Normal might look different for a while, even in Hollywood.
The coronavirus pandemic will affect our society for a long while yet, especially when it comes to our health and how to preserve it. And in Hollywood, that might mean fewer sex scenes.
“One of my fellow coordinator friends joked the other day we are going back to the 1920s, when there was censorship,” said Hollywood Intimacy Coordinator Amanda Blumenthal, who told the Daily Mail that producers and screenwriters might remove sex scenes entirely to avoid dealing with the potential health hazard. It simply wouldn’t be “safe” to force actors and actresses into the kind of proximity those shots require, she said.
“No company wants to put anyone at risk — not just for humanitarian reasons, but also for liability, too,” said a top agent at United Talent Agency, who asked not to be named, according to the Daily Mail. “For actors, a romantic or love scene in a script is a red flag at this time. Even if we get an all-clear, lip or body contact in any scene is causing huge concern.”
So, the directors will need to get creative. And in this case, creativity could mean returning to older filming styles, in which overt sex scenes were discouraged and sexual encounters were implied, not shown. This isn’t ideal for most directors, Blumenthal said, but a conservative approach to filming is better than nothing at all. And right now, that’s the choice Hollywood is facing.
“Nothing is being made right now,” Blumenthal said. “And there is a huge demand for content. This would be a way to push [filming] through quickly.”
Directors might bemoan the lack of physicality — because, well, sex does sell — but the trend toward respectful television has been a long time coming. If anything, the coronavirus has solidified preexisting concerns many actors and actresses have had about the way Hollywood conducts itself, Blumenthal explained.
“Even before the pandemic hit, there were actors asking for changes to scenes,” she said.
Back in January, the Screen Actors Guild released new guidelines advising productions to set a clear list of do’s and don’ts in regards to sex scenes to protect the privacy and dignity of actors and actresses better. These guidelines were written in response to the #MeToo movement, but the coronavirus has made them even more important. Sex scenes are no longer just a privacy problem; they’re a health hazard, too. And now, Hollywood has no choice but to change.
If only that change hadn’t required a global pandemic …
