Gemma Whelan says Game Of Thrones didn't have an intimacy coordinator, so sex scenes were a "frenzied mess"
The actor, who played Yara Greyjoy, opens up about the reality of filming the show's sex scenes
Gemma Whelan was profiled by The Guardian to talk about her upcoming role in the ITV’s The Tower, where she’ll play Detective Sergeant Sarah Collins in the adaptation of Kate London’s novel Post Mortem. In the interview, she also looks back at playing Yara Greyjoy on Game Of Thrones. She particularly opens up about what it was like to shoot intimate scenes—including the very awkward one where Yara shares a passionate moment with her brother, Theon.
Turns out, no matter how much money HBO has, they chose to not get an intimacy coordinator to guide them through the show’s many sex scenes. The actors were instead left to figure it all out on their own.
“They used to just say, ‘When we shout action, go for it!’, and it could be a sort of frenzied mess,” Whelan recalls. The actors were, at least, intuitive and consent-focused enough to check in with each other, according to the actor.
She adds, “There was a scene in a brothel with a woman and she was so exposed that we talked together about where the camera would be and what she was happy with. A director might say, ‘Bit of boob biting, then slap her bum and go!’, but I’d always talk it through with the other actor.”