Gemma Whelan, who played the queer Yara Greyjoy on Game of Thrones, has said sex scenes on the show could be a “frenzied mess”.
Whelan is set to star in the upcoming ITV police drama The Tower, and she told The Guardian that sex scenes in the series are overseen by an intimacy coach.
However, it was a different story on Game of Thrones, she said, with actors “left to get on with it” She explained: “They used to just say: ‘When we shout action, go for it,’ and it could be a sort of frenzied mess. But between the actors there was always an instinct to check in with each other. 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.”