Bel Powley has said having an intimacy co-ordinator on the set of Everything I Know About Love created a “completely safe environment” for its female stars.
The 30-year-old, from west London, stars as Birdy alongside Emma Appleton’s Maggie in the coming-of-age story based on writer Dolly Alderton’s best-selling memoir.
Airing on BBC One, the seven-part series follows the pair as they try to survive their 20s, bad dates, heartaches and humiliations while living in Camden.
Powley told Cosmopolitan UK: “I’d never worked with (an intimacy co-ordinator) before, and woah it’s the best thing ever. All my experiences of doing sex scenes before have been sans intimacy co-ordinator, and I can’t believe how much better it is.
“It just creates a completely safe environment. You feel fully protected, and like you can say no to anything… I’ve had other experiences where it’s felt not great.
“It comes down to not having someone who is just looking out for you… it’s when a director is more interested in the shot, and how it’s going to come out than how the person feels doing it.
“That’s the beauty of having an intimacy co-ordinator because they are there just for you, the actor.”
Alderton wrote, created and executive produced the BBC series with China Moo-Young directing.
Powley said: “The scenes are about the female experience, so it was necessary for us to have a female director and writers on set.
“It’s not often that you get that, even post Me Too… I said that I wanted to see every (sex scene) take after we did one because I wanted to make sure I was showing what I wanted to.
“China said if we didn’t like it, to delete it. She was really responsive to what was going to make us all feel comfortable.”
Powley appears on the June digital cover of Cosmopolitan UK, available online now.