Overall, having intimacy coordinators on movie sets seems to be a good thing. It’s sad to think that for many decades, they weren’t there to help make sure everyone felt comfortable during very sensitive romantic scenes. However, some people still don’t think intimacy coordinators are needed and believe they actually do more harm than good. One of those people is the actor Michael Douglas.
Speaking to The Telegraph newspaper, Douglas shared his opinion about intimacy coordinators, and he doesn’t like them. The actor believes these coordinators actually harm the art of moviemaking because they take away control from directors.
“It’s interesting with all the intimacy coordinators,” Douglas said. “It feels like executives taking control away from filmmakers – but there have been some terrible mistakes and harassment.”
He added, “Sex scenes are like fight scenes; it’s all planned out in advance. In my experience, you take responsibility as the man to make sure the woman is comfortable; you discuss it through. You say, ‘OK, I’m going to touch you here if that’s alright.’ It’s very slow but looks like it’s happening naturally, which is hopefully what good acting looks like.”
Even though he doesn’t think intimacy coordinators are necessary, Douglas does understand that some people “went too far” in sex scenes. However, the actor believes the people who go too far will be punished by the industry by losing work. In his view, filmmakers will handle it themselves.
“I’m sure there were people that went past the boundaries, but before, we seemed to take care of that ourselves,” Douglas said. “They would get a bad reputation, and that would take care of them. But I talked to the ladies, [because] I did a few of those sex movies – sexual movies – and we joke about it now, what it would have been like to have an intimacy coordinator working with us…”
It’s not surprising that Douglas feels this way. We’ve seen several actors of his generation come out against intimacy coordinators. However, this is likely a battle he’s going to lose, as it would be incredibly shocking if intimacy coordinators weren’t a regular part of the moviemaking process for the foreseeable future.