Ruth Wilson wishes an intimacy coach had been used on “The Affair”.
The 40-year-old actress – who has launched attacks on the amount of nude shots she was required to film while playing Alison Bailey in the sex-filled drama opposite actor Dominic West, 52, who played her lover on the show – made the statement when asked for the new issue of “Radio Times” magazine if having one on set would have improved her experience.
She said: “Yes, I think so because people are uncomfortable talking about sex.
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“An intimacy co-ordinator can mediate between the actors and the director. If you just leave the actors to get on with it often the camera doesn’t get the right shot. At best it feels awkward and at worst …
“It’s important to have someone you can talk to about your concerns, your worries or limits, things you don’t want to show.”
Wilson – who last year recruited intimacy coach Ita O’Brien to consult on her film “True Things”, in which she starred and produced – has told “The Sunday Times” about filming her sex and nude scenes for the series: “Since #MeToo … intimacy coaches are really scientific about sex scenes.
“But before nothing would be said. It would be about making it up as you go along.
“No one wanted to discuss (nudity and sex scenes), so the actors were invariably left to create something on the day and that’s desperately awkward.
“It’s a horrible place to be.”
Wilson has also declared she thinks it is “unfair” women are expected to show their breasts while men are rarely asked to go full-frontal or show their “orgasm face”.
She told “The Edit”: “I kept insisting, ‘Why have I always got to do the orgasm face? There should be a male orgasm face. Why is it always the woman who’s orgasming? Let’s analyse the male orgasm’.”
Wilson added about the difficulty of making intimacy work on camera: “It’s hard to make good sex scenes work.
“There are so many c*** ones out there … women have to provide the titillation because penises can’t be seen on screen but breasts can.”
