The industry’s intimacy coordinators have spoken: They want to unionize with SAG-AFTRA.
In a National Labor Relations Board ballot count on Tuesday, all participating intimacy coordinators voted to join the 160,000-member performers’ union, SAG-AFTRA announced on Tuesday. Information as to how many intimacy coordinators participated in the election was not available as of press time.
“In these sobering times with looming threats to environmental protections and women’s equality, it is refreshing to see the entertainment industry’s recognition of intimacy coordinators and their important contribution to productions and to performers in intimate scenes,” union president Fran Drescher said in a statement. “We at SAG-AFTRA are proud to include this esteemed group of trained professionals as the newest to join our member body.”
The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers for comment.
The vote represents a culmination in the relationship between these crew members and the union, which has taken steps to professionalize the role since it ascended in the wake of the #MeToo movement. Intimacy coordinators, who choreograph nude and sexual scenes, have long worked on theater productions. But they became more prevalent on film and television sets starting in 2018, when HBO promised to hire an intimacy coordinator for all intimate scenes on its productions. Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and Starz followed suit.
SAG-AFTRA began scrutinizing the position because “our members are the ones who are in front of the camera doing the hyper-exposed work,” then-union president Gabrielle Carteris told THR in 2020. The union published guidelines for the role early that year then granted accreditation to several training programs for intimacy coordinators. In 2022 the union’s National Board signaled its interest in welcoming the group into the union. Two years later, SAG-AFTRA filed a petition for a union election with the NLRB.
As a result of Tuesday’s vote, the union and the AMPTP can begin the process of negotiating a first contract, unless any objections are registered with the NLRB before the results are certified. Intimacy coordinators have previously stated that they would like to institute standardized wages and benefits.