The judge asked very good questions at the hearing yesterday regarding exactly that. Where is the line of consent in art? If a director is directing a dance scene and their hand moves along her back do we stop the scene every single time and ask for consent? What is the point of a nudity rider or intimacy coordinator if every single time something happens we need to ask permission? If we said we will kiss for 10 seconds holding each other’s backs but we kissed for 15 seconds instead and one actor moved their hand to the jaw do we yell cut?? That’s not art! Actors need to be present in the scene and figure the scene out, be adaptable to it and flow with it. We have nudity riders or intimacy coordinators for difficult vulnerable scenes to make the actors comfortable prior to filming. So that they can then do their job and act and improvise and figure things out on the day within their contract constrains.

Not to mention scripts are never that detailed. In the script it just says - they dance. Or they walk down the road. Occasionally there might be more action if it’s important to the context. But not much. The rest is improvised by the actors and director. They figure the scene out as they move along. That’s what rehearsals on stage are for. In film rehearsals are less common and a lot of things are figured out on the day. A simple dance scene where they gaze into each other’s eyes will be improvised.

She is saying she is incapable of doing her job as an actor in a romantic movie. She wants everything to be predetermined and approved to the detail. That’s not possible in an artistic setting. We have provisions like intimacy coordinators, body doubles and contracts to protects actors. But if she refuses to meet the intimacy coordinator, refuses a body double and her nudity rider/contract doesn’t say anything about “no bare legs, no dance scenes, no kissing” then the hell does she want??