Florence Pugh Recalls “Completely Inappropriate” Asks During Sex Scenes

Florence Pugh got candid about filming sex scenes and working with intimacy coordinators during a Nov. 11 appearance on The Louis Theroux Podcast. The actor — who has shot intimate scenes in projects like We Live in Time, Oppenheimer, and Don’t Worry Darling — said that she’s experienced good and bad intimacy coordinators throughout her career.

"I'm having fantastic experiences with intimacy coordinators,” she said on the podcast. “However, I’ve also had a sh*t example.”

Pugh described the latter as someone who “just made it so weird and so awkward and really wasn’t helpful and kind of was just like wanting to be a part of the set in a way that wasn’t helpful.” She added, “I think it’s a job that’s still figuring itself out.”

Pugh made it clear that she has no problem advocating for herself when it comes to filming risqué moments. “I’m quite confident, I'm quite happy in my skin, I've always been able to make sure that I'm heard,” she said. "That being said, even though I know that I believe that, and even though I know that I felt that at the time, there are plenty of things that I remember where it was just completely inappropriate to have asked me to do that, to have directed me in that way.”

Despite that negative experience, Pugh said that having “great” intimacy coordinators on set has helped her see the profession in a better light. “I’ve been able to understand better meaning now through working with great ones in sex scenes,” Pugh explained.

According to her, the job is about “finding the story of what it is, what kind of sex is it, how do you touch each other, how long have you been having sex for.” She added that the whole cast and crew is “working away to chip away at the scene. And I think when I worked with a fantastic coordinator, I was like, ‘Oh, this is what I’ve been missing, understanding the dance of intimacy as opposed to just shooting a sex scene.’”

“There are good ones and bad ones, and it’s through the good ones that I have learned how effective it can really be,” Pugh said.