Without an intimacy coordinator, Joe Alwyn says filming sex scenes feels “so different”
Speaking with Paul Mescal for Variety's Actors on Actors series, Alwyn compares filming intimate moments for Conversations With Friends and Stars At Noon
Aux News Alwyn
Anyone who spent some time in the Sally Rooney cinematic universe knows: there will be copious canoodling, and it will certainly be intimate. There’s likely no one who knows this better, however, than the Rooney-verse’s leading men (and some of its predominant sex-havers): Normal People’s Paul Mescal and Conversations With Friends’ Joe Alwyn.
In a new conversation for Variety’s Actors on Actors series, Alwyn and Mescal discuss their different experiences filming sex scenes, in their respective Hulu series’ and across their careers. Per Alwyn, working with an intimacy coordinator (as he does on Conversations With Friends) and without one (as he did recently, in Claire Denis’ latest Stars At Noon) is “so different.”
“The scenes are spoken about. They’re rehearsed,” Alwyn explains of Conversations With Friends’ filming process. “Every movement is almost choreographed like a dance or a fight. And they’re quite blocked, even though there’s freedom within it.”
Although one of an intimacy coordinator’s main purposes on set is to foster a safe and trusting environment, Alwyn says he still had that feeling on the Stars At Noon set.
“I trusted Claire [Denis] and I trusted the crew,” Alwyn says of working on the director’s Stars At Noon. “And Margaret [Qualley], obviously. And you feel safe within that. I think trust and feeling safe is the main thing.”
Mescal sees the “hot topic” of intimacy coordination as something that’s all about balance—sex scenes should feel real and true to the project, but never at the cost of safety.
“I think you’re right that you never want scenes around intimacy to feel stale,” Mescal responds to Alwyn. “But ultimately they have to feel safe. And I think you can feel safe multiple ways, and that’s through trust.”
9 Comments
the Sally Rooney cinematic universe
Miniseries on Hulu are not cinematic features. And are they even supposed to be part of the same fictional “universe”?
It’s a running gag. Not a very good one, but eh.
the Sally Rooney cinematic universe .Jesus , since her characters are mostly the dullest , most ‘up their own arse curating their farts’ kind of people that I used to avoid in college ,hopefully it has its own ‘snap’ where ideally everyone disappears.
I feel the same way about condoms.
Ugh…Take a star…but also feel ashamed of yourself please.
“Anyone who spent some time in the Sally Rooney cinematic universe knows: there will be copious canoodling, and it will certainly be intimate.”
In journalism you’re generally supposed to put facts at the beginning. Explain what ANY of this means, please.
I recently convinced a coworker of the validity of an intimacy coordinator. It’s just like when someone is there to choreograph a fight scene. Your job as the actor acting is to interpret how to stylize the moves the fight choreographer shows you. Your job is to act in between those moments. Any male actor that complains that they cant be spontaneous or whatever with an intimacy coordinator is so full of shit. They’re just dudes hoping to grope female stars. Full stop.
It’s telling that it’s virtually always guys that have an issue with intimacy coordinators. I’ve never read an interview with an actress yearning for the halcyon days when scene partners would just grab their boobs without so much as a heads-up.
Also I love how the headline for this article is written in a way to anger people when really there’s no story here.