Babygirl director credits intimacy coordinators with helping create film’s ‘more extreme sex scenes’
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Halina Reijn says intimacy coordinator is not just for actors but also for safety of other crew. Babygirl director Halina Reijn has highlighted the importance of having intimacy coordinators on set during filming. Babygirl follows a powerful CEO who jeopardises her career and family life by having an affair with a younger intern.
![[Antonio Banderas and Nicole Kidman in Babygirl]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/23/21/Film_Review_-_Babygirl_82824.jpg)
Nicole Kidman, 58, stars alongside Antonio Banderas, 64, who plays her husband, and The Iron Claw star Harris Dickinson, 28, who is cast as the employee that turns her life upside down. In a new interview, Reijn talked about how working with veteran intimacy coordinator Lizzy Talbot, who worked on It Ends with Us and Bridgerton, helped create some of the “way more risky” sex scenes in the film.
![[Halina Reijn, left, and Nicole Kidman on the set of Babygirl]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/23/21/Film_Review_-_Babygirl_68195.jpg)
“I’m also against people who are saying, ‘No, my actors didn’t want an intimacy coordinator.’ That makes no sense. It is also for your safety as a director and for everyone. What if there is a misunderstanding? It’s just amazing to have a person like that on set. And if you are creative and talented enough of a director, you can pull it off. Trust me.
“You just have to go a little bit through your own discomfort and then you will discover a whole new world of creativity and possibilities.”. Intimacy coordinators help actors feel safe while performing scenes in which they are required to be nude or have close physical contact. They ensure that each actor’s boundaries are met and there’s a “closed set” for particularly intimate or challenging nude scenes.
