‘Really Precarious and Vulnerable Situations’: Olivia Cooke on Why Actors Need Intimacy Coordinators for Sex Scenes

House of the Dragon star Olivia Cooke is making it clear intimacy coordinators aren’t a burden— they’re a safeguard. And anyone calling actors “difficult” for requesting one clearly hasn’t thought it through.

The British actress, best known for playing Alicent Hightower in the HBO spinoff, recently spoke to The i Paper about what makes a good intimacy coordinator—the liaison between actors and production when it comes to nude and sex scenes. Cooke says their role is crucial, especially since actors are often put in “really precarious and vulnerable situations.”

“[The inevitable embarrassment is amplified for] those who are just starting out and don’t have the vocabulary to say what they’re not comfortable with,” she explained. “And for women, who’ll often get labelled ‘difficult’ or ‘a bitch’ for speaking up, a [good intimacy coordinator] will sense hesitation and become your voice.”

For Cooke, intimate scenes are vital in reflecting human experience in tv and film, but they don’t need to come at the expense of an actor’s wellbeing.

“It’s amazing to me that people had to just fudge their way through those scenes before those people existed," she said. 

Still, not everyone in Hollywood is sold on them. Some actors and directors see intimacy coordinators as unnecessary interference. Anora star Mikey Madison skipped having one while portraying a sex worker in that film. Kim Basinger once dismissed the profession as “supervised visits.” And Gwyneth Paltrow recently said that she and Timothée Chalamet told their coordinator to “move aside” while shooting scenes for their upcoming film Marty Supreme.

Cooke also spoke about using the other kind of coordinator—a stunt one.

“I had to slap Tom Glynn-Carney in House of the Dragon,” she said. “He said: ‘Do it for real!’ I wasn’t sure, but the stunt coordinator told me ‘It’s fine if he wants you to do it’… and then… I walloped him!” 

Cooke says she made Glynn-Carney cry.

“That was the reaction that he’d wanted for the cameras," she explained. “But I felt awful. It was hideous. I’ve always felt sick and wanted to cry after doing any stunt work like that.”