Intimacy coordinators embrace their next chapter in Hollywood
Consider This from NPR
NPR
4.2 • 6.2K Ratings
🗓️ 16 April 2026
⏱️ 9 minutes
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Summary
Their growing presence on set has led to more demand for intimacy coordinator training programs. NPR visited one of those programs in downtown Los Angeles, and met an assistant director and a porn actor both training for the job.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's a recent Sunday in Los Angeles, and I'm watching an R-rated scene unfold in front of me. |
| 0:08.9 | Two people are writhing on a mattress, having fake sex. |
| 0:14.2 | Take one. |
| 0:16.0 | Action. |
| 0:17.1 | All right, we've got two actors on the bed. |
| 0:19.6 | One's on all fours. |
| 0:21.1 | The other is coming up from behind. |
| 0:24.3 | Now, these actors are fully clothed. |
| 0:26.5 | They're wearing face masks that cover their mouths when they kiss. |
| 0:30.2 | And then, after a few moments, they use their go-to word in this training session to pretend that they're climaxing. |
| 0:37.1 | Vocal. Vocal. Vocal. |
| 0:41.5 | Obviously, this is not a real film set. It's a simulated film set taping simulated sex. |
| 0:48.1 | We're at a training workshop for intimacy coordinators. These are people who choreograph |
| 0:53.0 | sex scenes. We're going to take your pants off seductively, and then you're going to take off your shirt seductively. |
| 1:00.0 | Intimacy coordinators make on-screen sex look more authentic, and they also help actors feel safer during filming. |
| 1:07.0 | Like right here, in this scene, there's actually a small, deflated Pilates ball between the two actors' pelvices to provide a barrier between them. |
| 1:15.2 | Part of the art here is to make sure that you don't see the artifice. |
| 1:20.6 | We could see through his legs and see the ball, but if you get up just a little bit, yeah, that's great. |
| 1:26.5 | After the Me Too movement took off in 2017, intimacy coordinators became prominent on sets |
| 1:32.8 | as one answer to Hollywood's problem with sexual harassment and abuse, |
| 1:38.2 | a problem that trainee Marta Gatz saw firsthand. |
| 1:42.0 | And of course, as a female, if I see another female who's 22, starting out |
... |
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