Outlander: For the first time, an intimacy Coordinator was brought in for Season 6

With Season 6 of Starz’s Outlander about to drop, Sam Heughan has made quite the startling revelation ahead of the premiere.

Those who watch Outlander quite often do so for the riveting take on history and the supernatural time-traveling aspect of it. Others do so for the more… intimate scenes.

Ever since Season 1, the show has shown a broad range of nudity, and the main characters, Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Claire (Caitriona Balfe) are no exception, which makes the announcement that an intimacy coordinator had been called on set all the more surprising.

Outlander’s intimate scenes get advice from an intimacy coordinator

With all of the sexy scenes that Jamie and Claire have been involved in and how close of a professional relationship they have, it might seem like a surprise that Heughan called in an intimacy coordinator to help out.

However, according to Parade, Sam Heughan wanted to make sure that not only was everyone protected during filming but that the racy scenes included in Season 6 of Outlander were as good as they could possibly be.

“I brought on board the intimacy advisor Vanessa Coffey because, with intimate scenes, it’s important that everyone is protected, but also we find a way to explore these scenes and actually maybe get something more out of them,” Heughan revealed.

“I think this season we’ve done an even better job with those types of scenes because she really helped us understand what we are doing and how we build up this relationship and take it somewhere else, so she’s been terrific.”

What are intimacy coordinators?

Intimacy coordinators are hired in order to ensure the well-being of any actor involved in an intimate scene. Since the Weinstein scandal in 2017, there has been more call for intimacy coordinators on set while filming in order to make sure nothing untoward goes on and that every actor feels comfortable with what they are doing in front of the camera.

As reported by The Wrap, SAG-AFTRA recently accredited seven new training programs in order to ensure there is adequate training.

As for Outlander, even though Heughan and Balfe have always performed risque intimate scenes for Outlander, over time, Heughan has come to realize that neither actor was prepared for these sorts of scenes when they first signed up for the hit historical drama series.

“I got into this in a very different time and the Starz network was different, but also the industry was different, and so we really didn’t know what we were doing. We were thrown in the deep end and had to learn through the experience, so I think it’s been really great to bring Vanessa on board to help younger actors with less experience.”

As for when viewers can check out the results of the intimacy coordinator, they only need to look to the Season 6 premiere of Outlander.

Season 6 of Outlander premieres on March 6, 2022, on Starz.