Mikey Madison’s choice to not have an intimacy coordinator for ‘Anora’ is hard to defend

For the entertainment industry, with horror stories of actors’ experiences of filming sex scenes, the arrival of intimacy coordinators on set has been life-altering. So when Anora actress Mikey Madison recently revealed why she chose to not have one for the film, her explanation didn’t go down well with fans. And for good reason, because it’s a choice that’s hard to defend.

For Variety’s Actors on Actors, Madison was paired with Pamela Anderson, who has been receiving rave reviews and Oscar buzz for her performance in The Last Showgirl. When talking about prep for their respective roles, Anderson asked Madison if she had an intimacy coordinator because “… that’s the big thing these days, right?” To this, Madison revealed that they didn’t, and that filmmaker Sean Baker offered her the choice to get one but she chose not to.

Madison then goes on to to elaborate how she and co-actor Mark Eydelshteyn (Ivan ‘Vanya’ Zakharov) decided to keep it small and quick on the set when filming the intimate scenes, which she said Baker would refer to as “less sex scenes, more sex shots.” So instead of an intimacy coordinator or choreographer, it was just Baker and his producing partner and wife, Samantha Quan figuring out the choreography of those scenes with the actors. 

Finally, the actress explained that having watched Baker’s dedication to authenticity in his previous work, and since her character was a sex worker who uses her nudity as a costume, she wanted it to feel authentic and was prepared for it. 

In the aftermath of the interview, many users on X were quick to call out Mikey Madison for “defending” her choice. Some even thought it insensitive of her to justify it before someone like Pamela Anderson, who has been vocal about the exploitation of her consent. Anderson not only was the victim of a sex tape leak, but also, years later, the traumatising incident became the subject of a mini series called Pam and Tommy, made without her consent.

But let’s take a moment to analyse Madison’s statement and the criticism. Making this about blaming her is clearly misguided. Because as several others pointed out, hiring an intimacy coordinator on a film set shouldn’t even be ‘a choice’ offered to actors at this point. It should be a mandatory practice—just like having stunt coordinators and first aid on set is—and any negligence ought to be a legal liability on the makers of the film, as it is their responsibility to ensure a safe set.

There have been enough and more instance of actors feeling uncomfortable with nudity or even being blindsided by a scene becoming more explicit during the shoot than what was consented to by them in the script. For actresses, and newbie actress in particular, the power balance is already skewed on set, and they aren’t always able to vocalise their discomfort or doubts about sexually explicit scenes. If they’re doing one for the first time, they would obviously not be aware of the tips and tricks, and different prosthetics that can be used or camera angles that would protect their bodies from being shown in an unflattering angle.

In fact, earlier in the year, actor Kate Winslet told The New York Times how much having an intimacy coordinator on set would’ve benefitted her. She said, “I would have benefited from an intimacy coordinator every single time I had to do a love scene or be partially naked or even a kissing scene. It would have been nice to have had someone in my corner, because I always had to stand up for myself.”

An intimacy professional’s scope of work is includes ensuring crowd control during the shoots to avoid unnecessary people on set, offering education and counselling, and even suggesting the right resources, prosthetics, and camera angles to protect the actors. More importantly, they aren’t just for the lead cast; they’re a resource for everyone who is involved in filming an intimate scene, even directors who might need guidance.

It’s great that Mikey Madison had a safe and “positive” experience filming the sex scenes in Anora. But not everyone has the same kind of power as a lead actor on a set, and therefore, not everyone can be guaranteed the same safety and comfort. Apart from Madison’s Ani, the film featured several supporting characters and extras in the nightclub scenes, who could’ve required the assistance of a professional. Were they offered the same choice? Did they feel just as safe?

Moreover, the bigger point to think about is what message do we want to send out when one of the most acclaimed films of the year is revealed to be one that considered intimacy coordinators a detriment to an authentic performance?

This perspective is more common than you’d think. Back in 2022, Game of Thrones actors Sean Bean had sparked backlash when he said in an interview that intimacy coordinators “spoil the spontaneity” of shooting a sex scene before of all the directions making it a technical exercise and ruin the natural way lovers would behave in a scene like that. A bunch of actresses, including Rachel Zegler, had criticised his comments, and pointed out that spontaneity in sex scenes can be unsafe.

Are we undoing the little progress we’ve made by suggesting that it is okay if the safety of actors is compromised for authenticity? Would we ever allow such negligence for a stunt sequence or a complex dance choreography? I mean, Tom Cruise is pretty athletic and risk-aware; should his film sets then completely forego stunt coordinators and doubles because that would make his Mission: Impossible stunts feel inauthentic?

Echoing this sentiment, and perhaps in the light of this ongoing discourse, even Midnight Mass actor Rahul Kohli felt it imperative to put forth just how much of a non-negotiable an intimacy coordinator should be on set, and how it shouldn’t be a choice but a mandatory provision.

Keeping in mind existing cases, and in light of newer ones—like Blake Lively’s recent sexual harassment allegations against her director and co-star Justin Baldoni during the shoot of It Ends With Us— it is hard to defend Mikey Madison’s choice to not have an intimacy coordinator on set because it sets a wrong precedent for an industry that is still in the nascent stage of course correcting after the #MeToo movement. For anyone with the intent to exploit, one loophole is all it takes.

At this point, an intimacy coordinator shouldn’t be a choice but an absolute obligation on film sets.