Released in January 2024, “Miller’s Girl” is an erotic thriller film written and directed by Jade Halley Bartlett. The story centers on Jenna Ortega and her dedicated English teacher Martin Freeman. Their lives become intertwined when a creative writing assignment leads to unexpected consequences, blurring the lines between student and teacher, as well as guidance, and manipulation.
While the movie might have mixed reviews for its story, it certainly has sparked a lot of controversy due to a specific scene featuring the two lead actors. Beyond the discussion from fans, it has unexpectedly led to a significant change in industry guidelines as well!
What Changes Have SAG-AFTRA Made To Intimacy Coordinator Rules
Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, known as SAG-AFTRA, recently issued new Standards and Protocols guidelines concerning Intimacy coordinators. As per these guidelines, an Intimacy Coordinator is “an advocate, a liaison between actors and production, and a movement coach and/or choreographer in regards to nudity and simulated s*x and other intimate and hyper-exposed scenes.”
Essentially, a coordinator is the one who organizes all the scenes of intimation in entertainment. SAG-AFTRA ensures that such an artist has to follow some norms to safeguard the interest of actors. One major protocol an Intimacy Coordinator must now have to follow is to seek permission from the actors before discussing anything about a scene.
“Intimacy coordinators should maintain the confidentiality of an actor’s work and experience
in performing highly sensitive scenes unless they have the actor’s permission to publicly
share this information. The public release of details about an actor’s scene work or
confidences entrusted to the intimacy coordinator without the performer’s consent is
unacceptable.” – The SAG-AFTRA Standards and Protocols
This comes just a day after a recent incident involving the Intimacy Coordinator of Martin Freeman and Jenny Ortega‘s Miller Girl.
How Martin Freeman & Jenna Ortega’s Miller’s Girl Led SAG-AFTRA to Change Intimacy Coordinator Rules
(**Spoiler**) In Miller Girl, Martin Freeman, and Jenny Ortega play the role of a teacher and a student. Their relationship is, however, much more complex. In the movie, the student writes an erotic sequence which she then enacts with the teacher that involves a s*x scene.
Kristina Arjona was the intimacy coordinator for the scene and recently appeared in an interview with The Daily Mail. She discussed things from the scene and the thoughts of the actor while doing that particular scene.
“There was many, many people throughout this process, engaging with [Jenna] to make sure that it was consistent with what she was comfortable with, and she was very determined and very sure of what she wanted to do,” Arjona said. “Part of my job too is supporting her decisions. I adapt to whatever is the comfort level of my actors, especially on a production like this where there is a large age gap between the actors.”
“For this film, in particular, because of the sensitivity of the content, they had some different variations of how they wanted to shoot these scenes so that audiences could watch them at test screenings to see what was too much,” – Kristina Arjona to The Daily Mail
Presumably, SAG-AFTRA viewed this as a breach of privacy and introduced better ways to ensure that such confidential details of intimate scenes will be not known to anyone without the consent of the actors. Miller’s Girl can be watched in the nearest theatres.
