Yahoo Movies Normal People stars felt "free" while filming sex scenes thanks to intimacy coordinator
Normal People star Daisy Edgar-Jones has revealed that she and co-star Paul Mescal were very comfortable filming intimate scenes together for the drama because their work with an intimacy coordinator made them feel "free".
Daisy and Paul's characters – Marianne Sheridan and Connell Waldron – share a turbulent relationship in the BBC / Hulu co-production and the actors had to film a number of sex scenes together.
Daisy has told Vanity Fair that she and her co-star worked closely with Ita O'Brien, who is an expert in working on intimate scenes, and said that she feels more shows would benefit from hiring somebody like her.
Related: Normal People is a masterclass in nudity on screen
"It was an amazing process. I can't believe that it's not been the norm for a very long time because it feels like I don't know how else you would go about doing those scenes," she said. "They are integral to telling the story of a relationship between two people as they grow up. The physical side of things is an incredibly important part of that."
She added that she and Paul worked with Ita to determine what they were each comfortable with doing and said that this had made them feel "more free" when it came to acting out the love scenes.
"We discussed at length with her what exactly we were trying to communicate with each moment," she said. "We would discuss what each other was comfortable with day to day so you never felt like you were going to overstep anybody's boundaries. Weirdly, we were kind of more free, because of the structure that was put in place.
"Strangely, those scenes were some of the least challenging once you kind of got the first few under your belt. You knew exactly what you were doing... so there wasn't much room for nuance."
Related: Normal People season 2 – Is it happening?
Daisy has previously said that Normal People's sex scenes are "one of the things [she's] most proud of in the whole series", praising the show for creating a sense of equality between the two actors and characters.
Her co-star Paul has also said that he is "incredibly proud" of the love scenes, saying that he has been surprised to hear that there had been some backlash.
"My own perspective of it is we worked hard to make it feel like it was a real, accurate and truthful representation of sex amongst young people," he said. "It's something I'm incredibly proud of and incredibly proud to see on Irish screens, personally."
Normal People recently returned to screens for two new Comic Relief specials in Ireland, which gave us a glimpse into what Connell and Marianne might be doing 40 years down the line.
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