Maggie Gyllenhaal calls for sex scene support for stars

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Maggie Gyllenhaal thinks it's important to have someone on set to support actors during sex scenes.

The 40-year-old actress is an producer on her TV show 'The Deuce' - which chronicles the rise of the porn industry in 1970s New York - and hired 'intimacy minders' to ensure the cast felt as comfortable with bedroom filming as they would be when shooting action footage while surrounded by experts.

She said: "When you do a stunt and someone slaps you, someone else is there to make sure you're physically safe, so why don't we have that with sex scenes? I thought it would be good to have someone make the actor feel comfortable."

And the intimacy minders are on hand for the cast to speak to about their feelings towards the scenes, as well as offer reassurance that they don't have to go through shooting sexy footage if they don't feel comfortable.

Speaking to Grazia magazine, she added: "[To have someone] phone them up the night before and ask if they're OK. To say, 'This is what we're going to do tomorrow and this is what you agreed to, it's in your contract but it's OK if you change your mind.' "

Between the actor and their minder, they can create a 'safe' word to indicate when they stop feeling important during the scenes.

Maggie said: "They can arrange whatever feels right."

And the 'Secretary' actress feels it is particularly important to allow young actors and actresses to feel comfortable with what they've been asked to shoot.

She said: "I can hold my own, I've done plenty of sex scenes. But if you're young and nervous and you've never done it before, it can be scary."