World news and discussion on TalkFuse.
Olivia Wilde and Cooper Hoffman Used Pain Scale Ratings to Prep BDSM Scenes in ‘I Want Your Sex’: She ‘Hit Him Really Hard and’ It Was ‘Only a Seven or Eight’
Cooper Hoffman and Olivia Wilde worked with intimacy coordinator Yehuda Duenyas to prepare BDSM scenes for Gregg Araki’s erotic thriller ‘I Want Your Sex’. The preparation included agreed pain-scale ratings and choreographed boundaries, reflecting the growing use of intimacy coordinators to make explicit scenes safer and more structured for performers.
Hoffman, filming sex scenes for the first time, plays a recent graduate who enters a dominant-submissive relationship with Wilde’s gallery-owner character. The film includes staged scenes involving bondage, spanking and sexual props; Duenyas compared his work to stunt choreography, saying the audience sees realism while performers rely on careful planning and safeguards. Wilde reportedly struck Hoffman hard during preparation, but he rated the impact only seven or eight on the agreed scale.
In short
- Intimacy coordination helped prepare explicit BDSM scenes safely.
- Hoffman filmed sex scenes for the first time.
- Pain scales and choreography set clear boundaries.
Explained simply
BDSM is a broad term for consensual sexual activities involving things such as restraint, role-play or agreed exchanges of control. In films, scenes that depict these activities are staged performances, so actors and filmmakers need to agree how they will be carried out.
An intimacy coordinator helps plan scenes involving nudity or simulated sexual activity, including boundaries and movements. Their work can resemble stunt coordination: performers rehearse actions so the scene appears convincing while remaining controlled.
In Gregg Araki’s film, Cooper Hoffman plays a recent graduate who enters a dominant-submissive relationship with a character played by Olivia Wilde. The film’s preparation reflects a wider effort in screen production to make intimate scenes more clearly planned and to give performers ways to communicate their limits.
Americas Entertainment Film World