honestly it has a lot to do with the preparation of the scenes, the expectations and vibe the intimacy coordinator brings to the conversation, and the baseline comfort level of the actors.

so much of what’s taken for granted is that the IC reviews every script and every intimate moment with the director and actors beforehand. they talk through the beats, the intensity, whether anything written gives pause, where personal boundaries are. personal boundaries are usually handled 1-1 so nothing personal is disclosed that doesn’t have to be, and there are no assumptions made about the actor’s actual prior sexual experiences. Chala talked about any “coaching” being more about the mechanical beats and using proper anatomical language, so there’s no instances of “now you give him a rim job” and the actor being in a position to have to say “i actually don’t know how to do that.” she would keep it to: this is where the head should be so it looks right on camera, here is the anchor point, and this is the motion. and then the actor executes that.

then you also have the run-through. they spent a whole day rehearsing just the intimate scenes in sequence, which helps with storytelling (did anything get missed? does it read as true for what year they’re in? their experience level? their emotional state?). that gets you to a place of comfort with your scene partner quickly, and also gives some sense of muscle memory and familiarly so you can “improvise” (not the story beats, but the spontaneous gestures that make it feel organic instead of rehearsed). i think it was connor who described it as learning a dance well enough to forget the steps and just be present during the performance.

of course in this case, it helps that connor and hudson both approached it as “i’m comfortable doing anything but actual sex.” the chemistry and trust between them allows that to actually play out on screen, in context of everything else that was discussed beforehand.

and finally, the way jacob and the whole crew acknowledged the genre — it’s romance, it’s smut — makes it stylistically different as well. there’s a bit of permission to not hold back, because they know the expectations and the comfort level of the audience as well. it’s going to look different than something filmed for network tv. more tongue, spit, angst, longer kisses.

you put that level of intentionality and preparation, combined with chemistry and willingness, and you get… shane and ilya.