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Game of Thrones actor Sean Bean is under fire after complaining about the recent trend of intimacy coordinators being hired on film sets to help actors feel more comfortable and safer during the production of sex scenes.
Adding an intimacy coordinator to a film crew has become far more common since the advent of the "Time's Up" and "#MeToo" movements that exposed Hollywood's behind-the-scenes problems with sexual harassment and assault, including on film sets.
But Bean, who played Ned Stark on the HBO series famous for its graphic depictions of sex and sexual violence, feels intimacy coordinators "inhibit" his performances, telling the UK's Times magazine that they "spoil the spontaneity" of sex scenes.
\u201cSean Bean speaks out against the use of intimacy coordinators on set: \u201cI think the natural way lovers behave would be ruined by someone bringing it right down to a technical exercise." https://t.co/jpMpTqhFGS\u201d— Variety (@Variety) 1659964658
The job of intimacy coordinators is to ensure that each move and bit of contact in intimate scenes is consensual and comfortable for the actors, and advocating for actors a director's request asks for makes them at all uncomfortable.
In the interview, Bean spoke of the ways he says intimacy coordinators negatively impact his performance. He said:
“It would inhibit me more because it’s drawing attention to things."
"Somebody saying, ‘Do this, put your hands there, while you touch his thing…”
"I think the natural way lovers behave would be ruined by someone bringing it right down to a technical exercise."
When asked by the interviewer about the importance of an intimacy coordinator's role in post-#MeToo Hollywood, particularly for woman, Bean said he thought it depended on the actor in question.
He used as an example his Snowpiercer costar Lena Hall, with whom he recently filmed a graphic sex scene involving, of all things, a mango.
"I suppose it depends on the actress. [Hall] had a musical cabaret background, so she was up for anything.”
Hall herself seems to differ with that take, however. While she praised Bean as an actor and colleague, she clarified how she actually felt about sex scenes and intimacy coordinators in a lengthy Twitter thread.
\u201c2. Just because I am in theater (not cabaret, but I do perform them every once in a while) does not mean that I am up for anything. Seriously does depend on the other actor, the scene we are about to do, the director, and whatever crew has to be in there to film it.\u201d— Lena Hall (@Lena Hall) 1659989956
She also clarified that her own personal desire for an intimacy coordinator is entirely dependent on the costar and the circumstances.
\u201c4. If I feel comfortable with my scene partner and with others in the room then I won't need an intimacy coordinator. BUT if there is any part of me that is feeling weird, gross, over exposed etc... I will either challenge the necessity of the scene or I'll want an IC.\u201d— Lena Hall (@Lena Hall) 1659989956
On Twitter, many found Bean's take on the matter ridiculous and irresponsible.
\u201cIt\u2019s been pointed out many times before: One of the reasons this argument is so silly is that fist fights IRL are also spontaneous and yet in TV/film they are carefully choreographed for obvious safety reasons. An actor\u2019s job is to make it look spontaneous https://t.co/PF76iKs0C3\u201d— Nina Metz (@Nina Metz) 1659969473
\u201cevery day, a beloved actor chooses to disappoint me when they could instead choose silence https://t.co/ROJiftRmM7\u201d— anna mar\u00eda (@anna mar\u00eda) 1660048820
\u201cThis is weird. He is weird. There should be no spontaneity when it comes to filming sex scenes. Spontaneity is how things go wrong. What a creepy take. https://t.co/SAMFMqZTX3\u201d— Justin Casselle (@Justin Casselle) 1659971853
\u201cAlright so nobody film a sex scene with Sean Bean\u201d— Zo\u00eb Rose Bryant (@Zo\u00eb Rose Bryant) 1659987109
\u201cLook. I love #SeanBean , but old white men shouldn\u2019t be chiming in negatively about the progressive steps this industry is taking to create comfortable environments to work.\n\nSo far, I don\u2019t see any actresses complaining about \u201cintimacy coordinators\u201d. There\u2019s a reason for that.\u201d— John Rocha @ #TheOutlawNation (@John Rocha @ #TheOutlawNation) 1659967221
\u201cSean Bean has been divorced four times, had the police called on him for spousal abuse multiple times, and had charges against him for harassing an ex, so I feel like he needs an intimacy coordinator in movies and every day life\u201d— Amanda Hocking \ud83e\udd8b (@Amanda Hocking \ud83e\udd8b) 1660009586
\u201cThis is great advice actually, in fact we should stop using stunt coordinators and just actually kill Sean Bean everytime he dies in a movie\u201d— The Immortal Chris (@The Immortal Chris) 1659986371
\u201cSean Bean speaks out against stunt performers, saying they \u201cruin the natural, spontaneous experience of leaping over a burning bridge on a motorbike\u201d\u201d— Yell in a War (@Yell in a War) 1660010617
\u201cBeen a fan of Sean Bean but he\u2019s just plain wrong here. An IC is there to ensure the safety of performers in just the same way a stunt coordinator does. Actors may not have the power or confidence to advocate for themselves. ICs should\u2019ve been a thing decades ago.\u201d— Alex Collins (@Alex Collins) 1659965972
\u201csean bean, sitting in the wreckage of an industry riven by on and off-set abuse, sexual misconduct, systematic predation and bullying: why are you trying to ruin my good time with the bare minimum of care towards my colleagues???\u201d— Meghna Jayanth (@Meghna Jayanth) 1659967450
Other actors have also pushed back on Bean's claims, including West Side Story star Rachel Zegler, who tweeted that "spontaneity" in sex scenes can be "unsafe" and urged Bean to "wake up."