“It’s not glamorous at all,” she said, laughing.
Talbot was one of the first in her field to work on sets in the UK and is the founder and director of Intimacy for Stage and Screen (formally IDI-UK).
Talbot actually started in the business coordinating fight scenes and started researching intimacy coordination in 2015, more than a decade after intimacy coordinator Tonia Sina started working in the area of actors and physical touch on stage and on screen.
In a recent interview with CNN, Talbot said that when it came to his work choreographing fights, there were many rules, regulations and protocols.
“And yet, when it came to intimacy, there was no [rules and protocols initially]”, she said.” It was really interesting to see the dynamic between the fact that there were all these rules and regulations for violence and none for intimacy yet. “
Many people assume that sex scenes are natural for actors, she said, but that is not always the case.
“One of the misconceptions is that, as many people have experienced intimacy in their personal lives, it is assumed that you can replicate that to the public, which are two very different things,” explained Talbot.
Talbot works with actors to determine their limits during sex scenes and there is an “intimacy driver” who explains exactly what an actor is willing to do in a scene.
“With the concept of consent that we work with, of course, if there is something that, at any point, someone says, ‘Oh, you know, I don’t want to do that’, they will never do it,” she said. “And it’s also my job to step in front of any director or producer and be like, ‘Hey, you know, they don’t feel comfortable with that.’ I was very lucky to work with great directors and producers, so it never happened. “
Phoebe Dynevor stars as Daphne Bridgerton in the popular Netflix series and the graphic sex scene mentioned above was the first she shot.
“It’s crazy for me that [an intimacy coordinator] I haven’t been there in the past, “said Dynevor.” I’ve done sex scenes before that I can’t believe I did: it was only five or six years ago, but it wouldn’t be allowed now. “
Talbot said he saw his field take on greater importance in the #MeToo movement, with a greater focus on respect and consent on sets.
“That’s one of the things, the functions that our job can fulfill are to set expectations so that you don’t have that strange moment of someone assuming it’s a 10 and someone assuming it’s an intensity [of a scene]”, she said.” It is making sure that we are all agreeing on the same page. ”