Scotland’s first ‘intimacy co-ordinator’ started her professional career as a corporate lawyer.
Vanessa Coffey switched to acting and now coaches actors for sex scenes.
She says she has been busy as the country’s on-screen industry starts to recognise this is the way forward when it comes to protecting actors, ensuring directors don’t abuse their power, unwittingly or otherwise.
Coffey – who has worked on sex scenes in a number of high- profile shows, including the second series of War of The Worlds, Billie Piper comedy I Hate Suzie, Netflix’s Fate: The Winx Saga, Wolfe on Sky, and most recently new Scots comedy drama Float, out on BBC iplayer later this year – says she fell into the role.
An Australian, she lectures in professional practice at the prestigious Royal Conservatoire of Scotland drama school, in Glasgow, but came from a background in law and retrained as an actress in on a scholarship at the Conservatoire, formerly RSAMD.
When she started lecturing at RCS, she noticed a growing number of former students coming back to ask for her advice. “Perhaps they had a nudity part or a sex scene,” she said. “They would ask me to look over their contracts and see whether there was something worth negotiating and if I could negotiate on their behalf.”
Coffey officially became an intimacy co-ordinator, overseeing TV, film and theatre, in 2018. “Before then, I didn’t realise there was such a thing,” she said. “It didn’t exist then.”
Around the same time, the #Metoo movement was gaining momentum, following allegations of sexual abuse against Harvey Weinstein.
In the years that followed, many high-profile actresses, including Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie spoke out about feeling sexually harassed or abused in the course of their work. More recently, Keira Knightley has said she won’t appear in nude scenes for films that have a male director.
And, last week, Kate Winslet, who starred in one of the most famous nudity scenes for Titanic when she was just 21, said she welcomes the introduction of intimacy co-ordinators, something that didn’t exist at the time.
Celebrities speaking out is all part of the global conversation about boundaries, which is the centre of Coffey’s work. Her role involves working with directors and finding out what they are looking for from a scene, then speaking to the actors for their point of view – and finding out what levels of nudity they are happy with and where they are happy to be touched.
“We literally talk through the scenes and what is involved, things like levels of nudity, kinds of kissing and simulated sex, so that I am really clear in conversations of what is expected and how it can work,” she said.
“We talk about it in detail, so how long kisses will last, how many thrusts in a sex scene, whether or not the characters will orgasm.
“I speak to the directors, producers, camera operators, actors and even costume designers and then choreograph the scene in a way that tells the story they want.”
Coffey is on hand during rehearsals and on the day of the shoot – usually a closed set with just her, the director and the actors – to make sure these conversations are revisited, and that what has been agreed is what happens and appears on screen.
“Before there was such a thing as an intimacy co-ordinator, it was quite often the case that actors would decide between themselves what was going to happen in the scene.
“Or sometimes actors were put on set, the cameras would start to roll and it was a situation of ‘just go for it and see what happens’.” Coffey explained.
Did you know you can keep up to date with the latest news by signing up to our daily newsletter?
We send a morning and lunchtime newsletter covering the latest headlines every day.
We also send coronavirus updates at 5pm on weekdays, and a round up of the week’s must-read stories on Sunday afternoons.
Signing up is simple, easy and free.
You can pop your email address into the sign up box above, hit Subscribe and we’ll do the rest.
Alternatively, you can sign up and check out the rest of our newsletters here.
“Whereas when I come in, there is never space for actors to just ‘go for it’. My role is to make sure that boundaries aren’t crossed.
“It would never be considered to think about doing a fight scene without a stunt co-ordinator to keep the actors safe and make it look realistic and intimacy scenes should be the same.”
Coffey liaises with the actors afterwards to make sure there’s no impact on their mental health, something particularly important when a scene involves acting out a sexual assault.
Her role is being looked on with increasing importance now within the industry.
“I think the industry is realising it wants to have someone in my role in place for everyone’s safety,” she said, “not just the actors, but the crew as well.
“But, as well as being there for the safety, we are there to help create. We help craft these stories really sensitively. It puts a different perspective on it.
“Before, I think people thought there wasn’t a need but lots of people have come away saying how much better it is. Not just from a physical and emotional safety perspective, but also the positive impact on the story and what this scene means for these characters and moving the plot forward. It is now an integral part of the story.”
Coffey added: “The industry is really looking at itself and thinking how it can make things better for professionals.
“Many actresses have come out about their experiences and talked about sex scenes and being asked to do more than they wanted to.
“It’s very difficult to know when an actor says ‘yes’ to something whether they are actually saying yes, or they are saying it because they want to keep the job.
“And in some cases there has been a suggestion that there was possibly a misuse of power with the director.
“There are some very clear examples of poor behaviour but actors are much more aware of this now. When I came into this job, it wasn’t as busy, but the calls for an intimacy co-ordinator are definitely rising, particularly over the last few months.
“Ironically, since lockdown hit, I have been busier than ever.”
Her role is something Coffey is keen to raise awareness of in young actors.
“I talk to students at RCS about intimacy co-ordination in their first year of study,” she said.
“It’s important to get the message out there to the next generation of professionals and make sure they know their boundaries, and whether they can say yes or no – and that they can ask for an intimacy co-ordinator to be brought on board.
“Instilling this knowledge in actors early on is really important. I hope it becomes industry standard.”
Don’t miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond – Sign up to our daily newsletter here.
