014: Sex. Let's get it on people!

Lisa, Brian and Dean are joined by famous Casting Director, and now Intimacy Coordinator, Marci Liroff. Marci's credits are ridiculous. She started out casting 'Indie' films ... you know as in INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM ! ET - The Extra Terrestrial , St. Elmo's Fire, Pretty in Pink, Footloose, Mean Girls, The Spiderwick Chronicles ... TOO many to mention. Here check it out for yourself. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0513924/ Whilst remaining a Casting Director, she has recently added another string to her bow, by transforming into a very important and badly needed role as a Hollywood Intimacy Coordinator. (IC) Marci's job is to help everyone from the director and the creative team, to the stars and the crew deal with nudity and simulated sex in film and TV in a responsible way, which in particular, looks after the well-being of the most vulnerable people in that situation ... the actors who are on set. It's a fascinating conversation and we end up by just getting down and dirty and sharing our favourite simulated sex scenes and sexy films. Some links to follow up: Marci's website, including her sizzle reel ... which is ridiculous.😳 https://www.marciliroff.com/ Her incredible jewellery designs. Get yours now ! https://marciliroffjewelry.com/ A background piece on what is amusingly referred to as 'Bonkerton' https://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/bonkerton-truth-about-regency-romance-is-far-racier-20210205-p56zt6.html In timely fashion, Keira Knightly has just come out with a statement on her future simulated sex scenes. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/jan/29/it-was-a-misuse-of-power-how-movie-sex-scenes-change-keira-knightley

TRANSCRIPT OF EPISODE

Scene from Bridgerton: When you touch yourself, you do touch yourself. When you're alone you can touch yourself. Anywhere that gives you pleasure especially between your legs. When you find the feeling you particularly enjoy you can carry on with that, until the feeling grows and then eventually you reach pinnacle, a release that should help you.

Lisa: Hello, welcome to Killer Casting, I'm Lisa Zambetti. I am a casting director probably best known for my work on the long running show Criminal Minds. And I've cast victims and villains and cops and doctors and lawyers and everything in between. But apropos of today's topic, I've also cast many actors to play lovers, to play roles in adult situations. And I've even cast those very, very difficult roles where characters engage in sexual violence and who are sometimes the victims of sexual abuse. So given that, I wanted to give a little trigger warning, I wanted to warn our listeners today that we're going to be talking about sex. Sex in cinema, sex on screen, we're going to be using very explicit language possibly talking about things that could be triggering to you. And I want you to take very good care of yourselves and know your boundaries because this is going to be a great conversation, but probably a very frank conversation. And I have a very special guest I cannot wait for you to meet, but I want you to please exercise care if you need to, okay. So with that said, let me just say hi to my ever loyal sexy beast Brian Allan Hill, how are you today?

Brian: Doing great, how is everybody out there?

Lisa: And Dean Laffan the wonder from down under, how are you doing?

Dean: I'm very well, thank you. Good to see you again, Lisa and Brian.

Lisa: I'm hoping that I get to make Brian and Dean blush today. I'm really looking forward to that. So let me just lay it out there y'all. I am a very sex positive person when it comes to sex on screen, I'm not just talking about adult erotica, but sex in TV shows and cinema whether it's a consummation of "will they, won't they" get together, slow burning passion between the leads with this delicious animosity and chemistry that leads to sex, or more importantly sex that is about a very specific and difficult context. Sex that's born of grief, of pain, of secrets and lies and sex that moves the story forward, or just deepens your understanding of the character. Whatever the sex is between consenting adults on screen, no matter the sexual identity, orientation, and no matter if they have classically beautiful bodies and fantastic faces, or if they look like me, just the average everyday person grinding it out? I'm here for it. I am absolutely here for it. And some people may say, oh sex scenes are gratuitous and some people may have issues with nudity and that's fine. But indulgence means different things to different people. And for me, done right, sex is a very powerful and necessary thing. But those performances of simulated sex come at a price. And it's the actors on screen, they pay that price. And in the past, sometimes sex scenes are highly choreographed and a lot of times it's a lot of illusion camera trickery. Maybe people aren't totally nude, maybe they are. The fact of the matter is these scenes make those performers very vulnerable and in the past, in the very sad past of our industry in Hollywood and abroad, it's easy for that trust to be broken. It's easy for lines to be crossed and boundaries to be forgotten. But I have here today a very special guest who's going to talk us through something new that has come into our industry that is so needed. I can't even believe that we never had it before. I want to introduce to you an immensely successful casting director. She has cast some of the most important movies of my childhood and my premenstrual sexual Tween hood. She was on the casting team for ET. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, St Elmo's Fire, Pretty in Pink, Mean Girls, I could go on and on but I'm not going to because she in the last few years has become an Intimacy Coordinator. Please say hello to my queen Marci Liroff.

Marci Liroff: Hi am happy to be here.

Lisa: Oh Marcie, thank you for jumping on. And I know you are on the East Coast right now and you are instead of casting this show, you are the intimacy coordinator for this show. Do you want to tell us a little bit about this show, what you can tell us?

Marci Liroff: Sure. I'm working on a series called "High Town" and it's in its second season and we're in Wilmington North Carolina on location. We've been here since October and it's a very dark and thrilling show and it centers around Provincetown which is known to be a wild vacation town in the summertime. But this focuses on the people that live there, and addiction, basically kind of the deep dark secrets that go on from the working class people that live there.

Lisa: I haven't seen the first season, but it sounds amazing.

Marci Liroff: Yeah, it's really, really good.

Lisa: I'm sure a lot of our listeners have never heard the term intimacy coordinator before. It is a new role on the call sheet and I really just want you to just dig in, tell us what it is. Tell us why you turned to it after this amazing career as a casting director, I'm sure you still are casting. But what made you want to turn to this and just educate us on what it is and what you do?

Marci Liroff: Well, let me start off by telling you what the job is. So it is a newish job and I'll tell you how it came to be. There's a TV series called "The Deuce" on HBO. And they were going into their second season and it focuses on sex workers. And Maggie Gyllenhaal stars in this show, and the series regulars were going back to work and one of them, an actress named Emily Meade was feeling very vulnerable in these scenes, because they would have to do these scenes with guest stars that were coming in, not series regulars, day players that were coming in and as you said, these are very highly vulnerable scenes and she felt like she was kind of working without a net, so to speak. And she and some of the other actors went to HBO to describe what it is that they need it. And kind of somewhat invented the job because this job had existed in theater for a bit and in film and television what we're doing is collaborating with the filmmakers to help get their story on the screen in an authentic way. And then working with the actors as well, as their liaison and as their advocate for these scenes to make sure that they stay safe and to talk about things like consent and boundaries ahead of time so that there's no surprises on the day and everybody feels safe and we get what we need, but it's in a very safe way, consent is really the cornerstone of this job. In the old days, actors would have a nude scene or a simulated sex scene -- and we do say simulated sex because we really want to clarify that they are not having sex. Some people if it's shot well, it looks like they are. We want to make sure that people know that this is not real. And so in the old days, actors would be wrapped in a sheet. They would show up and like, hi, how you doing. And the director would say, okay, go for it. And they don't know, there was no plan, there was no choreography and we're very similar in a way to a stunt coordinator. And if you think about a stunt being done when actors show up and they're putting that could be a dangerous situation and someone says, okay, go for it. I mean stunts are rehearsed, there are safety meetings, it is choreographed, and it is a very serious venture. So the same thing is applied to simulated sex scenes and nudity. So as I said, we collaborate with the film crew and actors, the actors advocate on set and in preparation for the scenes. So that's kind of the short answer and we can get into more of it. And how I