Intimacy coordinators have one of the most important jobs on film and television sets, as they ensure the safety and comfort of actors during any intimate scenes they may take part in.
To do this, certain safeguards are in place so that no boundaries are broken for any individual actor doing some sort of intimate scene. One of the most common of these safeguards comes in the form of modesty garments, which cover an actor's genitalia while they are engaged in an intimate scene that requires skin-to-skin contact.
However, it is sometimes hard to conceal these garments, depending on the cinematic framing of the scene. Even the most critically acclaimed works can slip up in this regard, and one of the most applauded films of the last year did just that.
Poor Things, the Emma Stone-led film that came out in December 2023, has one small mistake within it as it pertains to the use of a modesty garment. While it’s difficult to spot right away by an untrained eye, one intimacy coordinator pointed it out in a recent TikTok where she discussed the film's mishap.
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Jessica, who goes by the fitting name of @intimacycoordinator on TikTok, explained what situations called for a modesty garment in TV and film, as well as which ones don’t. She explained this by using one specific scene in Poor Things – timestamped at roughly 1:27:27 – as an example.
“This moment is during the first scene where she’s in the brothel,” Jessica explains, “There’s a man who is fully naked… and we see everything, but because there’s no potential contact between their genitals at that point in the scene, it’s likely that that full frontal [nudity] is actually real.”
Because there was no potential for physical contact between the actors, the use of a modesty garment wasn’t necessary. However, Jessica then explains when the garment did become necessary and thus was accidentally visible to the viewer in the Golden Globe Award-winning film.
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“When he climbs on top of her, in the corner of the screen, you can see just this corner of a modesty garment,” Jessica explains, physically showing the small area of the garment that is visible in the film.
She went on to explain that they likely cut in between these two moments to have the actors put on their modesty garments as the intensity of the scene increased and warranted their use by the two actors.
Jessica then elaborated further: “Anytime we’re doing simulated spicy time, we have to have some kind of padding in between actor’s genitals.”
Featured Image Credit: Searchlight Pictures / TikTok/@intimacycoordinatorTopics: Film and TV
Dylan Murray