Stars’ Candid Quotes About Working With Intimacy Coordinators

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Florence Pugh

While appearing on a November 2025 episode of the “Louis Theroux” podcast, Pugh shared her complex thoughts on the use of intimacy coordinators in film. 

“They’re the people who can make sure that the acting of the intimate scenes goes well, goes smoothly for everyone, and that people are safe. It’s not to get in the way,” she explained of the job. “It’s not to confuse, it’s not to make things more complicated or make things more awkward. I’ve had good ones and bad ones.”

Pugh noted that she’d done “a lot” of sex scenes before intimacy coordinator was even a proper job and has always been “quite confident” and  “able to make sure that I’m heard.” 

“That being said, even though I know that I believe that, and even though I know that I felt that at the time, there are plenty of things that I remember where it was just completely inappropriate to have asked me to do that, to have directed me in that way,” she noted. 

She also added that her viewpoint on intimacy coordination is “changing,” as she’s had some “fantastic” experiences and others where someone “just made it so weird and so awkward” on set that it “really wasn’t helpful.” 

“I think it’s a job that’s still figuring itself out,” she continued. “I will say that I’ve been able to understand better meaning now through working with great ones in sex scenes, finding the story of what it is, what kind of sex is it, how do you touch each other, how long have you been having sex for? 

Everybody’s just kind of working away to chip away at the scene. And I think when I worked with a fantastic coordinator, I was like, ‘Oh, this is what I’ve been missing, understanding the dance of intimacy as opposed to just shooting a sex scene.’ There are good ones and bad ones, and it’s through the good ones that I have learned how effective it can really be.”