On 17th January, ICDN hosted a workshop with Intimacy Coordinator Ita O’Brien for its members. ICDN’s Best Practice Casting Guidelines for Nudity and Sexual Content is based on Ita’s work, which is why we were thrilled to welcome her for an interesting and extremely useful discussion on the subject matter.
Ita has worked in the industry for almost 40 years, namely as a musical theatre dancer, actor and movement teacher, and since 2014 as an intimacy coordinator. She guides film crew and actors on scenes involving simulated sex, nudity, self-pleasure but also childbirth and parent and child relationships, focusing on rehearsals and choreographed scenes.
Recent credits include True Things (2022), The Pursuit of Love (2021), Behind Her Eyes (2021), I May Destroy You (2021) and Sex Education (2020).
In the world of casting, this means clearly breaking down any intimate content that might be required for each actor, having an intimacy coordinator from the get-go, and applying rules about nudity and intimacy for online and self-taped auditions, as well as all sessions taking place in-person.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank Ita for her guidance and time. ICDN’s Best Practice Casting Guidelines for Nudity and Sexual Content is available in 15 different languages and may be downloaded from our website in PDF format.
