Sean Bean's comments about intimacy coordinators have been scorched by an expert in the field.
In August, the Games of Thrones alum criticized the presence of intimacy coordinators—who are responsible for the safety and well-being of actors during scenes of a sexual nature on set—in an interview with The Sunday Times.
"It would inhibit me more because it's drawing attention to things," he said. "Somebody saying, ‘Do this, put your hands there, while you touch his thing…'"
Bean even pointed to a scene he filmed with Lena Hall on TNT's Snowpiercer where an intimacy coordinator wasn't present, calling it, "A nice scene, quite surreal, dream-like and abstract."
Now, Miriam Lucia, who works as the intimacy coordinator on the Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon, has fired back.
"I just think he is a man of a certain age, who has been in this industry for a very long time, and he doesn't have an experience of the other side," Lucia told Deadline Sept. 18. "Or maybe he's had a bad experience of working with an intimacy coordinator. All I would say is that in my experience so far, I don't think it gets in the way of the creative process."
Lucia, who also recently worked as an intimacy coordinator on season two of The White Lotus, argued that her job actually makes actors' lives easier on set.
"I think it helps to enable the creative process, because I think once you've worked out what the actors are comfortable with in terms of touch and consent, and what the movements are going to be, then you add the emotion to it," she said. "And then you find the freedom, because you're not scrambling and fumbling and trying to find it there and then in the moment."
Still, Lucia still says she "loves" Bean as an actor and appreciates that his comments, however controversial, helped open a dialogue.
"People don't really know what it is that we do," she admitted. "Some question why we're there. It can still be weird for people who wonder if I'm checking up on whether they're adhering to the rules of a closed set."
Lucia argued that the tides are starting to turn and opinions like Bean's are becoming a thing of the past—as evidenced by her experience working on The White Lotus.
"In Italy they don't really have a lot of experience of intimacy coordinators yet," she said, "but the actors I worked with are now advocating for intimacy coordinators going forward."
House of the Dragon airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO.