Allison Williams wishes the Girls set had an intimacy coordinator. The 37-year-old actress played Marnie Michaels in six seasons of Lena Dunham鈥檚 hit HBO show 鈥 which ran from 2012 to 2017 鈥 and she has admitted having someone on hand for the steamy scenes would have been 鈥渟o helpful鈥.
She told the Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast: 鈥淚t would have been great, because we had so many sex scenes to prep and work through. It would have been so helpful to have someone who鈥檚, like, department head of sex scenes.鈥
Allison recalled one explicit scene she shared with Ebon Moss-Bachrach 鈥 who played her character鈥檚 boyfriend Desi 鈥 in season four premiere Iowa, which aired in January 2015. She revealed that Lena and executive producer Jenni Konner helped them figure the scene out.
She said, 鈥淚 have this picture of Lena and [Jenni] acting out the moment where Desi was going down on me 鈥 and I have a picture of them where I think it鈥檚 Jenni is leaning over a windowsill and Lena is leaning behind her like smiling being like, 鈥楾his is what we picture鈥. And I was like, 鈥楪reat!鈥 But they were busy. That should have been someone else鈥檚 job.鈥
The same year Girls ended, the film and TV industry as a whole has shifted, with intimacy coordinators now expected to be on sets as the norm. Stuntwoman Alicia Rodis was hired by HBO in 2017 to work on The Deuce, and the role was then a requirement for all of the network鈥檚 projects.
Allison has worked with them on other projects, and she is full of praise for the positive and vital impact they have. She added, 鈥淏y the time everyone shows up to do it, none of that is being litigated on that day. You already know what you鈥檙e wearing for your nude covering, what the rules are, if your co-star feels comfortable with a certain type of kissing or not. So you鈥檙e all just ready to go, and it鈥檚 so nice.鈥