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Ita O'Brien

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Ita O'Brien
Born
England, United Kingdom
NationalityBritish
Alma materRoyal Central School of Speech and Drama
Occupation(s)Movement director
intimacy coordinator
Years active2006–present
Known forNormal People
I May Destroy You
Gentleman Jack
Sex Education
Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams
The Girl with All the Gifts

Ita O’Brien is a British movement director and intimacy co-ordinator for film, TV and theatre. She has taught at some of Britain's leading drama schools, has published research and devises her own work. In 2017, O'Brien introduced the "Intimacy On Set Guidelines", to protect performers during scenes that involve sex or nudity, which gained significant industry and public interest in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandals.[1][2][3] She has worked for Amazon, BBC, HBO,[4] and Netflix.[5]

Early life and education

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O'Brien's family is from Clonmel, Ireland.[6] She graduated in 1998 from the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.[7] She also trained as a dancer at the Royal Academy of Dancing.[8] In 2007, she received a master of arts in movement studies from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.[8]

Career

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Ita O'Brien pioneered the role of intimacy coordinator, which is gaining adoption in leading production houses, including HBO, Netflix, and the BBC.[9] O'Brien has been developing practices when working with intimacy, scenes with sexual content and nudity in film, TV and theatre since 2014.[10] In the absence of any industry-wide guidelines or accepted process, she developed draft guidelines for intimacy, simulated sex scenes and nudity.[11] She is the founder of Intimacy on Set, her company set up in 2018, which provides services to TV, film and theatre when dealing with intimacy, sexual content, and nudity.[12]

There was brief controversy when, on the BAFTA red carpet in 2018, Andy Serkis likened the idea of guidelines to censorship.[13] However, O'Brien says, "These guidelines are not a constraint, but an improvement on current practice. They free the actor to embody the character whilst delivering repeatable and safe scenes that facilitate the Director's vision."[14]

The guidelines have received the support of Women in Film and Television (UK)[14] and leading industry figures, including Gemma Arterton, Noma Dumezweni, Olivia Colman, Joseph Millson and David Farr.[15]

Her work has received press coverage,[16] particularly for Normal People,[17] Sex Education,[5] and Gentleman Jack.[18] She has been an advocate for the use of an intimacy coordinator in Australia,[19] New Zealand,[20] Germany,[21] Ireland,[6] and UK.[22]

In 2021, upon receiving a BAFTA for Best Actress for I May Destroy You, Michaela Coel dedicated her award to O'Brien, saying "Thank you for your existence in our industry, for making the space safe, for creating physical, emotional and professional boundaries so that we can make work about exploitation, loss of respect, about abuse of power without being exploited or abused in the process".[23] In all, O'Brien worked on six TV productions that were nominated for a BAFTA in 2021.[24]

In 2022, O'Brien became the first intimacy coordinator to be employed by the Royal Opera House in a Katie Mitchell production of Theodora.[25]

Film and TV

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Her credits include The Last Duel (2021), It's a Sin (2021), Normal People (2020), I May Destroy You (2020), Sex Education (2019), Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams (2017), Derren Brown's Ghost Train (2017), series 2 of Humans (2016), The Girl With All The Gifts (2016) and many theatre productions.

References

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  1. ^ Chrisey Iley (14 January 2018). "The new rules of sex: how Hollywood is rethinking on-screen intimacy in the post-Weinstein era". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 6 March 2018.
  2. ^ Emine Saner (21 November 2017). "Would 'intimacy directors' make shooting sex scenes safer?". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 March 2018.
  3. ^ O'Brien, Ita. "Best practice when working with intimacy, simulated sex scenes, and nudity". Retrieved 10 May 2018.
  4. ^ O'Brien, Ita. [1] Archived 8 March 2019 at the Wayback Machine "Ita O'Brien Biography – Intimacy on Set". Retrieved 6 March 2019.
  5. ^ a b Berning Sawa, Dale. "'Take care of your actors': the intimacy director keeping Netflix’s sex scenes safe". Retrieved 25 January 2019.
  6. ^ a b Knox, Kirsty Blake (20 April 2018). "Meet Ita O'Brien – the world's leading sex scene director". The Irish Independent. Retrieved 20 March 2019.
  7. ^ ""The Diana Kite Award" at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. DianaKiteAward". winterbourne.freeuk.com.
  8. ^ a b "Ita O'Brien, MA – The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama". cssd.ac.uk.
  9. ^ "Ita O'Brien - Intimacy Coordinator, Movement Director". Ita O'brien. Retrieved 22 August 2021.
  10. ^ Laurence Cook (25 January 2018). "After Weinstein, a New Way to Approach On-Set Sex Scenes". Backstage. Retrieved 6 March 2018.
  11. ^ O'Brien, Ita. "Best practice when working with intimacy, simulated sex scenes, and nudity". Retrieved 6 March 2018.
  12. ^ "Ita O'Brien - Intimacy Coordinator, Movement Director". Ita O'brien. Retrieved 22 August 2021.
  13. ^ "Sex scene rules would be 'censorship' star says". BBC News. 19 February 2018. Retrieved 6 March 2018.
  14. ^ a b "Draft Guidelines Published for Sex Scenes On Set". WFTV. 5 February 2018. Archived from the original on 11 May 2018. Retrieved 6 March 2018.
  15. ^ @ItaOB (5 March 2018). "So fantastic to have #gemmaarterton on board, joining #OliviaColeman and @DavidFarrUK in support of the #SSOSguidelines!! Xxx" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  16. ^ Women and Hollywood. "Ita O’Brien Is Transforming the Way Film, TV, and Theater Handle Sex Scenes". Retrieved 7 March 2019.
  17. ^ Kaufman, Amy. "This is how ‘Normal People’ made some of TV’s steamiest sex scenes". Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  18. ^ Gordon, Naomi. "How Suranne Jones prepared for her lesbian sex scenes in Gentleman Jack". Retrieved 1 May 2019.
  19. ^ Groves, Don. [2] "Call to introduce guidelines for intimacy on sets in Australia". Retrieved 6 March 2019.
  20. ^ Standing Room Only. [3] "Guidelines on getting intimate on stage and screen – Ita O'Brien". Retrieved 6 March 2019.
  21. ^ Zwirner, Heiko. [4] "Bei Sexszenen sind die Verletzungen oft nicht sichtbar". Retrieved 1 May 2019.
  22. ^ Radio Times. [5] "What is an intimacy coordinator? Meet the woman who protects actors doing sex scenes in the #MeToo era". Retrieved 6 March 2019.
  23. ^ "Baftas 2021: Michaela Coel dedicates win to intimacy coordinator". The Guardian. 6 June 2021. Retrieved 7 June 2021.
  24. ^ "Intimacy coordinator Ita O'Brien was the real star of the Baftas – and could save the TV industry". The Telegraph. 7 June 2021. Retrieved 7 June 2021.
  25. ^ Nadia Khomami (29 January 2022). "Royal Opera House hires intimacy coordinator for sex scenes". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
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