Nicole Kidman’s new bonkbuster Babygirl has already set tongues wagging months before its UK release in January 2025 after the leading lady hinted she filmed so many sex scenes she was left with ‘orgasm burnout’.
The Australian-born actress, 57, revealed she had to take breaks in filming because she was so exhausted from faking climaxes as she played a married, high-powered businesswoman who falls for a kinky young intern.
Kidman’s comments have no doubt increased anticipation for the film’s release; as has the fact that the intimacy coordinator on set for the steamy scenes is the very same name behind some of the most eye-rolling, pulse-racing sex clips from Netflix favourite, Bridgerton.
The intimacy coordinator, who began her career coordinating fight scenes, has a string of huge titles on her CV including raunchy flick No Hard Feelings starring Jennifer Lawrence and recent Netflix hit, The Perfect Couple (also starring Kidman). But with a wealth of experience in the field, what are Talbot’s behind-the-scenes secrets to devising the very steamiest scenes ever to grace our screens?
Talbot, who spends her time between the UK and the US, has previously revealed the techniques she uses to create sex sequences that send audiences wild – and the key ingredients to ensuring actors bring their A-game on set.
Nicole Kidman has set tongues wagging over comments she made about her new film Babygirl in which she plays a married businesswoman who has an affair with a kinky young intern
Her foray into the steamy world of sex scenes came in 2015 when she began researching intimacy coordination while working as a fight director. Talbot has previously described how the two roles were similar in her mind; as they both involved ‘choreography’ and ‘risk management’.
Whereas, nine years ago, there wasn’t much demand for intimacy coordinators, Talbot said the position is now in frequent demand with agents seeking out professionals as an almost essential requirement before putting their clients forward for new roles.
Speaking to casting agency Spotlight earlier this year, Talbot explained the process of how intimacy coordination works in practice on set.
She explained 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’.
Nicola Coughlan and Luke Newton starred in a now-infamous carriage scene in Bridgerton which set tongues wagging and was coordinated by Talbot
Talbot’s work has put several top titles on her CV including No Hard Feelings, which was released last year
Lizzy Talbot is a British intimacy coordinator who splits her time between the US and the UK
Talbot continued to explain that during filming; the team adheres to a set of ‘protocols’ which includes limiting the number of people on set and present for the stimulated 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 the 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’.
The self-described ‘history nerd’ also revealed her favourite sequence to have coordinated was the honeymoon scene between Rége Jean-Page and Phoebe Dynevor in Bridgerton; and revealed that the five-minute scene had been worked on for two months.
Speaking about her work on Netflix’s raunchy period drama, Talbot revealed in an interview with PopSugar that the most common item used as a barrier between actors during sex scenes was a ‘memory-foam cushion’ which she purchased at the airport when flying from New York to London.
Kidman revealed that despite feeling ‘burnout’ from faking so many orgasms, Talbot and her team took ‘enormous care’ over each other during filming
Talbot describes herself as a ‘history nerd’ and has revealed the scenes she directed on Bridgerton are among her favourites
She has been credited with some of Netflix’s steamiest scenes which are shown in the period drama
Talbot 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, 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,’ Lizzy revealed.
And once the cast were laughing it was hard to re-gain their composure.
Lizzy remembered: ‘Production was calling up — “Are you finished?” “One minute, I’m regaining the room!” You’ve sort of got to find the joy in it because it is there inherently — bodies are funny and messy and they don’t always do what we want them to do.’
As Nicole Kidman, who also worked with Talbot on set of Netflix’s The Perfect Couple, now reveals she had to take breaks from filming because she felt she had ‘burnout’ from faking so many orgasms, the intimacy coordinator’s work has once again set tongues wagging.
The Sun reports Kidman said: ‘There were times when we were shooting where I was like, “I don’t want to orgasm any more”.
‘Don’t come near me. I hate doing this. I don’t care if I am never touched again in my life! I’m over it.
‘It was so present all the time for me that it was almost like a burnout.’
She added she was attracted to the project, about a woman who has an affair with a much younger intern, because it was ‘an area [she’d] never been’ in her career.
She explained: ‘I’ve always been on a quest as an actor, I’m always going, where have I not been? And what can I explore as a human being? And this was an area I’d never been.’
However, despite warning of exhaustion due to the number of orgasms she had to act out during steamy scenes, Kidman praised Talbot and the team for taking ‘enormous care’ of each other.
She said: ‘We were all very, very gentle with each other and helped each other – Harris [Dickinson], Antonio [Banderas].’
The intimacy coordinator’s toolkit
Intimacy co-ordinators will often devise a choreographed routine where the actors know exactly whose hands are going where and when.
Other times they’ll take a looser ‘paint by numbers’ approach where one section of the body, like from the neck to the lower back, will be free to work with.
But both performers in the scene will know that beyond that designated area is off limits…
Half-deflated netball – used on series two of Bridgerton, a half-deflated netball keeps a distance between the two actors involved but allows intimate scenes to look realistic
Nipple daisies — to cover an actor’s areola, ensuring only side breast is visible
A half-deflated netball can prove a useful ally for keeping a barrier between actors but still allowing movement that appears natural Right: Nipple daisies are used to cover an actor’s areola
Heat pads are used under robes to keep actors warm between takes
Hibue/shibue — strapless thongs, in a range of skin tones, that stick to the pelvis and prevents genitalia from touching
Merkins — a pubic wig, often used in period dramas or to provide additional covering
Flesh-coloured underwear — these can be long enough to cover the thighs and, with the right colour, match remain invisible
Small cushions stuffed with lambswool — to create a barrier between the actors’ genitalia during sex scenes
Mints — to freshen breath for kissing scenes, especially after one actor has taken a cigarette break
Glycerine and water spray — to create the illusion of beads of sweat during/after vigorous sex scenes
Heat pads — used under robes to keep actors warm between takes
Aloe Vera gel — soothes skin chafed or irritated by modesty garments
Aloe vera gel is considered a helpful lubricant to stop chafing between actors filming the same scenes many times…and mints are used to freshen an actor’s breath between takes
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