Emma Thompson has defended the use of intimacy co-ordinators on film and TV sets following Sean Bean’s criticism.

The Game of Thrones actor hit headlines earlier this week when he told The Times that the coordinators, who support actors during intimate scenes, “spoil the spontaneity” of filming a sex sequence and reduce the experience “down to a technical exercise”.

Thompson was asked about his comments while promoting her new movie Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, in which her character hires a sex worker, and she insisted coordinators are “fantastically important”.

Speaking to Australian radio’s Fitzy & Wippa, the British star added, “You might find that people go, ‘It made me feel comfortable, it made me feel safe, it made me feel as though I was able to do this work.’ So, intimacy coordinators are the most fantastic (addition) in our work.

“And no, you can’t just let it flow. There’s a camera there and a crew, you’re not on your own in a hotel room, you’re surrounded by a bunch of blokes, mostly. It’s not a comfortable situation, full stop.”

She concluded with a zinger aimed at Bean, joking, “I don’t know who the actor was, but maybe he had an intimacy coordinator accidentally at home.”

Thompson isn’t the only actress to respond to his remarks. Earlier this week, Rachel Zegler tweeted that the coordinators “establish an environment of safety for actors” and “spontaneity in intimate scenes can be unsafe”, while Jameela Jamil insisted that sex scenes should be “technical” because “nobody wants an impromptu grope”.

Bean named his Snowpiercer co-star Lena Hall in his interview with The Times, saying she was “up for anything”. Hall denied that was true and she will use an intimacy coordinator “if there is any part of me that is feeling weird, gross, overexposed etc”.

– Cover Media