Actress Niamh Algar has opened up about working with intimacy co-ordinators – saying she feels more comfortable portraying sex on screen because of them.
The Mullingar native, who is currently starring in ITV’s hit medical drama Malpractice, said she is working with intimacy co-ordinators for her latest undisclosed project.
She said they are an "amazing addition" to the industry.
READ MORE: Irish actress Niamh Algar to star in new medical drama Malpractice
She told us: "We've got an amazing intimacy coordinator where it opens up the dialogue and gives you more scope and more room to explore the scenes in larger details in a way where everyone is happy.
"Once everyone feels safe there is a trust there and I think it is really important.
"I think it is an amazing addition (to the industry).
"I’ve had amazing experiences with directors where you love that collaboration with someone because it is choreography, it is almost like a dance and angles. It’s almost like when you understand how a camera works and camera movements. It’s a big moving part and every moving part has to be counted for."
On Malpractice, Niamh plays Lucinda Edwards, a dedicated doctor whose life is derailed when her shift ends in the death of an opioid overdose victim.
Also starring in the show is her husband Lorne MacFadyen, who plays Tom Edwards.
"He is incredible in this series, so that was an amazing opportunity," beamed Niamh on ITV’s This Morning last week.
"We had always wanted to work together and this opportunity came upon us.
"His mum is an A&E nurse
"We are both kids of mothers who were working within the health service, so we understood the strain that can take on a family, because you are giving so much of yourself all day, and then you go home – what else have you got left to give to your kids and partner?
"There was an incredible kind of understanding, so we wanted to approach with as much sensitivity and authenticity as possible."
Opening up about shooting long medical scenes, she admitted she found some of it exhausting.
"Yes and no. When we were doing any of the medical procedures… I'm not a doctor and trying to say the medical jargon and make it believable.. you can’t just ad lib that.
"There was one day and we had filmed a lot of what happens in episode five and it is very emotionally-driven.
"We had to go back and reshoot some of the scenes in the hospital that same day and I was completely drained and there was a big medical speech that I had to give.
"My brain just completely went blank and it wasn’t like I could make it up on the spot. We had medical supervisors on set at all times so I counted on them as much as we could," she added.
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