Michael Douglas explains why he doesn’t like intimacy coordinators

Michael Douglas has revealed he dislikes intimacy coordinators being on film sets.

Employed to help ensure the consent and safety of performers while filming scenes that involve sex or nudity, intimacy co-ordinators are now commonplace across the film and TV industries.

The Basic Instinct actor, 79, claimed intimacy coordinators prompt control of a film scene to be taken away from the director.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Douglas said the safeguarding practice feels “like executives taking control away from filmmakers” but acknowledged “faux pas and harassment” in Hollywood.

“Sex scenes are like fight scenes, it’s all choreographed,” he said.

“In my experience, you take responsibility as the man to make sure the woman is comfortable, you talk it through.

“You say, ‘Ok, I’m gonna touch you here if that’s all right’. It’s very slow but looks like it’s happening organically, which is hopefully what good acting looks like.”

The Oscar winner, who is best known for erotic thrillers such as Fatal Attraction and Basic Instinct, said he and his co-stars “seemed to take care of ourselves” when actors “overstepped boundaries”.

“They would get a reputation and that would take care of them,” he said.

The actor added he’d recently spoken to the “ladies” he did “sexual movies” with, such as Basic Instinct co-star Sharon Stone and Fatal Attraction’s Glenn Close, about his conduct on set.

“We joke about it now, what it would have been like to have an intimacy coordinator working with us,” he said, adding he is now “past the age” to film sex scenes.

Last month, Douglas opened up about the pros and cons of being a parent later in life after he was mistaken for his child’s grandfather when visiting their college.

The Oscar-winning actor shares two children – son Dylan, 23, and daughter Carys, 20 – with his wife of nearly 25 years, actor Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Douglas is also a father to his 45-year-old son, Cameron Douglas, whom he welcomed with his ex-wife, Diandra Luker.

“This is not grandfather’s day, this is parents’ day. I say, ‘I am a parent!’” he said. “That was a rough one.”