Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images
Earlier this year, Gwyneth Paltrow seemed to shade the idea of intimacy coordinators. “I don’t know how it is for kids who are starting out, but … if someone is like, ‘Okay, and then he’s going to put his hand here,’ I would feel, as an artist, very stifled by that,” she told Vanity Fair, adding that she came up in a time when the vibe on-set was “you get naked, you get in bed, the camera’s on.” Turns out, she wasn’t saying intimacy coordinators are bad; she was saying she’s old. “What I meant was that I was totally surprised, like, who is this person?” Paltrow said to The Hollywood Reporter. “I think all of the protections that came from the #MeToo movement are great, but for me, personally, I was not used to that.”
Marty Supreme is Paltrow’s first movie gig in years, and the rise of intimacy coordinators was confusing for her in the same way Teams is weird for chronically offline coworkers. “It’s like, ‘OK, now he’s going to squeeze your boob,’ or whatever, and I felt more embarrassed talking about it than just doing it,” Paltrow said of her experience — an experience she doesn’t necessarily think was good or chill. Later in the interview, she discussed working closely with Harvey Weinstein, even after he allegedly sexually harassed her when she was 22. For someone who didn’t have that time coming up, starting with intimacy coordinators could be huge. “I’m from a different time, but if I was starting today, or if my daughter wants to go into this, I’m so glad that there’s now this role and that she will learn, OK, there’s consent and there are guardrails.”
