Sex scenes in TV, movies: Who looks out for the actors? An intimacy coordinator reveals what it takes

For stunts and fight scenes on camera, it's common practice to bring in a stunt coordinator to ensure everyone is safe and on the same the page. Until recently, there hasn't been the same kind of protection for actors performing nudity or sex scenes. That is quickly changing, though. Last month, HBO announced that it will be hiring intimacy coordinators for all of its projects going forward.

That's a smart move for a cable network that has several shows in its current rotation that feature explicit scenes in which an intimacy coordinator will be useful, including "Westworld." During its first season, actors raised concern about an orgy scene that asked them to sign a consent form agreeing to stipulations such as: "May be required to perform genital-to-genital touching, simulate oral sex with hand-to-genital touching, contort to form a table-like shape while being fully nude, pose on all fours while others who are fully nude ride on your back, (and) ride on someone's back while you are both fully nude."

Obtaining consent and keeping actors out of danger haven't always been priorities on film and TV sets, and the examples are numerous. Some filmmakers have been known to put their actors in compromising situations to generate "real" reactions. Bernardo Bertolucci, director of 1972's "The Last Tango in Paris," staged a rape scene in that film without star Maria Schneider's consent.

But with an intimacy coordinator, actors finally have an advocate setting down the ground rules and looking out for their physical and emotional well-being.

The second season of HBO's "The Deuce" just concluded, and the show's very subject matter - sex work and the adult film industry in New York City during the 1970s - is what prompted one of its stars, Emily Meade, to request the network hire Alicia Rodis, one of the co-founders of the New York nonprofit Intimacy Directors International, to work on the show.

Going forward, Rodis is helping HBO staff up its other projects.

So what does an intimacy coordinator actually do? I talked with Rodis about the job and what has surprised even her. The following is an edited transcript.

Q: How did you originally come up with the idea for an intimacy coordinator?

A: I'm trained as an actor, and I've worked as a movement director choreographing fight scenes and also as a stunt performer. A