Intimacy coordinators are not given enough credit, says Cynthia Erivo: "They are often given a hard time" but "what they do is important"

Cynthia Erivo spoke candidly about the importance of working with an intimacy coordinator in her new film "Prima Facie" in a speech at the London Film Festival on Monday, saying they are often "not given enough credit." In her Villain debut, Erivo leads the prima facie role as Tessa Ensler, a successful defense […]

In her first post-Villain role, Erivo takes the prima facie role as Tessa Ensler, a successful defense attorney who finds herself at the center of a courtroom when she is sexually assaulted by a colleague. The film, based on Suzy Miller's acclaimed stage play, premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last month and made its UK premiere at the London Film Festival on Tuesday. RELATED STORIES LaKeith Stanfield Previews Paramount Primal's Molepeople Blumhouse Atomic Monster at New York Comic-Con Magic: The Gathering Reveals New 'Darkhold Destiny' Marvel Series 'Avengers: Doomsday' Gift Card Only in Theaters

Erivo said he knew "instantly" that he wanted to sign on for the film, which he also produced. "I just had this feeling that it was more important than I was even aware of and I wanted to be apart of it," she said. Popular in Variety

He readily admitted that filming the intense legal drama was "really hard," especially a scene involving an assault. That's where the film's intimacy coordinator, Lizzie Talbot, stepped in.

"Lizzie, our intimacy coordinator, was really helpful in creating an environment that felt safe," Erivo said. "I had to figure out what it's like to be in your body, but not there, so finding what it looks like to me is where you are, but you have to check to stay safe. And that's what we had to figure out — how to do that and come back safe.

"A lot of it was really hard to shoot, but the hardest thing was actually coming back from shooting it," he continued. Put your feet back on the ground, come back to your body and find the safest place again."

Erivo said she and Daniel Ings, who plays the lawyer who attacks Tessa, had many discussions about how to handle the scene in a way that would make both of them feel safe.

"He was very, very kind from the beginning and immediately wanted to talk about how we can protect each other and how we can help in those moments so that we can go as far as we need to and come back," she said.

"I think intimacy coordinators don't get enough credit and they often have a hard time doing what they need to do on a set," Erivo added. But what they do is incredibly important. And it's not just about designing a sex scene, a love scene, but sometimes it's about how you don't just choreograph these really tough, heartbreaking scenes, but make sure that everybody gets back into their bodies safely.

Erivo said she hopes the film sparks a broader conversation about consent, as well as how black women are often overlooked in discussions about rape.

We already have ideas about how black women, in particular, experience pain. And so what that does is it puts us in the eye of the beholder—we're kind of front and center to discuss what it looks like when it happens to us, too. It's more than you think, more than we even discuss. "It's rare that you see films where a black woman has that experience, and I think now we can have a conversation about that in general because we're often left out of that conversation," Erivo said.

Of course, Erivo spoke a little bit about both "Villain" films, the first of which earned her an Oscar nomination for her role as Alphaba, which she said she "loved to play." When asked about how he got into the character, Ario said that he was looking for similarities between them.

I know we are two very different people. I know we both have strange relationships with our fathers. I know the two of us can get frustrated and can be stubborn. I know that we both have a joy in us that no one really notices or is able to see. "I knew all those things and I could start from there." "But I also knew that I wasn't trying to make her different, I was just trying to make her as real as possible," she said. So when the words are on the page, how do I say them so that they mean something? So they're attached to me, not to him or something like I've heard them say before."

He added: "The more I realized that Kistein was the person, I realized that, I think for a lot of people, like, 'Oh, green girl.' It's makeup." "But to me it was like, no, this is his DNA, this is the way he was born."

As for what's next for Erivo, he teased that it could be time for his villainous era.

"I keep saying I'm in my badass days and it keeps coming up," she said with a laugh. I want to find those stories where we see characters who are different in main roles that are complex and not necessarily heroes, but in the gray area and fun. "I think I'm kind of looking for them for myself and I want to look for them for others."