Kate Winslet Is Being Praised For Her “Refreshing” Comments On Why Intimacy Coordinators Are So Important

Along with supporting the actors, and often choreographing intimate scenes, it’s also the coordinator’s job to make sure that everyone on set feels comfortable and advocated for.

In 2020, SAG-AFTRA set new guidelines to help “normalize and encourage the use of intimacy coordinators in productions,” in order to ensure “the safety and security of SAG-AFTRA members while they work.”

“I would have benefited from an intimacy coordinator every single time I had to do a love scene or be partially naked or even a kissing scene,” she told the outlet. “It would have been nice to have had someone in my corner, because I always had to stand up for myself.”

“‘I don’t like that camera angle. I don’t want to stand here full-frontal nude. I don’t want this many people in the room. I want my dressing gown to be closer,’” she listed off. “Just little things like that.”

“When you’re young, you’re so afraid of pissing people off or coming across as rude or pathetic because you might need those things,” she said. “So learning to have a voice for oneself in those environments was very, very hard.”

During an interview with Variety in December, Jen revealed that she turned down an intimacy coordinator while shooting a sex scene with Jon Hamm on The Morning Show.

“They asked us if we wanted an intimacy coordinator. I’m from the olden days, so I was like, ‘What does that mean?’” she said, admitting she didn’t even understand what the purpose of the role was.

“They said, ‘Where someone asks you if you’re OK,’ and I’m like, ‘Please, this is awkward enough,’" she said. “We’re seasoned — we can figure this one out.”

“How sad that this is one of the first times I've ever read an actor talking positively about intimacy coordinators instead of shitting on their entire existence or asking some interviewer why they exist,” one person wrote on X.

“It's so refreshing seeing an actor of her caliber speak positively about intimacy coordinators. It is such a necessary role to have on your set to ensure your actor's (and crew!) safety and comfort,” echoed another user.

“More of this. It’s so, so important for actors to speak out about the benefit of having intimacy coordinators on set,” added someone else. “I’m glad that Kate Winslet — arguably a household name at this point in her career — said something about it.”

“it makes me feel so happy and relieved that actors today have access to intimacy coordinators for their safety and comfort but it also makes me really sad for older talents in the industry who never had that option and felt like they couldn’t speak up,” someone wrote in response to Kate’s interview quotes.

“I am truly happy that intimacy coordinators are now mandated on sets now,” added another. “It’s sad that she had to stand up for herself and no one else stood up for her before.”

“I felt like I had to look a certain way, or be a certain thing, and because media intrusion was so significant at that time, my life was quite unpleasant,” she told Porter.

She continued: “Journalists would always say, ‘After Titanic, you could have done anything, and yet you chose to do these small things. I was like, ‘Yeah, you bet your life I did! Because, guess what, being famous was horrible.’”