“We honour the narrative, we’re being truthful, and we’re working safely and comfortably,” Asha Jennings-Grant tells me when recalling her experience as intimacy coordinator on 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Baldur’s Gate 3, a rol꧙e which is the first of its kind in the medium. In a game boasting plenty of sex scenes, nudity, and romantic relationships, Larian wanted to make sure its RPG was coming across as mature and nuanced, but it also wanted to allow the actors, developers, and crea💙tives involved to feel safe throughout the process.
For years now, Grant has worked as a movement director in the realms of film, television, stage, and performance capture. Baldur’s Gate 3 was her first foray into the world of video games. It was a strange and daunting assignment she spent years with; focusing on the romantic side of things with 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Shadowheart and Lae’zel alongside general guidance across movement of characters and parts of the world. It’s one of the vital roles in production that many fans likely take for granted, failing to realise what it means to take advantage of real world spaces where n♛othing exists, but for actors, everything and more must come to life.

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Grant first dipped her toes into intimacy work during the tail end of 2019 after hearing about the role in film and televisioꦐn, knowing immediately that her e🃏xpertise could transfer into the space seamlessly. But then came along the pandemic, which forced productions the world over to shut down as thousands were suddenly out of work.
This, according to Grant, was the inspiration for her to pursue this new craft. “When we were forced to sit down and be still, to think, to reflect, and to see things that we wouldn’t have seen, I think there were a lot of shifts within the arts,” Grant explains. “🍸Not just with intimacy work, [but also] equity and inclusion because those were the two areas that affected me the most. I think there was a shift and people thinking, ‘How can𝐆 we do better? How can we make this more of a fulfilling industry? That we’re including everybody, and making the right choices when it comes to productions?’ If COVID hadn’t happened, and we weren’t in lockdown I’m not sure if there would have been such a huge rush to have intimacy coordinators on board, but it was bound to happen.”
Intimacy coordination can differ greatly depending on the medium. Stage instead labels you as a director, giving professionals like Grant more freedom to 😼create the intimate acts which will eventually be folded into the production. Compared to film or television, it’s perceived differently by the viewer, often with different intentions, and so this must be brought into account. When it came to Baldur’s Gate 3, coordinators were assigned to specific characters and plotlines, with Grant working alongside Jennifer English and Samantha Béart who fans will know as the talent behind Shadowheart and Karlach.
“It was a first for me, Pitstop [Productions], and Larian, so we were just figuring it out,” Grant recalls. “My first question was, ‘What do you need? Essentially, why am I here? What is required?’ and so it was made clear in terms of scenes, what the actor𒉰s had to do, and what environments were being set up. As I was going along I discovered that it’d be good to share guidelines and protocols so that everyone in all the departme🐽nts involved in crafting these intimate scenes knew what was going on.”
Grant seemingly sought to imitate many🍒 of the practices intimacy coordinators adopt when it comes to film and television. Consent is at the forefront, for both the actors involved and the production staff present either on the volume or who will play a part in piecing these scenes together later on in the creative process. Sex is a vulnerable part of the human condition and something we love to see represented in media in myriad ways, but it has to be done in both a respectfully and accurately, even in a fantastical game like Baldur’s Gate 3. Grant can be seen as a sort of guiding hand for this expression, while also making sure everyone involved is informed🐼 and knows exactly what to expect.
“Sometimes there are areas where it gets a bit vague or unclear,” Grant adds. “So long as everyone knows this is the look, this is the angle, this is the shot, this is the environment, this is what the actor is going to be doingꩵ, this is what they’re going to be saying. So everyone is in the know from the writers, to the editors in the room, you need to make sure they are all involved in that understanding.”
Larian incorporated intimacy coordination into Baldur’s Gate 3 later in development, with a few members of staff asked to cover certain characters and stoꦉry arcs. Grant explains how compartmentalizing these parts of the production allowed performances to be far more focused and intimate, instead of sex in the game feeling as if it was being shunted off a production line. When it comes to acting out sex scenes, much of it is a matter of instinct.
“I tend to leave it to them, or kind of follow the actor’s instinct,” Grant tells me. “They know what’s best, you are just there to facilitate and support, maybe add one or two suggestions if you think, ‘Oh, this might look nice’ but essentially it’s them leading and doing what&r🐲squo;s right for them... With actors, and everyone’s different obviously, but you really just have to step back and let them do what they do best. 🌱This is their craft. It’s the same with voice directors, they are there to help them get this vocal performance to a certain level, but it’s also about the act of figuring it out for themselves. It’s a nice kind of collaboration, to be sharing that space.”
Grant isn’t a gamer, so was quite surprised when she learned that intimacy coordination in the medium was not only in its infancy, but potentially didn’t exist altogether. Video games have often been a boys ๊club where sex is framed in a heteronormative and immature way. Baldur’s Gate 3 isn’t shy about its horniness, but celebrates the sexuality of its characters instead of objectifying them.
“I’m aware of sexual content and sensitive content in games,”🦹 Grant makes clear. “I think everyone knows that. So I think it’s very interesting that, just like in TV and film, that now there’s an awareness of it, awareness of that role be✱ing able to be in that space and work within the processes that have already been established. With games, I really hope this is kind of an opening for game developers to think about including an intimacy coordinator in their process to support the team. I think it makes sense.”
Grant laughs and says it will probably take her weeks and months to get through Baldur’s Gate 3 if she dared to start it, but has been overwhelm𒁃ed by the positive reception to the world, characters, and stories she played a small part in bringing to life. It points towards positive futures for the role of intimacy cooꦅrdinators in video games, and how such a role should have been embraced a long time ago.
“This is the first time and the only time I’ve worked on a video game and the first time I’ve experienced something of this scale,” Grant says. “These are real, relatable things people feel in real life, so we’ve gotta make it real. These are real actors, real humans portraying these characters, so weಌ’ve got to protect them, and make sure everyone involved is also protected. It’s funny, and I hate to think it’s because of the position I’m in, but it should be a given, it should make sense that we are doing this type of work and taking care of each other, we’re making sure there’s no grey areas and people aren’t overstepping boundaries.
“That’s a given, but it’s not because other people have different experiences, and have done other things way before I was even born. So it’s definitely something that will take time for people to understand its true goals and how it will benefit a production as a whole, and when it does, you get great results like Baldur’s Gate 3🌳.”