Intimacy coordinators are now an integral part of films productions, helping actors navigate the awkwardness of intimate scenes with co-stars they’ve only just met.
But, for actors and actresses who have already had their own bedroom scenes play out in private, you would have thought they would be surplus to requirement.
Not so for Ewan McGregor and wife Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who used one to help choreograph their sex scenes in forthcoming Paramount+ series A Gentleman in Moscow.
Despite being married for nearly two years and in a relationship since 2017, the couple were happy to be guided through the amorous scenes as they believed it was ‘still necessary.’
According to McGregor, 52, who met Winstead, 39, on the set of Fargo when they were both married to other people, it was still ‘odd’ to be naked and intimate around other people.
Ewan McGregor and wife Mary Elizabeth Winstead used an intimacy co-ordinator help choreograph their sex scenes in forthcoming Paramount+ series A Gentleman in Moscow
Despite being married for nearly two years and in a relationship since 2017, the couple were happy to be guided through the amorous scenes as they believed it was ‘still necessary’
‘It’s still necessary, because it’s also about the crew, and it’s odd to be naked in front of people, it’s odd to be intimate in front of the camera,’ he told the Radio Times.
‘If you were doing a dance scene, you’d have a choreographer. It’s an important part of the work now, because it’s somebody that the director and actors meet in the middle.’
McGregor insisted there is a need for intimacy coordinators to protect young actresses, like his daughters Clara, 28, and Esther, 22.
‘My daughter [Esther] is 22. If an older, famous director goes to a 22-year-old and says, “I want you to be naked in this scene,” that actress might feel, “Oh, my God, I’ve got to do it, my career might depend on it,”’ he said.
‘And then five years after that, she could look back and go, “I wish I hadn’t. Why am I naked in that scene? It’s unnecessary.” Now there’s somebody she talks to whose career doesn’t rest on the shoulders of this person.’
McGregor sensationally left his first wife Eve Mavrakis, 57, in May 2017 after meeting Winstead while filming the award-winning Fargo together the previous year.
Winstead announced her separation from first husband Riley Steams the same month and she went public with her romance with McGregor shortly afterwards.
After McGregor filed for divorce in January 2018, his estranged wife said: ‘It’s disappointing and upsetting but my main concern is our four children are okay.’
Set in post-Revolutionary Russia, the series follows Count Alexander Rostov, played by McGregor, who is spared from death but placed on house arrest in a grand Moscow hotel
Winstead plays glamorous actress Anna Urbanova, who strikes up a romance with the Count
McGregor insisted there is a need for intimacy coordinators to protect young actresses, like his daughters Clara, 28 (pictured) and Esther, 22
McGregor, who has four daughters with Mavrakis and a son with Winstead, recently repaired his relationship with daughter Clara after she called his new wife a ‘piece of trash’ on Instagram. He and Winstead married in April 2022.
Set in post-Revolutionary Russia, the series follows Count Alexander Rostov, played by McGregor, who is spared from death but placed on house arrest in a grand Moscow hotel, based on Amor Towles’ bestselling 2016 novel.
Winstead plays glamorous actress Anna Urbanova, who strikes up a romance with the Count.
‘A lot of people would say, “Oh, not all couples work well together.” For me, that’s hard to imagine, because it was so the opposite,’ said Ms Winstead of working with her husband.
‘To work with an actor who you have that immediate connection with… there’s no block to get over, there’s nothing to work through. It’s just there, it’s simple and pure. It was amazing.’
A Gentleman in Moscow is out on Paramount+ on March 29.
A Gentleman in Moscow is out on streaming platform Paramount+ from March 29
The full interview with Ewan McGregor is available in the current issue of Radio Times