Michael Douglas has continued to debate the merits of intimacy coordinators on Hollywood sets, but he seems to be missing the mark with his argument. He believes that all actors behave like he does — openly communicating before he and his co-star have a sex scene — but that wasn’t what was happening on many TV and film productions.
The 79-year-old actor should think about the younger generations following in his footsteps and want better conditions for them in Hollywood. Instead, he’s doubling down on his opinion that intimacy coordinators aren’t necessary for on-set safety. “I’m past the age where I’ve got to worry about that. But it’s interesting with all the intimacy coordinators,” he told Radio Times, via The Telegraph. “It feels like executives taking control away from filmmakers – but there have been some terrible faux pas and harassment.” Just as Douglas starts heading in the right direction about why the talent needs an advocate on set, and then he veers in the wrong direction.
“Sex scenes are like fight scenes, it’s all choreographed. In my experience you take responsibility as the man to make sure the woman is comfortable, you talk it through,” he continued. “You say, ‘OK, I’m gonna touch you here if that’s all right’. It’s very slow but looks like it’s happening organically, which is hopefully what good acting looks like.” Ideally, that’s exactly what would happen, but it often doesn’t. An intimacy coordinator not only talks through the scene with the actors but also choreographs each movement and even figures out how many crew members will be in the room. It’s a crew role that has only been in existence since 2019 and was implemented by the SAG-AFTRA actors’ union as a solution to some of the stories revealed through the #MeToo movement.
Katherine Heigl is in a much different camp than Douglas and she shared with Variety how she changed her mind about utilizing an intimacy coordinator on the set of Netflix’s FireflyLane. “I was like, ‘I’m an old Hollywood broad, b***h. I know what I’m doing. You don’t have to tell me how to make out on camera.’ I was so awkward about it.” she explained. “I ended up loving this woman so deeply, and being so grateful for her because she protected us in a way that I didn’t realize how unprotected we were.” Sometimes, the old ways of doing things aren’t better and Heigl is a testament to that.
Douglas might not find himself engaged in a sex scene at this stage of his career, but at the height of his fame, he was known for his steamy bedroom moments in Fatal Attraction, Disclosure, and Basic Instinct. While he felt comfortable in those scenes, only Sharon Stone has said she was OK with everything that went on. It would be interesting to hear Glenn Close and Demi Moore’s opinions on working with intimacy coordinators. It might be an eye-opening revelation for him.
Before you go, check out here to see which movies had the steamiest sex scenes with an older woman and younger man:
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