Mikey Madison Refused Intimacy Coordinator on ‘Anora' to Preserve “Authenticity" of Sex Scenes

Mikey Madison has sparked a debate for her comments about not using an intimacy coordinator when making “Anora.”

In a recent chat on Variety’s “Actors on Actors” series, Pamela Anderson asked Madison if she and the rest of the cast worked with an intimacy coordinator while filming the sex scenes on “Anora,” adding that it’s “the big thing these days”.

Madison said that she declined the offer, explaining: “The filmmakers offered me, if I wanted, an intimacy coordinator. [But] Mark Eydelshteyn, who plays Ivan, and I decided it would be best to just keep it small.

“My character is a sex worker, and I had seen Sean’s films and know his dedication to authenticity. I was ready for it. As an actress, I approached it as a job.”

Of course, online backlash has ensued because of these comments. There seem to be many out there who believe that intimacy coordinators should be present on every set. According to them, it doesn’t matter if Madison said it was her choice to have an intimacy coordinator.

The recent phenomenon of on-set “intimacy coordinators” has not been adopted by everyone. It really depends on the studio, directors, producers and/or actors involved.

If you’re unaware, intimacy coordinators review scripts, facilitate group discussions about the sex scenes and meet individually with the actors. It’s all about clarifying the personal boundaries one may have for any given scene. They, more or less, turn into directors for certain scenes.

There has been a very slight pushback against intimacy coordinators. Not many are willing to call them out, and for good reason, just look at what’s happened to Madison. Some of the names who have come out against the protocol include Gaspar Noe, Mia Hansen-Løve, Toni Collette, Jennifer Aniston and Michael Douglas. Not many more.

Hansen-Løve went as far as to call ICs the “virtue police.” Noe bluntly stated, “that doesn’t exist in France.” Whereas, Collette admitted she tells them to “leave the set.”

It comes down to this: what’s helpful to one person might not always be helpful to the next. In the post-MeToo era, public discourse around consent has changed a lot of on-set behaviors. As film writer Eric Kohn noted last year, “everyone’s so focused about what they can or can’t ask people to do that they stop asking them to do much at all.”

More amusingly, in a recent THR piece, titled The Case for an Oscar for Best Intimacy Coordinator, intimacy coordinator Mam Smith, and “sex-positive” erotic filmmaker Erika Lust tried to make the case for professional recognition of ICs, including nominations at the Oscars, Golden Globes, and Emmys.