As Girls continues to make a cultural comeback, Allison Williams wonders what the show would have been if made by today’s standards.
The actress, who starred as Marnie Michaels for the HBO show’s six-season run from 2012 to 2017, said “it would have been so great” to have an intimacy coordinator on the set of the Lena Dunham series.
“It would have been great, because we had so many sex scenes to prep and work through,” said Williams on the Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast. “It would have been so helpful to have someone who’s like department head of sex scenes.”
She went on to recall filming a sex scene with Marnie’s boyfriend Desi (played by Ebon Moss-Bachrach) Season 4 premiere episode ‘Iowa’ from January 2015.
“I have this picture of Lena and [EP Jenni Konner] acting out the moment where Desi was going down on me — eating my ass — and I have a picture of them where I think it’s Jenni is leaning over a windowsill and Lena is leaning behind her like smiling being like, ‘This is what we picture,’” said Williams. “And I was like, ‘Great!’ But they were busy. That should have been someone else’s job.”
The new industry norm of on-set intimacy coordinators began the year Girls ended, on the same network, as stuntwoman Alicia Rodis was hired on the set of The Deuce (2017-’19). HBO then made the role a staple on all of their shows.
Having since worked with intimacy coordinators on other projects, Williams explained the importance of their work, facilitating communication between actors and directors on bringing the scene to life while maintaining everyone’s boundaries.
“By the time everyone shows up to do it, none of that is being litigated on that day,” said Williams. “You already know what you’re wearing for your nude covering, what the rules are, if your co-star feels comfortable with a certain type of kissing or not. So you’re all just ready to go, and it’s so nice.”
