UK Directors Suggest COVID-Era Sex Scenes Be Shot Using Real-Life Partners As Body Doubles?

Directors UK, the British organization representing 7500 directors, just published updated guidelines for nudity and sex scenes in the pandemic era. Their suggestion for safe and virus-free movie sex during the COVID-era? Use body doubles of real-life partners engaging in intimate acts.

“The director, writer, and producer should review the script together and agree which physical interactions need to occur between performers and decide whether substitutions can be made. Does a physical act need to be shown? If working within a series format, can the intimacy be delayed? The build-up to an intimate scene can sometimes be more exciting than the scene itself” and that “emotional intimacy can be as engaging as physical intimacy.”

Is this really necessary if both actors tested negative for COVID? Having two negative actors in a sex scene; or two "real-life" partners in a sex scene doesn't really change the overall chance of spreading COVID, right? Or is the UK severely lacking in testing capabilities when compared to the United States? Sure, there’s always the potential of false negatives, but the odds are quite slim.

Also, why is Directors UK worried about transmission during a sex scene when, presumably, the two actors are going to be spending days, weeks, maybe even months, filming scenes in close contact with each other? You might question whether such pandemic-era compromises could diminish the integrity of a film, and you may be right, but, truth be told, COVID-19 has drastically changed the concept of how a film set looks like.