If you’ve ever sat through an embarrassingly steamy sex scene with your parents, your thanks should go to Vanessa Coffey. As an Intimacy Coordinator, she has worked on the likes of Outlander, Wednesday, and House of The Dragon. Yet it’s only in the last few years that her role has even appeared in the credits.
“We’ve got stunt coordinators who oversee fight sequences on set and equally an intimacy coordinator will oversee at any moment of intimacy. Everything from kissing, right through to simulated sex and nudity,” Vanessa explained.
In some ways, the role of an intimacy coordinator is the most collaborative on set. From organising modesty garments with costuming to discussing the artistic vision with the director. It requires a keen eye for the smaller details, and an ability to read between the lines.
Vanessa continued: “[The text] will inform who’s on top, who leads, who starts the kiss, what the kiss looks like. If somebody is demonstrating control over someone else, they might actually end up taking them with both hands by the face and pulling them in tight.
“That is going to tell one story versus hands that are very evenly placed on one another’s backs or hands that are travelling from one person when the other person’s hands are not travelling. All those seemingly small things tell a big story.”
Originally a corporate lawyer from Australia, Vanessa moved to Glasgow to retrain as an actor, eventually becoming a lecturer at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Her wide experience allows her to emphasise with what is being asked of the actors when filming intimate scenes.
“Half the time it’s about saying it and being forced to think about it. Otherwise, you are just in your personal body kissing somebody else because nobody has said, “Hey, what do we think this kiss is for this character?”. Instead, it’s just how are you, Vanessa, going to kiss this other person? Which is not a great place to be in,” Vanessa told Brig.
This is what makes Vanessa one of the leading practitioners in her field. It’s not about the awards, the scale of the production, or the big names she gets to work with. It’s about creating an open dialogue that allows safety within artistic expression.
Before saying goodbye, Vanessa explained: “I’m really proud of every scene. Sometimes it might be because it’s two actors who are fresh out of drama school and who have never kissed anybody on screen before and they really wanted that support.
“They’re really proud of what they achieved during the scene because of the scaffolding that was put in place around them that allowed that to happen. So, you might have that at one end of the spectrum.
“And then for me, some of the scenes I’m really proud of have been multiparty sex scenes where I’ve got a field, quite literally, of people who are in various states of undress. Several of whom are simulating sex in different tents, and [I am] having to walk through and make sure all of that has been coordinated appropriately. I’ll watch both of those scenes and feel proud of them for different reasons.”
Featured Image credit: Vanessa Coffey via Harper’s Bazaar.