Intimacy coordinators weigh in on 'It Ends With Us' furore

Professionals examine legal evidence released by Baldoni's team

In an interview with the Guardian, intimacy coordinators shared their insights on the legal battle between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, specifically with reference to the on-set footage released by Baldoni's team on January 21. The footage, depicting the two intimately slow-dancing for a scene, comes after Lively filed a complaint alleging her It Ends with Us co-star of sexual harassment.

"Dancing can absolutely be intimate, and having an intimacy coordinator on set should be a given," noted British intimacy coordinator Ita O'Brien. "In the past, some people would go, 'I do my own stunts. I don't need a stunt coordinator'. Whereas today, if there's a stunt or a fight, you have a stunt coordinator there to offer their skills. It should now be the same with intimacy coordinators."

O'Brien's comments raise important concerns regarding needing a mediator on set to ensure a comfortable flow of filming. While Baldoni's team claimed that the video absolved him of the allegations, Lively's team asserted that the video was evidence that she did not feel comfortable during takes that had not been already rehearsed.

The team further argued that Baldoni persistently attempted physical contact, labelling the video "damning". They claimed that he was behind every improvisation and "with no discussion or consent in advance, and no intimacy coordinator present".

Earlier, intimacy coordinator Mia Schachter, who worked on the Apple TV+ offering Lessons in Chemistry and the HBO series Insecure, shared her observations of the footage with The Hollywood Reporter. "The first thing is that he is trying to kiss her, and they clearly haven't discussed that ahead of time, and she keeps pulling away and clearly doesn't want to do that," Schachter said.

Schachter also argued that even if intimacy coordinators are credited for their involvement in the film, it "doesn't surprise me at all that they wouldn't have had an intimacy coordinator present for this scene".

According to Schachter, the reason for the lack of intimacy coordinators in this particular instance was that the scene was not meant to be explicit in the first place.

"There's not even kissing written into the scene. We saw that from that script excerpt," she revealed. "An intimacy coordinator would have been very clear: 'We're not doing any kissing. This is the kind of touch that is on the table. Nothing else is, we're not going to bring anything into the scene that we haven't discussed prior.'"

Another professional, Arielle Zadok, weighed in by suggesting that the scene was being negotiated in real time, whereas an intimacy coordinator would have discussed everything beforehand. "This is an instance where I definitely would have had a conversation with Blake to check in on what I was picking up, ask the director for more clarity on the specific beats and make sure everyone was clear and confident prior to doing another take," she said.

Zadok also shed light on the power dynamics that divided the two actors, adding that the difference between Lively's position as an actor and Baldoni's position as a director is "glaringly obvious".

Tommy Ross-Williams, the chair of the Bectu trade union's intimacy coordinators branch, supplemented the argument by saying, "The lines between what is happening in-character versus out, what are differences of creative vision versus expressions of personal boundaries, as well as the lack of distinction between when Mr Baldoni is acting as co-star to Ms Lively versus as the film's writer/director (and her employer)."