Oscar winner Kim Basinger hasn’t shied away from controversial films in her career. Her work in the 1986 film, 9½ Weeks, is still discussed because it offered a very raw look at a dangerous affair between a New York City art gallery employee, played by Basinger, and a Wall Street broker, played by Mickey Rourke.
The sex scenes are still hotly contested as to whether some of them border on abuse, but Basinger told Variety that she is still proud of the film. She considers the script’s frank look at sex to be “more European” versus the “stuffy” approach taken by Americans. Since the production took place almost 40 years ago, the 71-year-old actress was asked about her opinion on intimacy coordinators, which has become a hot topic among different generations of actors.
Despite her vulnerable scenes with Rourke, she is someone who doesn’t see the need for them. “I can’t imagine having somebody come up to me and say, ‘Do you mind if they put their hand here?’ That’s just another person in the room. Either we work it out or we don’t,” she told the media outlet. “I don’t see all of this need for supervised visits.”
Basinger seems to be siding with the older generation of actors, who never had the luxury of working with an intimacy coordinator on set. It’s a newer position on a Hollywood crew, but most Gen Z and Millennial actors are all for having them around as a safeguard. SAG-AFTRA, the actors’ union, adopted standards and protocols in 2020 and now, intimacy coordinators are recognized as “an advocate, a liaison between actors and production, and a movement coach and/or choreographer in regards to nudity and simulated sex and other intimate and hyper-exposed scenes.”
Kate Winslet has been a strong advocate for making sure actors are safe on set especially when she filmed her nude scene in Titanic at the tender age of 22. “I would have benefited from an intimacy coordinator every single time I had to do a love scene or be partially naked or even a kissing scene,” she told The New York Times in March 2024. “It would have been nice to have had someone in my corner because I always had to stand up for myself.”
Winslet made a great point that actors who just starting out their careers often feel powerless when working with famous actors and directors. “When you’re young, you’re so afraid of pissing people off or coming across as rude or pathetic because you might need those things,” she added. “So, learning to have a voice for oneself in those environments was very, very hard.”
Basinger’s opinion might be surprising, but other actors, including Michael Douglas, share her same train of thought. “I’m sure there were people that overstepped their boundaries, but before, we seemed to take care of that ourselves,” Douglas told The Telegraph in April 2024. “They would get a reputation and that would take care of them.”
There appears to be a great divide between the generations in Hollywood, but SAG-AFTRA is letting everyone know that intimacy coordinators are here to stay!
Before you go, click here to see actors who have spoken out about pressure to get naked for a role.
