I was able to do this work.’
“And no, you can’t just let it flow. There’s a camera there and a crew. You’re not on your own in a hotel room, you’re surrounded by a bunch of blokes, mostly. So it’s not a comfortable situation full stop.”
