Beyond Sex Scenes: The Role of Intimacy Coordinators Has Expanded

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Amanda Cutting and Kathy Kadler tell TheWrap how they supported actresses in traumatic scenes on “Yellowjackets” and “The Night Agent”

Yellowjackets/The Night Agent
Yellowjackets (Showtime)/The Night Agent (Netflix)

Showrunners and filmmakers began bringing intimacy coordinators onto TV and film sets to ensure that performers felt safe and their boundaries respected while filming sex scenes. But as two top practitioners told TheWrap, the role has expanded to include any depiction of “heightened emotion,” including assaults, deaths and childbirth.

Kathy Kadler, who comes from a nursing background and has been an intimacy coordinator for three years, worked on both seasons of Showtime’s “Yellowjackets.” She found the cast relying on her more often in filming Season 2, in which characters dealt with a stillbirth, cannibalism, murder and dissociative breaks from reality.

Jasmin Savoy Brown, who plays Teen Taissa on the drama series, expressed how thankful she was to have an intimacy coordinator on set as an overall mental health resource.

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