‘I felt betrayed’: Relationship coordinator reacts to The Idol pilot mocking the profession

‘I felt betrayed’: Relationship coordinator reacts to The Idol pilot mocking the profession

In 2018, HBO made history by hiring Alicia Rodis for The Deuce (written by David Simon), becoming the first relationship coordinator to star in a major American production. But on June 4th, the same pilot date for The Idol on HBO, the relationship coordinator goes straight to series and finds herself locked in a toilet… because she wants to do her job too well!

In the scene in question, pop star Jocelyn, played by Lily-Rose Depp, is doing a photoshoot in her home for her upcoming album cover. Feeling very comfortable with the photographer, she removes her robe to reveal her breasts. Immediately, the intimacy coordinator hired for the occasion (played by Scott Turner Schofield) interrupts the photographer (Eddie Chen) to remind him that the nudity clause in Jocelyn’s contract allows only the side breasts, the underside of the breasts, and their depiction. parties.

The contract discussed “The label and its team– he says, so any changes require a 48-hour delay for the photo shoot, although Jocelyn chose to show her breasts without being asked.

Am I not allowed to show my body?“He asks the coordinator, who grumbles:”Not in the general structure of human rightsEventually, Jocelyn’s manager, Chaim (Hank Azaria), intervenes, pushing the coordinator behind the door and paying a passing employee $5,000 to stay locked in until the shoot is over.

Of course, it could be argued that the scene serves to emphasize how vulnerable and exploited Jocelyn is by those around her. A theme continually explored in the series co-created by Sam Levinson, Abel Tesfaye, aka The Weeknd, and Reza Fahim. At the same time, intimate coordination is a relatively new field that the entertainment industry still doesn’t understand, and it portrays someone vague and document-obsessed, with wide-eyed lines about his work being “Very progressive actually“, is not without complications.

A true Intimacy Coordinator speaks

variety spoke with Marcy Liroff, an intimacy coordinator not affiliated with The Idol, to assess the impact and accuracy of the scene.

To be honest, I had a very visceral reaction. I was shocked– says Marcy Liroff, who notably worked as an intimacy coordinator on the TV series Hightown, Le Goût de vivre and This Is Us.

I’m not alone in this when it comes to Intimacy Coordinator topics: we consider HBO our loyal home, so to speak, because their work with Alicia Roddy was so good that they mandated hiring an Intimacy Coordinator for every HBO project. This set the standard and many other broadcasters and networks followed suit. So I felt betrayed by the fact that they mocked us and our work. They used us as stuffing turkey“.

Not so far from reality

But Marcy Liroff says she’s torn today: “I have had situations where the director or producer did not understand what we were bringing to the set. Our position is very similar to that of a stunt coordinator, and you would never do what I did to a stunt coordinator. So I looked into it and realized that it was actually a very accurate – albeit exaggerated and extreme – representation of some of the strange reactions I’d been experiencing.“.

As he explains, Intimacy Coordinators meet with managers first.In this case, perhaps the photographer and his manager knew what they were looking for. I go deeper and clarify the points of the body that we are going to see“Then, there is a one-on-one meeting between the Intimacy Coordinator and the performer to determine what is right for them.

If the artist’s restrictions do not match the director’s requirements, meetings will continue until the creatives agree on solutions that make the artists comfortable, then the nudity policy will be written and signed. Any change to this plug-in results in a 48-hour delay in production, so the artist is never faced with a new request and forced to reconsider their own limits.

On The Idol, it’s clear that Jocelyn didn’t meet the Intimacy Coordinator beforehand, but that’s not necessarily wrong:I feel like Jocelyn’s team looked into the situation and spoke up on her behalf. I often find myself in a situation where I have to speak directly to a talent, and let’s say it’s a very high-level talent, and I never have the opportunity to speak to that person in particular, which is a real shame.“, says Marsi Lirof.

But that doesn’t explain why Joseline’s managers — who are all too comfortable flaunting her body — would agree to censor her breasts in the first place.

An ambivalent message

Since the release of The Idol, the sexual nature of the series has been the subject of much criticism. The release was met with mixed press and controversy even before the release of the series, which was surrounded by allegations of a toxic environment on film sets, as well as extreme content that was not protected. Like the scene where Jocelyn has “Begged Tesfaye’s character to be raped“.

Based on the scenes shown on the screen, Liroff, as the coordinator of intimacy, is ambivalent about how the explicit content is handled. On the one hand, the artist at the center of the series clearly gave his consent to the directors.

“People are talking about exploiting Lily-Rose Depp, but I’ve also watched and read a few interviews with her and it’s very clear to me that she’s 1000% on board with this project,” he says. A young actress from Central America arrives in Hollywood and takes full advantage.

Meanwhile, Lily-Rose Depp’s (and Jocelyn’s) feelings aren’t the only ones here. “We have a nudity policy, not only for the artist but also for the team. It’s also for the team“, – specifies Marsi Lirof.

The team should be informed of what they are experiencing that day. He needs to know if, for example, he will witness a violent rape scene. A highly sensitive scene can be challenging not only for the actors, but also for the people who are looking at it from ten different angles. I usually talk to them ahead of time and say, “This could be your trigger. I want you to notice the signs. Come to me if that happens. take a breath Go outside. Drink cold water’. It is a team that gives common consent to witness this“.

This work is very nuanced and complex. It’s very difficult to explain what we do in one scene“, – concludes Marcy Liroff.And finally, this scene used us as a joke.

A new episode of The Idol is available every Monday on Prime Video with Warner Pass.

Source: Allocine

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