Mikey Madison has revealed she turned down the offer to work with an intimacy coordinator in her latest film Anora.
The Once Upon A Time In Hollywood star has received a wave of praise for her performance in Sean Baker’s comedy-drama, and has been heavily tipped to win an Oscar after securing her first Golden Globe nomination earlier this month.
During an interview with Pamela Anderson for Variety’s Actors On Actors series, Mikey opened up about the preparation that went into portraying her character, who is a pole dancer and sex worker.
“It was a character that felt so far away from home in every single way,” she explained. “It was very intimidating at first – ‘how do I empathise with her?’. I was like, ‘I just need to start small’.”
Mikey continued: “I did quite a bit of pole training. I did this stripper boot camp where I was taught how to give lap dances, how to twerk. And I would know everything about her – what cigarettes she smokes, what her school life was like.”
Pamela then asked if Mikey and her co-stars worked with an intimacy coordinator on the show’s more sexual scenes, as that’s “the big thing these days”.
“For our film, it was a choice that I made,” she responded. “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.”
Since the rise of the Me Too movement in Hollywood, a number of major productions have begun employing intimacy coordinators in a move to make actors feel more comfortable while shooting sexual and otherwise intimate scenes.
Bridgerton, I May Destroy You, Sex Education and the Game Of Thrones spin-off House Of The Dragon were among the first prolific TV shows to make use of intimacy coordinators, though not everyone is such a fan.
Oscar nominee Toni Collette admitted she has asked intimacy coordinators to leave film sets before as they were making her more anxious.
The role has been defended by stars like Emma Thompson, while Kate Winslet has admitted she wished they were more prevalent earlier in her career.
