HBO will now have an intimacy coordinator working on all its movies and TV series

Rolling Stone

Alicia Rodis became HBO's first-ever intimacy coordinator when she was hired to work on The Deuce's second season in wake of the #MeToo movement. "Following suit, HBO has now adopted a policy whereby all of its shows and movies with intimate scenes will be staffed with an intimacy coordinator — either Rodis or someone like her," reports Breena Kerr. "Along with her work on The Deuce, Rodis is already overseeing the sets of Crashing, the upcoming Damon Lindelof-helmed Watchmen series and Deadwood (the movie); she is training other intimacy coordinators to work on Jett, about a female ex-con, and Euphoria, a coming-of-age series about high school kids." The intimacy coordinator position on The Deuce wasn't initiated by creator David Simon, but by actress Emily Meade. "The previous winter, amid the roiling outcry about sexual assault and rape culture — especially in Hollywood — Meade had gone to HBO executives and demanded change," says Kerr. "She needed some kind of advocate on the set, someone to help her when she had a sex scene to film." That's how HBO found Rodis through her Intimacy Directors International nonprofit, which helps to set up standards and practices for on-set sex scenes.