House of the Dragon star Olivia Cooke reveals the awkward feedback intimacy coordinator gave her while filming season two

Actress, 30, from Oldham, said intimacy coordinators 'take awkwardness away' Read More: Has Kate Moss returned to her noughties partying heyday? Model is queen of the party scene again 

House of the Dragon star Olivia Cooke has revealed the awkward feedback she got from an intimacy coordinator while filming season two.

The actress, 30, from Oldham, plays Alicent Hightower in the hit HBO series, which returns for a second season from today.

Speaking to Cosmopolitan UK, the star - who has previously appeared in Bates Motel and Slow Horses -  spoke about the benefits of having intimacy coordinators on set.

Describing how it 'takes the awkwardness' away, Olivia said: 'You're then not having to petition for your own boundaries, and your own safety.'

As a result, Olivia said that preparing for a sex scene is like learning 'choreography' - and revealed how intimacy coordinators had to give her some advice on the day of filming.

Pictured: Olivia Cooke (who plays Alicent Hightower) at the House of Dragon season two premiere in Paris earlier this month

She explained: 'One day, [intimacy coordinator Vanessa Coffey] came up to me and we were doing a sex scene and she was like, "Olivia, can you just arch your back, and look like you're into it a little bit more."

'And I was like, "great thank you", because I was thinking about everything else under the sun.'

Season two is the first time Olivia Cooke has had to perform sex scenes for House of the Dragon.

Speaking to Elle UK, the star explained how she thought she might have more intimate scenes in the latest season.

She said: 'I thought there’d be way more, and so I’m relieved that when it has been used for me, it’s showing Alicent being pleasured, which is amazing and doesn’t feel gratuitous. It feels like we’re telling a story.'

Olivia's comments come after Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke claims bosses 'guilt-tripped' her into performing multiple nude scenes so she didn't 'disappoint' fans.

Appearing on Dax Shepard's Armchair Expert podcast in 2019, Emilia - who played Daenerys Targaryen - said she found the amount of nudity in Game of Thrones 'overwhelming'.

Sex scene co-ordinator Vanessa Coffey, who worked with Billie Piper on Sky Atlantic series I Hate Suzie and Daisy Edgar-Jones in H. G. Wells’s War Of The Worlds, told the Mail in 2021 that there's some poetry in organising intimate moments between actors.

Season two is the first time Olivia Cooke (pictured) has had to perform sex scenes for House of the Dragon

Olivia (pictured) said of her House of the Dragon sex scenes: 'I thought there’d be way more, and so I’m relieved that when it has been used for me, it’s showing Alicent being pleasured, which is amazing and doesn’t feel gratuitous'

Emilia Clarke claimed Game Of Thrones bosses 'guilt-tripped her into performing multiple nude scenes so she didn't disappoint fans' (a still from series one - Emilia was aged 23)

She said: 'Choreographing a sex scene is very much like choreographing a dance. The actors need to know exactly where hands are going, where body parts are going to be, what’s going to be visible or not visible on camera.

‘Many have areas, whether that’s nipples or their intergluteal cleft (bum crack, to you and me) that they’re not comfortable showing on screen, so we have to respect and accommodate that with careful camera angling.’

Intimacy co-ordinator Lizzy Talbot, who was recently tasked with making the characters in Bridgerton comfortable in their close-contact scenes, told Sarah Rainey for The Daily Mail: ‘We had weeks before filming where we would break down every scene into single choreographed moments. People go, “Well, is it like a stunt or is it like a dance?”’

Jonathan Bailey, who plays Anthony Bridgerton, previously explained the logistics to the Radio Times in 2022.

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He revealed that he'd been instructed to use a half-deflated netball when acting out lustful scenes with the character of Kate Sharma, played by Simone Ashley, in season two of the show. 

The semi-flattened sporting equipment, he said, enables actors to move against each other in a realistic manner, without intimate parts of the body touching.

Bailey explained: 'It's amazing how that whole industry has just come on, even in a year. There are new tricks to the trade – little cushions – and it's amazing what you can do with a half-inflated netball.'

The actor elaborated on the use of the netball, saying: 'If there are two people doing a sex scene, the rule is they must have three barriers separating them and there are certain acts where a half-inflated netball can allow for movement without having to connect physically.'

Meanwhile, Queenie actress Dionne Brown recently spoke about filming the show's 'nerve-wracking' sex scenes.

She told What to Watch: 'The sex scenes were super nerve-wracking. I could have thrown up beforehand from nerves.

Episode five of Bridgerton features a six-minute long sex scene between Penelope Featherington ( Nicola Coughlan ) and Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton)

Queenie actress Dionne Brown (pictured) recently spoke about filming the show's 'nerve-wracking' sex scenes

'Sex is normal and it's a part of life but I never even had to kiss anyone at drama school and then I've come into this show where I'm going to have to be super intimate with different men and not all of it is nice. Some of the sex scenes are quite heavy.'

As such, Dionne praised the show's intimacy coordinator Adelaide Waldrop, who has previously worked on the Netflix series You and Sex Education.

The star says she had three meetings with Adelaide during their rehearsal week as well as meetings with her male colleagues, where they discussed intimacy underwear and signals so they would know if the other was uncomfortable.

Raving about Adelaide, Dionne told the BBC: 'There were loads of things I just assumed were normal, but when I told the intimacy coordinator she said that wasn't the case.

'If you're not comfortable with being touched in certain places or have someone else's tongue in your mouth then you absolutely do not have to do it.'

In an interview with BBC Radio 4's Women's Hour, Dionne explained how she and Adelaide 'mapped out safe spaces' so that filming intimate scenes almost resembled choreography.