SAG-AFTRA has petitioned the National Labor Relations Board to represent intimacy coordinators in negotiations with the major studios.
The move is the latest in a five-year effort by the union to professionalize the role of intimacy coordinators, who act as a liaison between performers and the production during the filming of sex scenes.
Gaining NLRB recognition would allow SAG-AFTRA to negotiate minimum wages and working conditions.
“We have no protection,” says Marci Liroff, who has worked as an intimacy coordinator in film and TV. “And we don’t have health insurance. We don’t have a pension.”
HBO requires intimacy coordinators for filming sex scenes, but no such requirement exists industry-wide. The 2023 SAG-AFTRA contract includes a provision requiring producers to “use their best efforts” to hire an IC for scenes involving nudity or sexual acts. The provision also says that if an artist requests an IC, the producer must consider the request “in good faith” and not retaliate.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the studios in the negotiations, has not offered to voluntarily recognize intimacy coordinators. Once the petition is filed with the NLRB, the potential bargaining unit must hold a vote to approve SAG-AFTRA’s representation.
In a statement, SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher said intimacy coordinators create a safety net for performers in vulnerable situations.
“Changing the power imbalance that has been ingrained for a century is challenging but important work,” she said. “Work that can be done even more effectively with the support of a union. Intimacy Coordinators have our backs and now it’s our turn to support theirs.”
The union issued guidelines for intimacy coordinators in 2020. In 2021, she established an accreditation program and official registry, which now includes approximately 70 members in the US, Canada, UK, Australia and elsewhere. The following year, SAG-AFTRA invited intimacy coordinators to join the union.