Toni Collette admits intimacy coordinators 'make her more anxious' while filming love scenes

Although intimacy coordinators are supposed to help actors feel more comfortable while filming sex scenes, for Toni Collette they had the opposite effect.

The Hereditary star's latest role is in the upcoming Amazon Prime series The Power, about a group of teenage girls who suddenly and mysteriously develop a special power that allows them to electrocute people at will.

Having starred in a diverse range of TV shows and films in a career spanning more than three decades, it's safe to say she's seen the world of entertainment change over the years.

And that includes the relatively new introduction of on-set intimacy coordinators, whose job involves ensuring a sensitive and safeguarded approach to filming intimate scenes.

Following the exposure of Harvey Weinstein and the abuse in Hollywood in 2017, followed by the #MeToo movement, the role became more of a standard in the production of movies and shows.

So much so that the Oscars are being urged to introduce a Best Intimacy Coach category into the mix.

Collette discussed the service while speaking with The Times ahead of The Power's premiere, saying it's something she's been offered in recent years.

However, it didn't quite work out how it was supposed to.

"I think it’s only been a couple of times where they’ve been brought in, and I have very much trusted and felt at ease with the people I was working with," she said.

"It just felt like those people who were brought in to make me feel more at ease were actually making me feel more anxious.

"They weren’t helping, so I asked them to leave."

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When asked whether she thinks this would have been different earlier on in her career, she replied: "It depends.

"Look, every job is different. Every single job is different. Because it’s a bunch of new people it’s a new energy – everyone brings their whole life with them, and it’s all thrown in the pot.

"You never know what you’re going to get and it’s a miracle that a film ever comes together, let alone thrives.

"I’ve been very fortunate in that I’ve only worked with a few arseholes over the several decades that I’ve managed to keep this boat afloat."

Earlier this week, Chloe Bailey opened up about what it was like filming her first-ever sex scene for the new Amazon Prime thriller series Swarm.

While Collette has been in the business for decades, the 24-year-old singer is relatively new to the game and so she understandably felt 'scared' about simulating an intimate moment with her on-screen boyfriend Khalid, played by Damson Idris.

"When I first read the script, I was like, 'Oh, this is insane, this is incredible,' and I cried, and then I realized, you gotta do that sex scene, girl," she told Deadline.

"And as open and liberal as I am about my body, I was very scared because I haven’t had that many partners.

"I’m not like that, like that sexual and open... Damson made it really comfortable, you know, there were limited people on set, it was a closed set. We were laughing in between.

"We literally had a bouncy ball in between us and, you know, we were making a joke out of it, so it took all of the nervousness away from that.

"I have to give a lot of kudos to him as a man for making me, as a woman, feel comfortable literally being raw and naked."

The first season of Swarm is available to watch on Amazon Prime now, while The Power premieres on March 31.