Julia Roberts leaves people divided as she reveals surprising details behind intimate scene with Andrew Garfield

Julia Roberts has sparked a heated debate online after revealing how she and co-star Andrew Garfield approached a key romantic moment in their new film After The Hunt.

The Oscar winner stars alongside Garfield and Ayo Edebiri in Luca Guadagnino’s latest drama, which follows a Yale professor caught up in a student’s accusation of sexual assault against one of her colleagues. Despite low Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB scores, the film has been praised for its intensity, its emotional performances, and its refusal to offer easy answers.

But the conversation around the movie has taken an unexpected turn after Roberts shared details about one of the film’s most talked-about scenes: a brief but charged encounter between her character, Alma, and Garfield’s Hank.

While the scene is far from explicit, it’s an emotionally raw moment that ends with Alma changing her mind mid-kiss and pushing Hank away.

Julia Roberts discussed trust and comfort filming After The Hunt with Andrew Garfield (Dave Benett/WireImage/Getty Images)

Speaking to Refinery29 Australia, Roberts revealed that she and Garfield decided not to use an intimacy coordinator for the scene.

She explained: “They asked us if we wanted [an Intimacy Coordinator], I said no, Andrew said no… “Andrew and Luca and I had a lot of conversations, we had a lot of rehearsal that morning, and then Andrew and I, when we were back at the dorms where we get ready, he came to me and was like, you know, ‘Is there anything you are not comfortable with?’ And I said, ‘Between the two of us, I am completely at ease.’”

The director, known for preferring minimal takes, shot the moment in just one go. Roberts recollected: “All this conversation, and then it was like 35 seconds and then over. It was crazy.”

Since the interview, TikTok users have been split down the middle. Many felt that Roberts’ choice set a worrying precedent, with one commenter writing: “You can’t opt out of safety just because you feel like it.”

Another said: "If one actor says no, then the other feels pressured to say no.” Others argued intimacy coordinators should never be optional, pointing out that they exist to protect both cast and crew, not just the actors involved.

The actors’ decision to skip an intimacy coordinator has divided online audiences (Jeff Spicer/Getty Images for Sony)

However, some defended Roberts, suggesting that after decades in the industry, she and Garfield were capable of setting their own boundaries. One viewer commented that intimacy coordinators were ‘a good idea for young actors’, but ‘not so much the older ones who have been acting for decades’.

Industry expert Michela Carattini, a SAG-AFTRA-accredited intimacy coordinator trainer, told Refinery29 that skipping one can be ‘perfectly valid’ if consent and safety are properly supported. She said: “It is important to remember that the purpose of an Intimacy Coordinator’s work is to support consent, empowerment and safety. If those things have truly been supported for everyone involved, it is perfectly valid not to use an Intimacy Coordinator.”