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The film footage at the centre of Blake Lively’s high-profile legal row proves that intimacy coordination should be considered as necessary on set as organising stunts, leading consultants have said.
Lively filed a civil complaint against co-star and director Justin Baldoni just before Christmas, accusing him of sexual harassment during the filming of It Ends with Us – a romantic drama released last year. Baldoni denies the claims.
His legal team retaliated by releasing a video of the pair going through three takes of one scene in which the pair slow dance in a bar, which is alleged by Lively in her lawsuit to be an example of his inappropriate behaviour.
But while his lawyers claim the video exonerates him, Lively’s team said it further proved she felt uncomfortable in scenes that she said had not been choreographed.
Intimacy coordinators say the myriad allegations and counter-allegations show the importance of having a professional on set to mediate intense scenes with complicated power dynamics.
“Dancing can absolutely be intimate, and this shows having an intimacy coordinator on set should be a given,” Ita O’Brien, who pioneered the role, told the Guardian.
She added: “In the past, some people would go, ‘I do my own stunts. I don’t need a stunt coordinator’. Whereas today, if there’s a stunt or a fight, you have a stunt coordinator there to offer their skills. It should now be the same with intimacy coordinators.”
The video depicted Lively and Baldoni discussing how they spend time with their spouses and joking about the size of Baldoni’s nose. Baldoni’s team say it provides context to Lively’s allegation that Baldoni told her she smelt good, showing the comment to be in response to Lively talking about her spray tan.
But Lively’s legal team called the video “damning” and said it showed Baldoni repeatedly “attempting to kiss” her, “rubbing his face and mouth against her neck, flicking her lip with his thumb, caressing her … and talking with her out of character”.
They alleged every moment was improvised by Baldoni “with no discussion or consent in advance, and no intimacy coordinator present”.
On Thursday, Mia Schachter, an intimacy coordinator on Apple TV+’s Lessons in Chemistry and HBO’s Insecure, told the Hollywood Reporter she could see Lively trying to “appease” Baldoni and “keep a smile on her face”.
Arielle Zadok, an intimacy coordinator and sex educator, claimed it was clear the actors were “negotiating the scene in real time”, when an intimacy coordinator would have handled everything in advance.
She added: “This is an instance where I definitely would have had a conversation with Blake to check in on what I was picking up, ask the director for more clarity on the specific beats and make sure everyone was clear and confident prior to doing another take.”
Zadok said it was also important to note that “the inherent power dynamic between actor and director is glaringly obvious”.
O’Brien, who has worked on dozens of hit films and TV shows, said in general she urged actors “not to bring their personal and private life into their character’s physicality” because the two “should never be confused”.
Tommy Ross-Williams, chair of the Bectu trade union’s intimacy coordinators branch and intimacy coordinator on Sky Atlantic’s Sweetpea, said “many important lines are blurred” when actors try to negotiate the scope of an intimate scene while performing.
“The lines between what is happening in-character versus out, what are differences of creative vision versus expressions of personal boundaries, as well as the lack of distinction between when Mr Baldoni is acting as co-star to Ms Lively versus as the film’s writer/director (and her employer),” he said.
Asked how an intimacy coordinator would approach a romantic dance scene, O’Brien said: “It starts with reading the script and interrogating why the scene is in the story.
“From that conversation will emerge the physicality. We always invite the director to think about what they really want to capture. We gain agreement and consent for every beat – whether that’s fingers intertwining, a hand around the back of a neck, or fingers running through someone’s hair.”
The intimacy coaches interviewed acknowledged they were not physically present on set and are not privy to the full details or context of the controversy between Baldoni and Lively. They shared their views solely on viewing the footage.
