The identity of the British intimacy co-ordinator who could end up as a witness in Blake Lively’s sex harassment case against Justin Baldoni can be revealed by .
Lizzy Talbot who has been an intimacy coordinator for nine years was brought in to help stage controversial sex scenes involving the pair in the production of It Ends With Us.
The film was revealed this week to be at the centre of Lively’s bombshell complaints of sexual harassment and bullying against her co-star Baldoni who directed the production.
Ms Talbot is acclaimed as a top intimacy co-ordinator, and has previously worked on Netflix period drama favourite Bridgerton and the Nikole Kidman bonkbuster Babygirl.
Lively, 37, first complained about the ‘hostile work environment’ on the setoff It Ends With Us when filming was due to resume in January this year after being delayed by a Hollywood writer’ strike last year.
Her lawsuit filed to the California Civil Rights Department last Friday states that she made 30 demands at the meeting, most of them sex-related, in order to prevent further discomfort on set.
Several of her claims related to the behaviour of her co-star Baldoni, 40, and reveal how she demanded that an intimacy co-ordinator be employed on set when the two stars shared a scene.
Lively specifically stated that there should be no more ‘improvising’ kissing on set and ‘no biting or sucking of lip without [Lively’s] consent’.
Baldoni revealed last August in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar that Lizzy Talbot and Chelsea Cary had been used as intimacy co-ordinators on the production which is being streamed on Netflix in the US.
But the exact date when Ms Talbot started work on the film is unclear, although she posted a message on X back in July last year, suggesting that she was involved in filming before then.
She reposted a comment by Baldoni suggesting wrongly that the film was due to be screened in theatres on February 9 last year, adding her own comment, saying: ‘We’ll be ready. Come see it’.
can reveal that Ms Talbot who states on her X profile that she is based in the US and the UK is now spending her Christmas break with her parents John and Sally at their home in Grundisburgh near Woodbridge, Suffolk.
Ms Talbot’s mother said today that she was resting and sleeping off jetlag, and suggested that she would not wish to comment on the furore.
Her agents New Wonder Management have also not yet responded to a request for comment.
Ms Talbot began her career co-ordinating fight scenes before moving into the steamy world of sex scenes in 2015 when she began researching intimacy co-ordination.
She has previously described the two roles as being similar in her mind; as they both involve ‘choreography’ and ‘risk management’.
Ms Talbot revealed that intimacy co-ordinators were now in more frequent demand with agents seeking out professionals as an almost essential requirement before putting their clients forward for new roles.
The raunch production of Babygirl which she worked on set tongues wagging months before its planned UK release in January 2025 after Nicole Kidman hinted she filmed so many sex scenes that she was left with ‘orgasm burnout’.
Ms Talbot is also known for her work on No Hard Feelings starring Jennifer Lawrence and recent Netflix hit, The Perfect Couple which also starred Kidman.
Speaking to casting agency Spotlight earlier this year, Ms Talbot explained the process of how intimacy coordination works in practice on set.
She explained how actors fill out ‘intimacy riders’ at the beginning of filming, in which they set out their limits and boundaries for what they are prepared to film in the way of intimacy and ‘simulated sex’.
Ms Talbot said they had to adhere to a set of ‘protocols’ including limits to the number of people on set and present for simulated sex. Finally, she helps the actors ‘de-role’; that is ‘shed’ their character, once filming has finished.
She also laid out the painstaking process of mapping out every movement involved in a steamy scene; to the point of writing down where every arm or leg will be placed if necessary.
‘The goal is that there are no surprises, so the actors can form the correct safety technique and stay protected,’ she said.
Amid rumours that a partially-deflated netball had been used to protect actors’ modesty during sex scenes for Bridgerton, she said the team ‘will use anything that provides a secure barrier in between actors’.
Ms Talbot revealed in an interview with PopSugar that the most common item used as a barrier between actors during sex scenes on Bridgerton was a ‘memory-foam cushion’ which she purchased at the airport when flying from New York to London.
She also revealed one of the most important elements in filming a sex scene is comedy; and shared that the Bridgerton actors brought humour to their bonkathons.
‘You will never get through a sex scene with [Jonathan] Bailey with a straight face,’ she revealed, adding the Bridgerton heartthrob somehow managed to rip his trousers at the crotch on set not once, but twice.
Speaking about the humour that comes with filming intimate scenes, Ms Talbot told The Times in 2021: ‘Bodies are funny and messy and they don’t always do what we want them to do.’
She spoke candidly of the hilarious moments that occurred while filming the series’ hottest scenes.
And most of them seemed to include Jonathan Bailey and Sabrina Bartlett, who starred as the aristocrat Viscount Anthony Bridgerton and the opera singer Siena Rosso.
The pair, whose characters were involved in a forbidden sexual relationship, had many athletic scenes to get right.
‘At one point in rehearsals, Sabrina slipped and sort of did this fireman’s pole down Johnny to the floor. And I don’t think we recovered for about ten minutes,’ Ms Talbot revealed.
She added that once the cast were laughing, it was hard to re-gain their composure.
Lively’s legal filing details the issues she had on set with Baldoni and Jamey Heath, the Chief Executive Officer of Wayfarer and producer of It Ends With Us.
Her first request at their meeting was for ‘no more showing of nude videos or images of women, including the producer’s wife’ to her or her employees, according to the New York Times.
Another jaw-dropping requirement was that people on set stop discussing Baldoni and Heath’s previous ‘pornography addiction’ and Lively’s ‘lack of pornography consumption.
Lively also asserted that no one should be talking about their sex lives, their genitalia or ‘personal times that physical consent was not given in sexual acts, as either the abuser or the abused.’
She also asked that Baldoni stop inquiring her about her religious beliefs, and called on a stunt double to plat her role in scenes depicting rape or violence.
A lawyer representing Baldoni, the studio and its representatives said Lively’s claims were ‘completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious’.