SAG-AFTRA Moves To Officially Organize Intimacy Coordinators

SAG-AFTRA is taking the next step toward organizing intimacy coordinators.

The guild has filed an election petition with the National Labor Relations Board to represent the group in any dealings with the major studios, it revealed on Wednesday, in what it calls a “natural evolution of the union’s commitment to help build a stable and safe future for our members.”

In 2022, SAG-AFTRA passed a resolution to create a path toward offering membership to intimacy coordinators, and this appears to be that plan in action.

“Working in scenes involving nudity or physical intimacy is some of the most vulnerable work an actor can do. Intimacy coordinators not only provide assistance in navigating these scenes but they also create a safety net for performers ensuring consent and protection throughout the entire process,” SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher said in a statement. “Shifting the power imbalance that has been ingrained over a century is challenging but important work. Work that can be done even more effectively with the backing of a union. Intimacy coordinators have our backs on set and now it’s our turn to have theirs.” 

SAG-AFTRA has been working to more clearly define and regulate the role of intimacy coordinators for several years, even prior to passing that resolution two years ago. Intimacy coordinators choreograph scenes containing intimate content and/or nudity and help facilitate any dialogue between performers and executives about such scenes.

The position has become much more widespread, mandated by most studios now, in the wake of the #MeToo movement, and SAG-AFTRA has been rolling out guidelines, protocols and qualifications for the position ever since. This latest step to officially organize the group would allow the union to put even stricter mandates in place to regulate the profession.

The move follows some controversy earlier this year, when an intimacy coordinator on the set of the Jenna Ortega and Martin Freeman-starring Miller’s Girl, about the film’s intimate scenes, which SAG-AFTRA said violated a confidentiality agreement. Since then, it has tightened its Standards and Protocols for the use of Intimacy Coordinators and threatened to remove any professionals from its registry who violate the terms.

While there have been some obstacles as the profession is integrated into Hollywood, SAG-AFTRA said Wednesday that intimacy coordinators are “invaluable in creating a safe and respectful working environment.”

“Intimacy coordinators are important partners for our members when they are working on some of the most vulnerable scenes possible,” SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director & Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland added in a statement of his own. “As part of our union, they’ll have the strength of our 160,000 members standing behind them when they sit down to negotiate a deal that will bolster the foundation of this role, create job opportunities, safely expand and ensure diversification of the talent pool and improve safety on set.”