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Sean Bean: Intimacy consultants cause more inhibitions for sex scenes

Sean Bean would be inhibited with an intimacy consultant credit:Bang Showbiz
Sean Bean would be inhibited with an intimacy consultant credit:Bang Showbiz

Sean Bean thinks intimacy consultants "spoil the spontaneity" of sex scenes.

The 63-year-old actor doesn't think the "joy" he shared with Joely Richardson in 1993's raunchy drama 'Lady Chatterley' would be the same if it was filmed again now with experts on hand to choreograph the intimate moments and he believes he'd only become more "inhibited" if someone was brought on set to guide his behaviour.

He said: “I should imagine it slows down the thrust of it. Ha, not the thrust, that’s the wrong word. It would spoil the spontaneity.

"It would inhibit me more because it’s drawing attention to things. Somebody saying, ‘Do this, put your hand there, while you touch his thing…’

“I think the natural way lovers behave would be ruined by someone bringing it right down to a technical exercise.

“'Lady Chatterley' was spontaneous. It was joy. We had a good chemistry between us, and we knew what we were doing was unusual. Because she was married, I was married. But we were following the story. We were trying to portray the truth of what DH Lawrence wrote.”

Sean was disappointed when a "surreal" nude scene he shared with an actress on 'Snowpiercer', featuring mangoes, was heavily edited before transmission.

He told The Times magazine: "I think they cut a bit out actually. Often the best work you do, where you’re trying to push the boundaries, and the very nature of it is experimental, gets censored when TV companies or the advertisers say it’s so much. It’s a nice scene, quite surreal, dream-like and abstract. And mango-esque.”

And he insisted his co-star was "up for anything" on camera.

After it was pointed out that intimacy consultants were hired to protect actresses in the wake of the #MeToo movement, he said: “I suppose it depends on the actress. This one had a musical cabaret background, so she was up for anything.”

The former 'Game of Thrones' star - who married fifth wife Ashley Moore in 2017 - insisted men should "celebrate" their "sexuality and masculinity".

Asked if he thinks it is harder to be a man these days, he said: “Yes, I suppose it is, really. Certain aspects of a man’s character are frowned upon now as being discriminatory or boorish.

"But I think you’ve got to be careful we do not lose sight of what a man is. Look at the old heroes in mythology, history – there’s a great respect for a man’s adventures and his strengths. A lot of men these days are made to feel like apologists for their sexuality and their masculinity.

"And I think that’s something that men have to retain and celebrate as much as women celebrate their femininity.”