Cynthia Erivo shines light on intimacy coordinators’ role in filming difficult scenes

Cynthia Erivo, in his upcoming movie, Prima Facie, portrays Tessa Ensler, who her colleague sexually assaults.

To shoot such difficult scenes which involve sexual assault, Erivo said the role of the intimacy coordinator becomes important on set.

“Lizzy, our intimacy coordinator, was really helpful with creating a space that felt very safe,” she said at the London Film Festival.

By portraying a victim of sexual assault, Erivo said, she has to distance herself mentally from the character.

“I had to understand what it was like to be in your body but not there, so finding what that looked like for me, where you’re there but you have to check out to stay safe. And that was the thing that we had to figure out — how to do that and come back safely.”

Even fictionalising performing trauma can have an emotional toll, so Erivo said, “A lot of this was really hard to film, but the hardest thing was actually coming back from filming it.”

“Getting your feet back on the ground, getting back into your body and finding the safest place again.”

Prima Facie is set to hit UK and Irish cinemas on Nov. 13.