Game of Thrones’ Sean Bean says intimacy coordinators “spoil” sex scenes

Game of Thrones star Sean Bean has criticized the use of intimacy coordinators in sex scenes, believing them to “spoil the spontaneity.”

There’s been a growing emergence of intimacy coordinators on movie and TV sets across the world in recent years, from Sex Education to Succession. If you’re unaware of what they do, they’re enlisted as “an advocate, a liaison between actors and production… in regard to nudity and simulated sex,” as per SAG-AFTRA.

Basically, instead of having actors feel uncomfortable during scenes of a sensitive or graphic nature, the coordinators ensure their concerns are heard, they remain safe, and there’s always mutual consent.

Calls for this sort of consideration ramped up in the wake of Game of Thrones, particularly after scenes involving Emilia Clarke and Sophie Turner, and allegations stemming from the #MeToo movement.

Game of Thrones star Sean Bean says intimacy coordinators “spoil spontaneity” of sex scenes

In a new interview with The Times, Bean looked back on his experience starring opposite Joely Richardson in 1993’s Lady Chatterley, and how it may have been different with intimacy coordinators.

“I should imagine it slows down the thrust of it. Ha, not the thrust, that’s the wrong word. It would spoil the spontaneity,” he said.

Sean Bean starred alongside Joely Richardson in Lady Chatterley.

“It would inhibit me more because it’s drawing attention to things. Somebody saying, ‘Do this, put your hand 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.”

Sean Bean said his sex scenes were “spontaneous” and “a joy”

Bean continued: “Lady Chatterley was spontaneous. It was joy. We had a good chemistry between us, and we knew what we were doing was unusual. Because she was married, I was married. But we were following the story. We were trying to portray the truth of what DH Lawrence wrote.”

The actor did acknowledge the reasoning behind intimacy coordinators, particularly following #MeToo allegations, adding: “I suppose it depends on the actress.”