Michael Caine has some unsurprisingly irritating thoughts about intimacy coordinators
Caine: "Thank God I’m 90 and don’t play lovers anymore is all I can say"
Aux News Michael Caine
Intimacy coordinators are a relatively new innovation on Hollywood sets, as more and more people down in the trenches of making TV and films begin to think seriously about how to make art about, and featuring, sex in ways that leave everyone involved feeling comfortable and safe. And while this is obviously not the point, they’ve also served a useful secondary purpose: Operating as a shockingly good litmus test for which actors—and specifically, male actors, because it’s pretty much always male actors saying this stuff—are a bit too far out of touch with modern attitudes.
Like, it’s not surprising, exactly, that Michael Caine, who turned 90 this year, is out here rolling his eyes at the idea that love scenes between two working professionals should not be wildly improvised affairs. But it is still a certain kind of irritating to hear Caine, who was talking to The Daily Mail about his new movie The Great Escaper, respond to the topic with some classic “Back in my day” rhetoric: “Really? Seriously? What are they? We never had that in my day. Thank God I’m 90 and don’t play lovers anymore is all I can say. In my day you just did the love scene and got on with it without anyone interfering. It’s all changed.”
Now, as Caine himself points out, his relationship to this stuff is largely academic these days—although it’s worth noting that Frank Langella was a strapping young lad of 84 when he disregarded the guidance of an intimacy coordinator on the set of Netflix’s The Fall Of The House Of Usher, leading to complaints from a co-star and him being recast on the show. (And then self-declared the kind of “cancelled” where you get to write op-eds about how silenced you’re being.) Caine does note that he tries to keep up with modern sensibilities, “But it’s dull. Not being able to speak your mind and not being able to call anyone ‘darling.’” Alas, for the glorious lost privileges of yesteryear.
199 Comments
He’s just having trouble understanding the context. If he was an intimacy coordinator on set, and the script called for one actor to remove another’s knickers, but they just leapt straight into fucking, I’d bet he’d have something to say about that.
Especially if he was the one getting fucked. That adds a lot of perspective.
Even with one brown eye, you should see clearer.
Thanks for that XD
I’m just happy at least one person got it. It took all my willpower to withhold the punchline.
What are you ramblin bout crackhead?
It’s nice of you to call them ‘knickers’ so Sir Michael knows what you’re talking about.
“So in this scene, Sir Michael, you’re talking to a young lady -”“A what?”“Sorry, you’re talking to a bit o’ crumpet.”
“Oh, aye, y’mean a bint then do ya?”
He’s looking pretty corpse-y
Considering the lighting is not doing him any favors and most people who were born 90 years ago are actual corpses, I’d say he looks okay.
Woketards love tellin people to die. Where’s ma poot slut Marge Madness when we need her?
totally amazing article, good job
I’m old enough to remember when the AV Club wasn’t woke garbage.
It was always “woke”, you just weren’t radicalized into culture war idiocy back then.
No, IQs have dropped precipitously in the last ten years as is reflected in the content and the comments on this site.
Now dats a Woketard
I’ll say again: I miss when trolls had to be funny, or clever, or novel in literally any way.Dude’s going off about “Harrison Bergeron” elsewhere, because the height of intelligence is saying “any notion of equality is bad.” Gotta love it when American-style “libertarians” “weigh in.” Always presages a just plain STAGGERINGLY intelligent thesis on how society operates exactly the way they learned it did in 5th grade.
So you saying that “SOOOOOOO BRRRRRRAaaaaaaaaaaaVE” spamming chud isn’t the Andy Rooney of our generation? https://kinja.com/recoegnitions/discussions
It’s funny how the dude will disappear for weeks, then come back with a slew of weird, aggro shit. Almost like he has a bad day or week, and attempting to tee off on AVC commenters is a weird form of free therapy.IDK man, they’re weird. Modern trolls are incredibly, deeply weird. Just a bunch of caterwauling nonsense in search of attention, for reasons that most of them couldn’t articulate if you paid them.Fuck, at least shitposters will come out and tell you that they know they’re weird, and sometimes exactly why/how.
What a brave comment.
By “culture war idiocy” you mean knowing that men are not women? That idiocy?
Please post some links to those halcyon days.
Picture it, The AV Club, September of 2003 . . . “Well it’s been 10 years since In Utero came out so here’s Nirvana’s 30 best-est songs!” *click to list slides*
Username/comment synergy.
Da poot comes on woketards all da time. Just ask Marge Madness
I don’t know if it was woke or not, but the AV Club has always had an anti-being-an-asshole bias. I think the difference now is the constant stream of articles designed expressly for outrage harvesting.
What’s this? A 90-year-old retired British guy doesn’t get intimacy coordinators? GIT MAH BROOM!!!
Weirdly the comments section was a lot more progressive about 6 or 7 years ago. You see crude jokes now that never would have flown in 2017.
Your mom was a lot more progressive 6 or 7 years ago.I mean, statistically, it’s probably true. My own mother was never progressive, but has since skittered way off to the right over that period.
Was that a joke? I started snickering but then realized it might not have been a mom joke.
Use of the word “woke”. “That’s a paddlin’.
Yeah, I automatically tune out whenever a conversation starts using the term. But that’s a funny Simpsons episode, I just re-watched it. It’s surprising how many of them actually hold up.
I agree its tiresome but what is a better word to describe this overly sensitive approach to socio-political issues and doubling down on identity politics? Did I even get that description right?
No. What’s especially tiresome is when people castigate an attempt to take the feelings of other folk into account in a perfectly reasonable way. In as much as perspectives beyond those of heterosexual, white, western males are now occasionally considered, “progressive,” might be an appropriate adjective, since doing so indicates some progress has been made. Funnily enough, Caine himself indicated he was trying to do this in a recent BBC audio recording of his autobiography. But since it sounds like you’re just looking for an alternative pejorative, I can’t help you.
No it was honest question. I realize that “woke” has been adopted by the public the same way that “fake news” has. If find it annoying that people have glommed onto it and was asking if there was a better way to discuss it. Unfortunately, its one of those subjects that people have no capacity to have a reasoned discussion about. I personally think that sometimes we go overboard with progressive posturing but I have no delusions that conservatives have people’s best interests at heart.
Fair enough. Hopefully you can forgive my misinterpreting your honest question since the OP I was responding to…“AV Club wasn’t woke garbage.”…gave not even a hint of seeking any reasoned discussion. My criticism was in the same spirit. Anyone who uses “woke” pejoratively betrays their values before there’s any point actually considering the semantics.
But even here. “progressive posturing”. Who gets to decide what is earnest and what is “posturing”? This is toying with that nonsense term “virtue signaling”. To whom? For what purpose? Who decides? Is it YOUR standards of believability that we go by?I’m not saying that nobody has ever pretended to a sociopolitical position as part of their desire to create a particular identity. But when you frame it this way you make it seem like nobody has ever been GENUINE in their expression. And while I have plenty of cynicism in my heart at a certain point I find the anti-woke shit just as tiresome as anti-woke dinguses find “wokeness”.
Right, I said “progressive posturing” because the posturing is the problematic part. Not the legitimate care that goes into addressing social issues with sensitivity.
Right, and what is “posturing”? What constitutes the “posture” in your mind? Do you expect progressives to engage in silent activism lest someone accuse them of not being genuine?I genuinely care about the fate of transgender youth. I have donated to the cause, I’ve shared fundraising links, I’ve signed petitions, etc. At what point does my care become “posturing” to you? Does all online activism count as posturing because it can’t be proven? Is my care posturing because I haven’t personally been strangled to death by a transphobe? I care about a woman’s right to choose. About euthanasia. About the death penalty. Is it just posturing because I have no womb, I’m not terminally ill, and I don’t know anyone on death row?At the end of the day, I hate this kind of gatekeeping bullshit. Yes, every aspect of progressive sociopolitical discourse can be co-opted by bad faith actors. But it’s fucking nonsense to pretend that ANY OF US are the arbiters.
No, you didn’t. Because you’re adding a shit-ton of pejorative bullshit to it.
The replies demonstrate the Borg-like nature of the woke hivemind. Very sad.
lol
Very sad.And I see you lot even parse your sentences like your orange goblin overlord’s Twitter posts these days so criticising a hive mind mentality is a little hypocritical. Now shut the fuck up and be assimilated.
This was such a wicked burn it took me months to recuperate.You accuse non-Leftists of a hive mind lmfao
Except I didn’t; I merely pointed out the irony of your own accusation. Glad to see your recovery went so well. Your reading comprehension is as sharp as it ever was.
Yeah, dude’s a fucking moron, of the type to name check “communists.” I’m sure he even thinks he knows what the word means!Doesn’t matter. It’s all redpill trollfuck garbage.
For 800 years have I monitored comments! My own counsel will I take on who is to be cancelled!
I’m old enough to remember when the concept of treating others with the dignity we hope to be treated with ourselves was considered ‘good’.
go yell at a cloud, Pop.
“I’m old enough to remember when the concept of treating others with the dignity we hope to be treated with ourselves was considered ‘good’.”
Yeah, because that was ever a time.
You mean encouraging male perverts to use women’s bathrooms? That kind of dignity? Gotcha.
They’d still defend Lizzo to the death in here. She’s Black, fat, and liberal. All boxes checked. So while they will report on the stories about her, they won’t slant them with their opinions like they do with every single report they run in here about men.
This article is “Woke”. lmao What isn’t woke to you morons these day? JFC.
rararaaaarrrgggghhhwokeblaaahhraraablaaaaaaagghhhhthat’s you
I thought that was Mel Gibson’s most recent rage recording.
It must be nice being able to just say stuff and not have to actually explain any of it because you’re just signalling to other people who already agree with you. Sometimes I regret having actual opinions and goals in life and thus denying myself that luxury. I imagine that you walk around in a kind of perpetual golden haze of ill-earned confidence and self-congratulation, unconcerned with the world as a whole.
It must be nice being able to just say stuff and not have to actually explain any of it because you’re just signalling to other people who already agree with you. Hey now! I’ve heard that the “libertarian”-types *hate* virtue signaling! I mean, they do it all the fucking time, but that DOESN’T COUNT! Because REASONS! Sometimes I regret having actual opinions and goals in life and thus denying myself that luxury. I imagine that you walk around in a kind of perpetual golden haze of ill-earned confidence and self-congratulation, unconcerned with the world as a whole. Apparently his particular issue is ::checks notes:: “equality in any way, shape, or form – just the overall concept.”Dude’s a fucking moron. And that’s an apolitical statement.
“Equality” is a concept for communists/the mentally handicappedIt’s sad what this site has become, but it makes sense given that anyone under the age of 30 (35?) has been assimilated
So brave, and you’re clearly so impressive. Good job.
Thanks, I appreciate that!
rararaaaarrrgggghhhsobraveblaaahhraraablaaaaaaagghhhhthat’s you
Your opinion means very little.
rararaaaarrrgggghhhrhetoricblaaahhraraablaaaaaaagghhhhthat’s you
lol you’re mentally ill.
rararaaaarrrgggghhhinsultsblaaahhraraablaaaaaaagghhhhthat’s you
I like when it projects its neuroses onto others.
This guy thinks he wrote something intelligent lmfao
Yet you’re not old enough to be unsupervised on the internet…
[footage not found]
Eh, this seems pretty mild. If it was, say, Armie Hammer or Jared Leto or Ansel Elgort complaining about intimacy coordinators, I’d be a lot more squicked out than I am at hearing it from a 90-year-old who I doubt has shot an intimate scene in the last 15-20 years.
My sense from the statement is that Caine thinks of himself as a working actor, who likes to complete his task for the day with a minimum of fuss. He isn’t seemingly one of those gross people who opposes intimacy coordinators because they, like, interfere with his ability to molest coworkers, but rather because they make scenes cumbersome.I think intimacy coordinators are an important addition to the way sensitive scenes are filmed. But I also suspect that their work has a lot in common with workplace safety videos, office fire drills, etc. — things that are worth doing but also eyeroll-inducing and kind of a pain in the neck.
Then why did he used to bring a stick of butter to set every day on every shoot?
Because NO ONE else in the whole damn production knew how to properly butter a scone properly! You don’t know how important high tea is to these Britishes.
EXACTLY! Every year or so I have to watch the same lame videos of really bad actors in obviously creepy scenes once again explain why I should not be a creep or molester and also, by the way, why I should not take or give bribes when I travel.Saying that does not make me “pro sexual harassment” (or pro bribe either). I, like most people, knew those things were wrong to start with. The truth is that most of this stuff is not really there to protect “the workers”. It is there so the business can CYA and say “but we had these measures in place, so don’t sue us when the inevitable bastard does this stuff anyway”.I have zero issue with the role of intimacy coordinators, but I also have zero issue with Michael Caine saying “I sure am glad I am too old to have to worry about this stuff”.
But would you look askance at someone you worked with saying, “This anti-bribery stuff is ridiculous! Thank goodness I have too little influence to worry about getting bribed”?
Gee, describing a love scene as “cumbersome” seems so…so “British”.
Yeah, this is why I rarely find the complaints about intimacy coordinators convincing. On a bad day, they might make an unnecessary tweak or two that makes a shot 5% worse, on a normal day, they might slow things down a bit by checking on people, and on a good day, they prevent a sexual assault from happening in front of thirty people.
I get why they can seem like a nuisance sometimes, but that’s absolutely a trade worth making. A certain amount of grumbling is probably to be expected, but anyone who is seriously against that probably isn’t great. “This’d go faster if I didn’t have to make sure my lead actress consents to what’s happening” isn’t a compelling argument.
This seems like a Daily Mail reporter asking a question designed to get a 90 year old in trouble.
Of course that’s what it is. That’s the cycle now. Interviewer asks impossibly old person a question where the answer is pretty much a foregone conclusion and waits for the clicks to roll in. Then vultures like the AV Club throw up a link to said interview with a paragraph or two of withering condescension ladled over top and get THEIR clicks. All for something that doesn’t matter a bit, because Michael Caine’s fairly mild, old-person position on this subject isn’t going to change one damn thing. It’s predictable stuff and they’ll both keep doing it until we’re all dead or some noble rebellion tears the internet down for all our benefit.
Oh man you could ask a whole arsenal of questions specifically to trip up Michael Caine in a modern analysis“In ‘The Man Who Would be King,’ you play a colonial British soldier who, at the climax of the film, is rescued from certain death when your Nepali subordinate sacrifices his life to protect you from an enraged mob of Afghans. Do you think maybe if Gurkhas had worked harder for the British you might not have had so many casualties during the global war on terror?”
“old man yells at clouds”
Minimum wage woketard whines about rich guy
You’re drunk.
Da poot is always laughin when he’s amongst woketards
You made up a word— “woketard”— how clever! We’re so proud!— and now it’s time for you to give it a rest and go away, little tiny baby bot. Bye bye!
What a duketastrophe!
Woketards love to self identify
rararaaaarrrgggghhhwokeblaaahhraraablaaaaaaagghhhhthat’s you
Dats me jizzin in yo mama’s bunghole!
“whining is bad!!!” whines the dipshit who does literally nothing else.
Smell ma poot whiny woketard
I’d like to know if AV Club writers really comb through every interview looking for things to pretend to be mad about (90-year-old man admits to being out-of-touch with current attitudes!) or if they have bots to do that for them.
They just scroll through X and Reddit.
I’ve sometimes suspected Barsanti of being an outrage-bot.
There are only three things Caine hates in this world — intimacy coordinators, people who are intolerant of other people’s cultures, and the Dutch.
Woketards support intimacy coordinators, woketards are intolerant of anyone who disagrees with them, and the Dutch are major woketards. Dats 3 strikes for woketards from Mikey. What a legend
I don’t think I’ve ever seen him do a love scene. I mean, I know he has — Alfie was all about his character servicing the ladies, wasn’t it? I just haven’t seen any of his films where he’s a romantic lead.Anyway, unless one of his former co-stars has anything sordid to share, I’m not going to get upset that a guy who’s romantic prime was during the height of the sexual revolution thinks having an intimacy coordinator on the set interferes with “the craft” or whatever.
The deleted scenes from Muppet Christmas Carol were wild
Spank me and call me a pig!
well you know when you cast someone as famous as Miss Piggy, they do have sway to have scenes they want removed.
Ok, that got a solid chuckle outta me, take your star!
I just looked that up. He never did anything that required nudity.In this piece he talks about it. He also claims to be supportive of “women’s lib.” The whole thing is a bit tone deaf and condescending though, imo. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/event/article-7086329/Sir-Michael-Caine-hes-never-nude-scene.html#:~:text=Caine%20played%20a%20prolific%20lover,t%20want%20to%20do%20it.
Mikey wants to liberate da titties
Well, he is 90, so we might want to imagine that we’re 90, we mention that we support trans rights, and then all the young people judge us for using such an outdated phrase to express support for something that everyone with a brain supports in the year 2080.I’m always a bit surprised at the lack of empathy we show old people who might not be hip to every aspect of the last ten years of social progress but who also seem to be generally decent people.We’re all shaped by our upbringing and I don’t really think any of us are prepared for the experience of inhabiting a changing world once we’re done changing for all intents and purposes.
Clearly we’re meant to believe that Miachel Caine is as bad as Kevin Spacey or Bill Cosby
This reminds me of when people were attacking Rita Moreno for not being more outspoken about Ansel Elgort’s accusations when promoting West Side Story. She’s 90! Let people 1/3 her age handle that! Not to mention she’s worked in Hollywood and theater for 70 years and probably had to put up with more harassment and inappropriateness than anyone today could possibly imagine.
This sounds too much like “slavery was ok once because it was accepted.”No. People knew right from wrong ‘back then’ and men knew that treating women badly was a shitty thing to do 20, 30, 40, 50……. years ago. Women certainly knew it.
Sure, but there is a little bit of a difference in equivalence between the necessity of intimacy coordinators on film sets and institutionalised slavery.
Wonen were not much more than slaves before 1920, just a little over 100 years ago. Many would argue that they still are. In marriage, a man could do anything he wanted to her. They could have used some intervention.
Again, you’re not wrong exactly, but (a) I’m not sure we can reasonably hold Michael Caine to account for the status of women in western society thirteen years before he was born and (b) comparing his comments about intimacy coordinators to support of slavery still seems at least a little hyperbolic (FWIW the marital rape example you provide might have been a better point of comparison, if a still somewhat dramatic one).
No. I’m not wrong at all. If you can’t see the greater relationships, I can’t help you. No one said that Caine should be the ambassador for women’s rights now or in the past, lol.
The greater relationships between intimacy coordinators… and slavery. Guess I will just have to carry on in ignorance on that one, then.
This is retarded and objectively untrue.
Could you clarify what you think I was saying? Because I don’t understand how your response follows from mine.
It doesn’t sound anything like that and I am sure women from different eras and backgrounds will have widely different opinions about what is ok and what is not.
SOOOOOO BRAVEWhat an important thing for you to say.
Wow that was really insightful. I think you may have posted on the wrong site.
Why have empathy for a generation you blame all your woes on? /s
It’s the Mail, what do you expect?
True, but then look who owns The Washington Post and this site, itself, was once a respectable source.
Basement dwellin woketards dont know where to stick the pee pee. Need guidance
rararaaaarrrgggghhhwokeblaaahhraraablaaaaaaagghhhhthat’s you
“Blame it on Rio”.He’s a middle aged husband having an affair with his friend’s teenage daughter. But it’s OK! Just – you know, blame it on Rio or something.I’ll admit, I haven’t seen this movie since I was probably the teenage daughter’s age. I looked up the synopsis and it turned out the movie is substantially creepier than I remember it.
Blame it on the bossa nova!
Oh fuck, I can’t believe I forgot that one.
If I recall that movie, it was really not considered OK. I think it was supposed to be cringe.
I’m guess Mycocaine has never had to walk onto a cold set wearing nothing but a cock sock.
Why do you think he got kicked out of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers?
poor tattoo decisions?
Old Tory says Old Tory bullshit, what a shock
Woketard says Woketard shit, what a shock
woketard? What are you, Roger Stone eight years ago? How can you even type that nonsense without shuddering and vomiting in your mouth. It looks so stupid on the screen. It sounds grating. I love that you think it’s clever, it’s almost adorable if you weren’t such a terrible person.
Woketard tries to deflect, fails.
Don’t feed the trolls.
May I feed the elf?
Dumbfuck woketards can neva resist an opportunity to sniff ma poot and collect stars from other woketards
I am genuinely sorry for whatever pain has brought you to this (i.e. distracting yourself from your own life with a mean-spirited parody account) and I hope you can figure out some way to heal before you lose yourself completely.
Put me down on team Neither Of You. The Anti-Woke stuff is garbage, but your casual dismissal of a person also deserved to be called out.
What, you didn’t think “Roger Stone eight years ago” was cute?
I have no idea what you are even trying to say.
“I have no idea what you are even trying to say.”
Good thing you spoke up then, right?
Moron says moron bullshit, what a shock.
Fair enough mang. Da poot prefers to work alone anyway
Calm down woketard and sniff ma poot bitch
rararaaaarrrgggghhhwokeblaaahhraraablaaaaaaagghhhhthat’s you
Here’s an interview, with the Daily Mail, about sex scenes, sexual harrassment and Weinstein. Somehow Caine just happened to not be around for any of that. He also supports that “women’s lib” stuff because he loved his mother.
“We never had any of that in my day?” That’s not what this 2019 interview suggests. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/event/article-7086329/Sir-Michael-Caine-hes-never-nude-scene.html#:~:text=Caine%20played%20a%20prolific%20lover,t%20want%20to%20do%20it.
No one cares. You’re an unintelligent loser.
Oh no, Michael, we hardly knew ye.
Michael Caine, the new Satan.
Woketards prefer Hitler
rararaaaarrrgggghhhwokeblaaahhraraablaaaaaaagghhhhthat’s you
Dats me jizzin in yo mama’s mouth!
How did Michelle Johnson feel about his boundaries? I mean, she was fucking at least one of the producers at the time, but she and Demi have rarely had anything good to say about that particular film (which is unfortunate, because it was hilarious, and I wish I could rewatch it without wondering). Does she? She’d certainly know; they definitely had “love” scenes.
I mean, she was fucking at least one of the producers at the timeWas she really?!God, that movie is such a guilty pleasure. Such soft core trash and such beautiful Brazilian settings.
The entire reason it’s set in Rio is so they could skate on more stringent sex laws about women her age, so yeah. But I agree: if you can put that out of your mind (good luck), it’s a delightful farce.
No surprise at all that woketards are irritated that people have different opinions. Dumbfuck nutjobs like Marge Madness issue death threats for woketard blasphemy
Did you just bash your head on the keyboard and then click “publish” on the garbage that resulted?
Did you just smell ma poot, dumbfuck?
rararaaaarrrgggghhhwokeblaaahhraraablaaaaaaagghhhhthat’s you
Dats me jizzin in yo bunghole!
Damn right. Mikey dont need no woketards perverts tellin him how to do the hanky panky
rararaaaarrrgggghhhwokeblaaahhraraablaaaaaaagghhhhthat’s you
Dats me jizzin in yo mouth! Franky drinks Da poot’s jizz
rararaaaarrrgggghhhedgelordblaaahhraraablaaaaaaagghhhhthat’s you
Michael, I’ve got three words for you. Grumpiest Old Men!
Grump Harder With A Vegetable
He is right of course and this generation is the stupidest in the history of the world.
rararaaaarrrgggghhhthisgenerationblaaahhraraablaaaaaaagghhhhthat’s you
Someone please correct me if I’m wrong but it seems like, in smaller productions, the role of an intimacy coordinator would be filled by the director consulting with their cast in private and on set. Having a separate person would then just be delegation of responsibilities. Not having worked in the industry I have no idea but did they previously just tell the actors to go out there and wing it? “Just pretend to fuck but don’t make it silly. And make sure you cover your partners genitals entirely with your body, just like real people do in private.”Anyway I hate to seem like a prude but I don’t think most sex scenes in books, TV and movies are even necessary for the story or exist for any reason other than to titillate the audience. Which is fine in its place but shouldn’t be shoehorned in just to make something more popular.Honestly if any group needs coaches for sex scenes it’s genre novel authors. Some of the stuff they write is so, so bad. And not just the men, although they are usually worse. I recently read a novelization of Homer’s Iliad by a woman author which claimed to be from the perspective of the female characters. Feminist retellings of classical mythology and literature have been quite popular in recent years and many are very good so I gave it a try. But that particular series reads like a dime store romance written for female history buffs who fall in love with imprisoned serial killers. Multiple women grow to love and sexually pine for men who murdered their whole families and even infant children. The gods rape women willy nilly and most of them enjoy it by the end and some are even proud. None of this is handled with any nuance, like implying they had an ancient version of Stockholm Syndrome. During the description of the conception of Helen of Troy the phrase “Zeus’s enormous swan-cock” was written, presumably passed through the hands of an editor and was actually published. Strangely this was a rare case of a book series so bad I had to finish it. Not nearly as common with me as with bad movies or TV.
In regard to the stories of gods raping women and they seemingly enjoying it, part of the issue is that traditionally (generally male) writers didn’t make a distinction between consensual intercourse outside wedlock and what we’d call rape — if wasn’t sanctioned by marriage, it was rape.
Ha! “Zeus’s enormous swan-cock” sounds like either a great comment board handle or European punk-rock band name.
I’m stealing that for my next band.
“go out there and wing it? “Just pretend to fuck but don’t make it silly. And make sure you cover your partners genitals entirely with your body,”
I mean, I can handle that.
Shooting nude/love scenes was/is like shooting stunts, meaning it varies, tremendously, especially throughout history. Sometimes it’d be carefully storyboarded by the director, planned by a whole bunch of people, or the actors would plan most of the choreography in rehearsals, or anything in between and then some. Now, though, on any size production, not having an intimacy coordinator isn’t much of an option. A director can 100% do the job and run a safe, professional, respectful set, but the perception of not hiring an intimacy coordinator is that you’re either trying to take advantage of women or you just don’t care if women are abused.The thing is, intimacy coordinators more or less came to be when someone decided to have a stunt coordinator work on the intimate scenes, as kind of a go-between, so the actors wouldn’t have to outright refuse an idea from the director, or feel pressure to go along with it to avoid seeming difficult, if they weren’t comfortable with it, as there’d be a person in the middle. Then basically overnight it became industry standard, except no one had any experience doing it, so there was this big population of everyone from stunt coordinators to former actresses to industry outsiders who’d never been on a film set before who paid for an online course to be “certified” as intimacy coordinators and started looking for jobs.Some are good, some are bad, some are worse than nothing. It’s hard, especially for smaller productions, because, as evidenced by this article, voicing any qualms or doubts related to intimacy coordinators is about on the level of a sex crime. It’s all too easy to have inexperienced people with very limited time on set in the role, and there’s a tendency when people suddenly get new authority to feel like they have to justify their existence. Personally, I feel like on an ideal set, the intimacy coordinator would be like the person there monitoring for animal abuse, right there if needed but not much involved, because there’s such great communication and professionalism they aren’t needed, but some people aren’t able to live with that, and they’ll insert themselves, to the extent of taking over the planning and directing of the scene, and it’s hard to do anything about it, because no one fighting with or firing the intimacy coordinator is going to get the benefit of the doubt.
“Anyway I hate to seem like a prude but I don’t think most sex scenes in books, TV and movies are even necessary for the story or exist for any reason other than to titillate the audience. Which is fine in its place but shouldn’t be shoehorned in just to make something more popular.”There are fewer and fewer of them, and it is a problem. There is the discourse of “if you want a sex scene watch porn”, which very much un-educates on the intimacy part of sex, which btw is a core part of character development. Also, it’s sexy, as explosions, crane shots or The Oners.
“Someone please correct me if I’m wrong but it seems like, in smaller productions, the role of an intimacy coordinator would be filled by the director consulting with their cast in private and on set. Having a separate person would then just be delegation of responsibilities.”
Yes and no. It’s a relatively new role on set, but it’s more akin to a stunt performer, and they’re there for the same reasons: so no one gets hurt. Intimacy coordinators are more about protecting mental harm than physical, but the concept is the same.
It also gives performers an advocate. Often it would be a director pushing performers out of comfort zones (more nudity/graphic displays) etc, and there’s an obvious conflict of interest if the director is also choreographing the intimacy.
Yeah, the director and intimacy coordinator have fundamentally different priorities. One’s job is to get the best shot possible, and the other is supposed to make sure everything happens safely and comfortably. Most people picture the big stuff, like some asshole director screaming at an actress to shut up and take her top off — which has happened — but it’s also just because the director has a lot to do and isn’t necessarily thinking about things like whether or not an actress wants a blanket to cover up between shots or a pillow to sit on to keep her ass from going numb.
I’m trying to think of an actual sex scene (not simply nudity or people in bed together, I’m also excluding nonconsensual sex) that was necessary to the plot. How about 10? It’s what the whole movie’s about right, and it’s a huge disappointment for everyone, audience included, and that’s kind of the point, that sex without love is no good? I think the audience needed to see just how bad the sex was to make that point, you couldn’t just have them talk about it afterward. But yes, I’d say there are few exceptions that couldn’t be replaced with dialogue or even just eliminated entirely.
I do think there’s too much focus on “what’s necessary to the plot” in movies. A lot of comic relief isn’t necessary to the plot. There are lovely little moments between characters in a lot of movies that aren’t necessary to the plot. Plot is actually just one aspect of a film, and a fairly mechanical one at that. Just because you can cut something out and the story still works, doesn’t mean it has no value. I’m all for including sex scenes in movies (and for them being supervised by intimacy co-ordinators) because sex is something that happens in people’s lives, and they have all sorts of dramatically rich reactions to that.
The director can’t necessarily be trusted to look out for the more vulnerable partner, though. If the director wants a certain cut, they might pressure the woman into doing more than she’s comfortable with in a way that she’s not comfortable with. The value of an intimacy coordinator is that they are more or less “objective” and are there to serve the actors.
just like real people do in privateReminded of scene in The Disaster Artist: “He knows where her vagina is, right?”
Intimacy coordinators are just the latest manifestation of puritanical woke bs.
The AVclub has to try and cancel a celebrity a day. It’s how it feeds.
90 year old guy doesnt follow modern ways of thinking about things, especially in relation to intimacy and gender …well duh? I mean its only news if you find a 90 year old who does.Jesus thats some low hanging fruit right there .
Stop making fun of Sir Michael’s scrotum!
“oi …leave me plums alone!!”
I wonder what Sir Michael thinks about Howard Stern’s marriage?
At this point in Michael Caine’s career he has to worry more about the “chair sitting” coordinator.
“musical”?
“I hate this thing I clearly actually have no idea about but will still speak with authority about it based on what my moronic mind thinks it is.” FOH.
“a bit too far out of touch with modern attitudes.”Modern attitudes here meaning “what me and my friends think”
The AV Club has some unsurprisingly irritating thoughts about Sir Michael
“But it’s dull. Not being able to speak your mind and not being able to call anyone ‘darling.’” Alas, for the glorious lost privileges of yesteryear.I live in the North of England, and men and women absolutely still call each other “love”, “darling” etc.It’s how you say it not what you’re saying that the people who complain about “You can’t say that anymore” don’t seem to understand.
Hell, everyone still calls each other “Hon” in Baltimore, to the point that there was a huge scandal when a restaurant tried to copyright it.
All the news that fits.
I keep reading what he said, but no where does it say what he was asked. This one just feels a bit out of context. If you ask anyone what they think of something that came a few generations after them, they’re gonna give a similar “what? you do? we didn’t do that and got along fine.” answer. He’s not denouncing the practice, he’s unfamiliar with it.