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Intimacy coordinators stepping on filmmakers’ toes, Michael Douglas says
Basic Instinct star questions need for overseers of sex scenes
![Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2024/05/06/TELEMMGLPICT000001472516_17150142682370_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqeawYjNG9i94uIDjxO1F-gqAezwuvexs_ues-aCB_TCg.jpeg?imwidth=680)
Michael Douglas has suggested that intimacy coordinators have seized control of sex scenes from filmmakers.
The 79-year-old star of Fatal Attraction and Basic Instinct was asked about the trend of sex scenes appearing less often in films in recent years.
The Oscar-winner told Radio Times: “I’m past the age where I’ve got to worry about that. But it’s interesting with all the intimacy co-ordinators.
“It feels like executives taking control away from filmmakers – but there have been some terrible faux pas and harassment.”
He added: “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.
“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.”
![Michael Douglas](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2024/05/06/TELEMMGLPICT000376559505_17150148185910_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqZ8Sk9-T2NSlZIdrBFmz4Lu6rFq06wWIjDPAz8t3l5EI.jpeg?imwidth=350)
Douglas’s Basic Instinct co-star, Sharon Stone, recently alleged that Robert Evans, the Hollywood mogul who headed production at Paramount and died in 2019, instructed her to have sex with co-star Billy Baldwin in order to improve his acting performance in the 1993 film Sliver.
Baldwin, the younger brother of Alec Baldwin, hit back at the claims on social media.
Speaking about her time working on Basic Instinct with Douglas, she said: “I didn’t have to f--- Michael Douglas. Michael could come to work and just know how to hit those marks and do that line, and rehearse and show up.”
Speaking to The Telegraph about intimacy coordinators Douglas said: “I’m sure there were people that overstepped their boundaries, but before, we seemed to take care of that ourselves. They would get a reputation and that would take care of them.
“But I talked to the ladies, [because] I did a few of those sex movies – sexual movies – and we joke about it now, what it would have been like to have an intimacy coordinator working with us…”
A ‘vital’ presence
Some industry figures question the need for intimacy coordinators, which are now commonplace on film sets. Sir Ian McKellen has said a director would previously have been responsible for all aspects of a production, including sex scenes between the actors.
However, Sophie Rundle, who plays Ada Thorne in the TV show Peaky Blinders series, said they were “vital”.
Speaking on The Radio Times Podcast, she said: “Putting in intimacy coordinators as an element of safeguarding is really important.
“Having someone assigned to oversee the process is vital because it allows for a neutral third party, and anonymity, if you feel uncomfortable.”