An intimacy coordinator who has worked on 'This Is Us' is appalled by one racy scene which used a fictional intimacy coordinator as 'the butt of the joke.'
- Jun 18, 2023
AceShowbiz - "The Idol" has been slammed for "making fun of" intimacy coordinators. Marci Liroff, 65, feels "betrayed" by HBO after watching a raunchy scene in the sex and nudity-filled series, which stars The Weeknd, 33, aka Abel Tesfaye, as shady nightclub promoter Tedros who gets 24-year-old Lily-Rose Depp's superstar singer character Jocelyn under his cult leader-style spell before involving her in BDSM romps.
After the first episode aired on June 4, the intimacy coordinator - who did not work on "The Idol" - hit out at the show for showing a fictional intimacy coordinator being locked in a bathroom as Jocelyn proudly bares her nipples at an album cover shoot. "To be honest, I had a very visceral reaction. I was appalled," she told Variety.
Marci, who has worked on "Hightown" and "This Is Us", added about how she felt like HBO was "making fun of us and the job" by including the scene, saying, "They were using us as the butt of the joke."
The intimacy coordinator, who is also a casting director and acting coach, talked about HBO's decision to bring on Alicia Rodis for "The Deuce" in 2018 as it was the first time an intimacy coordinator was hired for a major US production.
She added, "We look at HBO as our stalwart home, so to speak, because their work with (Alicia) was so good that they made it mandatory that all projects on HBO (featuring sexually intimate scenes) must hire in an intimacy coordinator. It set a standard, and many other streamers and networks have followed along."
Lily-Rose, daughter of actor Johnny Depp, 60, has defended the sex scenes in "The Idol" by insisting they are "so important" to the story. Asked if she was hesitant about the scenes, she told Britain's HELLO! magazine, "Honestly, no, because those scenes are so important to the character and the story. I was really blessed to be surrounded by good people all the time. I really did feel as though they were listening to me and that they valued my opinions."
