Outlander: How Outlander's sex scenes were shot – intimacy coordinator shares secrets

Debuting back in 2014, Outlander was adapted from the novels by American author Diana Gabaldon. Outlander charts the adventures of 20th-century time traveller Claire Fraser (played by Caitriona Balfe) after she found herself in the 18th century and falling in love with Highlander Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan). Throughout the course of Outlander, the sex scenes have played an important part in the storyline and underpins the enduring love between Jamie and Claire.

Indeed, the Outlander novels feature many intimate moments leaving its fans hot under the collar.

When the show first started airing, Outlander didn’t have an intimacy coordinator with the actors and crew having to work on these scenes without additional support.

Season six of Outlander was the first one to bring on board an intimacy coordinator after actor and producer Heughan approached Coffey to join the show.

Heughan previously said he felt a great responsibility to the younger actors on the show and wanted them to have support when shooting these moments.

Coffey, whose previous credits include Sky series I Hate Suzie, BBC’s Rules of the Game, and Netflix’s fantasy teen drama Fate: The Winx Saga, coordinated all of the intimate moments in the most recent outing.

READ MORE: Why was season 6 of Outlander so short?

Before her arrival, Coffey said the leading duo would have conversations about the scenes and how they envisioned them.

When it came to working on Jamie and Claire’s scenes, Coffey said her role was more about how to “enhance” these moments more than anything else.

Coffey said there was long process getting the scene from the page to the screens. She explained her method of working: “I read through the script and then I would always speak with the show runners and then with the directors.

“We’re really getting an artistic vision for how the particular intimate scene will be shot and then with that information, I will then go to the actors and talk with each of them separately about their views on the scene and also how to the director and show runners see the scene, and whether they have a different perspective.

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“We then generally come together to have a conversation at the finish as a group, so that we’re all on the same page.

“From that point, we go into rehearsals, physical rehearsals, so it’s very much about the choreography of the piece, the literal – what’s going to happen? That’s everything from a discussion about whether the characters go through to orgasm; what we think that might sound like; what the particular movements might be; the length of the scene we’re trying to film; what the overall story arc is; [and] making sure we hit all over that within the choreography.”

Once these discussions and rehearsals have taken place, Coffey goes on set to ensure what has been rehearsed is then shot with “minor adjustments” sometimes made.

She went on to say: “The process is one, I guess, that’s is very choreographic. It starts out about something about the protection and a piece of open communication between everybody and ends up in a state of, ‘Okay, what is the physicality? What is the literal stuff that we’re doing?’.”

Coffey said it was lengthy process with the conversations taking place weeks before even the rehearsals, followed by the rehearsals themselves. This would be followed by another rehearsal on the day of the shoot to make sure the performance was “still hitting the beats”. Finally, shooting the scene itself could take anywhere between two to six hours.

Intimacy coordination has become a big business within film and television now, coming in the wake of the #MeeToo era, with nearly every production bringing one on board to ensure the more racy moments are carefully choreographed and the performers feel safe.

From Sex Education and Bridgerton to I May Destroy You and Normal People, intimacy coordination has become an industry norm.

She said her own journey into intimacy coordination was admittedly a “strange” one with Coffey trained as a lawyer, an actor and a dancer.

Despite being three “disparate things”, they proved to be a powerful combination. While serving as a lecturer at her old drama school, The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, she was approached by former students asking her for advice about nudity clauses in their contracts and even bringing her to set to help choreograph scenes.

Her work quickly spread through word-of-mouth. She said: “These things started to build and I began realising there wasn’t anyone who was doing that work. It was a job I was seeing.”

After hearing about Alicia Rodis, the intimacy coordinator on HBO’s 70s sex-trade drama, Coffey realised she was working in a similar field and decided to go into intimacy coordination.

Although Outlander was late to the game, Coffey is now firmly a part of the show and working on the forthcoming season.

Coffey has also been working on the new season of Vikings: Valhalla, which she said was a very different beast to Outlander both in terms of its content and coordinating the intimate moments.

Outlander season 7 is in production

source: express.co.uk