She's made it her mission to make sex scenes safer for actors. Meet Ita O'Brien, the intimacy coordinator on Netflix's "Sex Education."
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00:00We sort of look up and you know finding the body mark of a hip bone and then down onto the thigh
00:04will it get the actor to go you can touch me there and this air is out of bounds really important.
00:21You have discovered the wonders of your own penis my friend it's normal. It's not normal
00:27Last night I looked at some cheese and I got an erection. What's what's so fantastic about sex
00:31education is it's telling the reality that sex isn't always beautiful and run smoothly.
00:37Most of the time it's awkward and especially for young teenagers who are finding their way it's
00:41awkward. Everybody does sex so we don't there's not a specialist that we need but of course we
00:54know if there's a physical choreography of a dance you're going to need someone to choreograph it.
00:58There's a physical choreography of a fight you know you need to take care there's a risk
01:02and so you're going to choreograph it and of course the risk is with the intimate content
01:07it's your personal and private intimate body is at play and there's a risk if that's handled or
01:11dealt with in a way that's not suitable for you. So yeah so I was able to go actually we need a
01:17skill you know you have all the talking going on and then it releases into the physical content
01:20it's a physical dance and that needs choreographing and taking care and giving a clear structure.
01:38Part of what we do as the intimacy coordinators is inviting that open communication and transparency
01:44and that has to start from the get-go. Having everybody understanding what's wanted from that
01:48scene happens way before we even get to set. We'll check in with the director check out what
01:53their vision is then we'll check in with the actors find out what their vulnerabilities are
01:57what they're concerned about then we'll go to wardrobe we'll sort of make sure that the
02:01different genitalia patches and modesty clothing is prepared. If I haven't worked with that first AD
02:06before I'll speak to the first AD to make sure that we're going to work really together holding
02:10a really safe and respectful closed set. What do you mean like having casual sex? Otis. So there's the
02:17masturbation scene where the characters of Otis and Ola and so character of Otis has learned
02:25the technique that he feels and so he's trying to put that in practice. What I always do
02:31is break down the scene into beats so this you know so this section is one beat then the next
02:36section is the second beat and you know because there's very there's the journey the storytelling
02:41you know from somebody being excited and then someone being nervous and into the action of it
02:45and then disappointment and not knowing how to handle it and you know then saying okay we'll
02:49stop so all that journey we're charting so there's a really clear journey and then we're checking out
02:55touch I'm checking out with both actors where's happy for you to be touched where's out of bounds
02:59particularly with the idea of wanting to tell we want the physicality to tell the storytelling
03:05but we want to make sure the actors aren't compromised and where they're touched so we
03:09look at how how can we cheat it so we're looking at sort of the you know running a little finger
03:13down we sort of look up and you know finding the body mark of a hip bone and then down onto the
03:18thigh will it get the actor to go you can touch me there and this air is out of bounds really
03:24important and then with that then we'll choreograph it clearly so I look into your eyes you know we
03:28have a kiss I bring my hand down under your under your trousers carrying on down and then into the
03:35choreography and then sort of so into that moment of masturbation. Animal rhythms is another tool
03:43that we can use it as an actor many actors in their training do animal studies and so that's
03:48what you're using and it's so useful because if you look up so I get the actors to explore
03:54different animal rhythms mating and it helps you feel oh you know perhaps a dog breathy and quick
04:00there's quite a young person you know perhaps someone who's a bit more older and embodied
04:04the gorilla type feeling and it just helps you to just stretch the the actor's tool bag of
04:12possibilities so with that masturbation scene with Amy Liu in series one it's even more important
04:20when you have someone doing you know self-masturbation to help them not feel that
04:25they're exposing themselves so we pretty much went through all the different animals and it
04:30helped Amy Liu to really have something to anchor her to have a really embodied quality as as this
04:36character explored you know what the different you know kinds of masturbation can give her
04:42right the way through to orgasm and I've been you know we knew that that scene was going to
04:46be really important you know that it was a really liberating you know piece of art to be out in the
04:53world and and it has been I've met with Amy Liu last year and she was saying that she gets like
04:58hundreds of texts every day saying thank you for that scene.
05:10I do feel so proud of um of you know this work coming into the industry and the ripple effects
05:16that it has um and what's important is that it's it's just empowering for everyone and it allows
05:23everyone to work professionally so nobody would dream of just just grabbing someone and doing a
05:28kiss you know you check out touch and again once you get used to it once it becomes inherent and
05:33ingrained and just part of the industry it takes a moment it doesn't have to slow things up but
05:37it's just a shift and it's just about um you know agreement and consent and working with respect
05:44and helping us all be professional to make the best work so that's what I want.
05:47I think I just had a very small orgasm.
05:53you