Actresses Speak Out Against Sean Bean Denouncing Intimacy Coordinators

After learning about Sean Bean's stance on intimacy coordinators, many actresses voice why these roles are extremely important on set. 

Actor Sean Bean openly criticized intimacy coordinators recently, and many actresses, including Lena Hall, have a lot to say about his statement. 

Intimacy coordinators have become a vital role in Hollywood that help to create safe environments for the actors by asking what they are comfortable with and planning out a safe and consensual sex scene.   

The Dropout Emmy-nominated actor Amanda Seyfried wishes there were intimacy coordinators when she started her career. When reflecting on her career in an interview with Porter, the actress recalls feeling pressured to shoot nude scenes at a young age. 

“Being 19, walking around without my underwear on—like, are you kidding me? How did I let that happen?” Seyfried said. “Oh, I know why. I was 19 and I didn’t want to upset anybody, and I wanted to keep my job. That’s why.” 

After starring in her pivotal roles as Lilly Kane in Veronica Mars, Seyfried landed the role of Karen Smith in the pop-culture phenomenon Mean Girls. It was in this role that Seyfriend previously revealed that she felt “grossed out” by boys coming up to her and asking her for a weather forecast as her character could predict rain using her breasts.

“I was 18 years old. It was just gross,” she told Marie Claire earlier this year. 

Seyfried’s remark on the importance of intimacy coordinators comes after Game of Thrones actor Sean Bean said he was not a fan of intimacy coordinators because they “spoil the spontaneity” of an intimate scene between actors. Bean’s comments sparked disapproval across the board, including West Side Story star Rachel Zegler, who tweeted out that “spontaneity in intimate scenes can be unsafe. Wake up.” 

Other actors have spoken out against Bean’s comment. Jameela Jamil, who plays the villain in Marvel’s upcoming She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, replied to Bean’s remark about sex scenes as “experimental,” writing, “It should only be technical. It’s like a stunt. Our job as actors is to make it not look technical. Nobody wants an impromptu grope…” 

After the interviewer for the U.K.’s Time Magazine informed Bean that intimacy coordinators were a response to the revelations of the #MeToo movement to help actresses feel safe on set, Bean responded, “I suppose it depends on the actress. This one,” referring to his Snowpiercer co-star Lena Hall, “had a musical cabaret background, so she was up for anything.” 

Hall took to Twitter to reply, correcting two points made by Bean.

“Just because I am in theater (not cabaret, but I do perform them every once in a while) does not mean that I am up for anything,” Hall writes. 

Although she felt entirely comfortable with Bean during their intimate scene in Snowpiercer, she reiterates that she does not feel that intimacy coordinators are without purpose in the industry.

“BUT if there is any part of me that is feeling weird, gross, over exposed etc…I will either challenge the necessity of the scene or I’ll want an IC,” Hall writes. 

“I do feel that intimacy coordinators are a welcome addition to the set and think they could also help with the trauma experienced in other scenes. Sometimes you need them, sometimes you don’t but every single person and scene and experience is different,” Hall writes, ending her thoughts on the matter.

There has been a system at play that exploited young or inexperienced actors that many are trying to remove with the addition of intimacy coordinators.

“The role of intimacy coordinators greatly improves safety and well-being on sets and in productions requiring intimate scenes,” said Fran Drescher, the president of SAG-AFTRA. “Their value is immeasurable and the National Board is committed to bringing intimacy coordinators into the SAG-AFTRA family and ensuring they have the kind of benefits and protections other members already enjoy.”

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