Sean Bean’s ‘Snowpiercer’ Co-Star Lena Hall Responds to His Comments That Intimacy Coordinators “Spoil the Spontaneity”

Abbey White
·4 min read
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Snowpiercer star Lena Hall and other Hollywood onscreen talent are responding to recent comments made by Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings actor Sean Bean over the role of intimacy coordinators after the actor said they can “spoil the spontaneity” of intimate scenes on a live set.

In a recent interview with the Sunday Times Magazine to promote his new series, the BBC drama Marriage — which zeroes in on four emotional weeks in a couple’s 27-year marriage — Bean was asked about famous sex scenes featured in the 1993 BBC series Lady Chatterley, in which he played the male lead opposed Joely Richardson as the title character, and how those on that project would have “coped” with the intimacy consultants that are becoming increasingly common on sets.

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He begins by stating that he “should imagine it slows down the thrust of it,” before doubling back with a laugh to correct himself. “Ha, not the thrust, that’s the wrong word. It would spoil the spontaneity.”

He continues: “It would inhibit me more because it’s drawing attention to things. Somebody saying, ‘Do this, put your hand there, while you touch his thing.’ I think the natural way lovers behave would be ruined by someone bringing it right down to a technical exercise.”

Bean called the work on Lady Chatterley “spontaneous. It was joy. We had a good chemistry between us, and we knew what we were doing was unusual because she was married, I was married. But we were following the story. We were trying to portray the truth of what [author] DH Lawrence wrote.”

The actor went on to mention a more recent experience on TBS series Snowpiercer — an intimate scene he describes as “quite surreal, dream-like and abstract” involving his co-star Hall and a mango. It was a season two sequence he says the show “cut a bit out” of, noting, “Often the best work you do, where you’re trying to push the boundaries, and the very nature of it is experimental, gets censored when TV companies or the advertisers say it’s so much.”

When it’s broached that intimacy coordinators are viewed as a protective measure, and their proliferation was part of Hollywood’s response to the #MeToo movement, Bean says that their use on projects “depends on the actress. This one had a musical cabaret background, so she was up for anything.”

On Monday, Hall took to Twitter to respond directly to the Times story, writing, “I probably need to clarify some information in this random article since people are reaching out to me like ‘girl, are you okay?'”

After going into detail about the nature of the scene, including a note that “the infamous mango scene wasn’t a naked scene” and involved her being faux naked in a bathtub with Bean while he was “fully clothed in a tuxedo,” she disputes that notion her work history would result in her being more open to certain things on set.

“Just because I am in theater (not cabaret, but I do perform them every once in a while) does not mean that I am up for anything,” she tweeted. “Seriously does depend on the other actor, the scene we are about to do, the director, and whatever crew has to be in there to film it.”

She went on to say that Bean “is an awesome actor” who not only made her feel comfortable “but also like I had a true acting partner in those bizarre scenes.” For Hall personally, she says intimacy coordinators aren’t necessary if she feels “comfortable with my scene partner and with others in the room.” She will call on them, however, “if there is any part of me that is feeling weird, gross, overexposed etc.”

“I will either challenge the necessity of the scene or I’ll want an IC,” she concluded. “I feel that when an actor has to do a scene that is extremely emotional (like committing suicide or being raped) there needs be some kind of mental health person available to talk to post-shoot. Even though we are only acting, we are still experiencing trauma.”

Also responding in the wake of Bean’s comments was West Side Story actress Rachel Zegler, who tweeted that “intimacy coordinators establish an environment of safety for actors” and that “spontaneity in intimate scenes can be unsafe.” The actress also added that she was “extremely grateful” for having one of the Steven Spielberg musical, which saw her performing intimate scenes at 17 years old opposite the then-25-year-old Ansel Elgort. “[T]hey showed grace to a newcomer like myself + educated those around me who’ve had years of experience.”

She-Hulk and The Good Place actress Jameela Jamil also responded on Twitter, stating that intimacy scenes “should only be technical.”

“It’s like a stunt. Our job as actors is to make it not look technical,” she explained. “Nobody wants an impromptu grope…”

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