Ita O'Brien is the UK’s leading Intimacy Coordinator and founder of Intimacy on Set, her company set up in 2018, which provides services to TV, film, & theatre when dealing with intimacy, sexual content, and nudity. O’Brien pioneered the role of the Intimacy Coordinator and since 2014 has been developing best practice Intimacy on Set Guidelines, which have been widely adopted in the industry and championed by the TIME’S UP movement and others, advocating for safe, fair and dignified work for everyone. O’Brien has worked on numerous high profile productions including Normal People (BBC3/Hulu), Sex Education 1&2 (Netflix), Gangs of London (Sky Atlantic), The Great (Hulu) and I May Destroy You (BBC/HBO), and has been widely covered in the national and international media as the leading spokesperson in this space.

In this episode, we talked about:

• Ita describes intimacy as many types of touch (e.g. a handshake, hug, touch between parent and child, or carer and client), through to sexual intimacy, as well as “allowing someone to see into you”

• “Standing and looking into someone’s eyes is an incredible act of intimacy”

• The performance art by Maria Abramovic 

• The intimacy of dialogue 

• Opening up and connecting and revealing

• Normal People 

• The role of an Intimacy Co-ordinator to offer a professional structure for intimate content, similar to that in a dance or fight scene

• Performing a risk assessment, as would be done in stunts. Looking at the degree of intimate content, nudity, touch etc. 

• Agreement, consent and clear choreography

• Serving the storytelling and vision

• Everyone’s intimate expression is personal to them, and that’s different from the character. Supporting the actors to bring their skills to content

• Consent 

• Letting go of intimate or abusive scenes with body shaking, visualisations, or in the shower and returning to your everyday self

• Meredith Dufton - Head of Drama at Mountview, invited Ita to teach her approach to drama students

• Agreement and consent of touch, simulated sexual content and nudity

• Listening to body impulses of ‘yes’ and ‘no’ to awaken rather than override the personal self

• Intimacy on Set guidelines

• Considering gender parity within the crew to make it less vulnerable

• Using body listening to reflect back and to discover what’s in agreement 

• Ita incorporates her skills as a dancer, actor, body therapist and movement director

• Exploring the body as an embryo with Bonnie Bambridge Cohen, founder of Body-Mind Centering

• Facilitating shoots post-Covid e.g. when touch isn’t suitable and exploring the journey back to physical intimacy and space

Resources :

You can find out more about Ita O’Brien and Intimacy on Set here.

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