Welcome And Guest Introduction

Greg Staffa 0:00

You're listening to the Staffa Corner Podcast, a Staffatarian look at entertainment and life with your host, Greg Staffa. On this episode, I'm joined by a guest, Jessica Erin Bennett. She is a stunt performer, a stunt coordinator, and certified intimacy coordinator whose work includes Swarm, the Big Door Prize, and the idea of you. Jessica, thank you for joining us today.

Jessica Erin Bennett 0:44

Thank you so much for having me. And it's so fun to be able to talk about hyperexposed work and also just as someone who works as a choreographer, how many avenues of movement there can be. So yeah, I'm so happy to

What Intimacy Coordinators Actually Do

Jessica Erin Bennett 0:58

be here.

Greg Staffa 0:58

So let's start off with the intimacy coordinator. Let's get the uncomfortable stuff out of the way first. Tell me a little bit about what an intimacy coordinator does.

Jessica Erin Bennett 1:07

Yeah, so an intimacy coordinator coordinates scenes with hyperexposed work. And hyperexposed work can mean anything from a kiss between minors, a kiss between co-stars. It could be nudity, it can be simulated sex, it could be scenes that lead up to simulated sex. I have done medical scenes, like my work on The Exorcist, we did a lot of like we did a simulated rave kit scene. So it is, it's all encompassing to what could be considered vulnerable or hyperexposed work, or when an actor asks for support. And we work as coordinators, which means we read the script, we break it down, we have meetings. I think there's a lot of misnomers that like someone tells us what the scene is, and we show up and we play police officer all day long. But actually, it's quite the opposite. We get the work and we try to deduce what is at the heart of the ask and work with actors and directors and ADs and producers to make sure that everybody's like on the same page. And treating this as a stunt, treating a moment of hyperexposed work as it's worthy of planning, worthy of making sure that all department heads know what's going on and follow additional rules on closed-set protocols. Close-set protocols can limit monitors. We make sure that people can't get the scene on their phones. It deletes and limits dailies. So that way there's not just, you know, raw footage of someone naked just hanging around for anybody's usage, that it's only used for what it's needed and um and it can't be used in marketing. So that way someone doesn't, you know, all of a sudden agree to nudity and then on Sunset Boulevard, you know, they see their topless chest and they're like, that's not. I agreed to it for the scene, but not for a billboard. So it's just trying to keep in mind of how do we help someone feel confident to do a piece of storytelling, even when it's really hard, and maybe even when it's uncomfortable.

Greg Staffa 3:05

And I think our our minds automatically go towards arousal, but like you casually mentioned, it could be a TSI cadaver involving someone that is topless and briefly shown where it's not meant to be arousal, but there's a lot of effort that goes into finding the courage to be able to do that as an actor just to lie there and stuff like that.

Jessica Erin Bennett 3:26

Yeah.

Jessica’s Path Into The Work

Greg Staffa 3:27

One of my big questions is like how does one because intimacy coordinator, there has to be a lot of understanding, you know. A grief counselor, you want them to go through, you know, have some kind of grief in their background so that you feel like you're relating to them, and without getting too personal, you know, what is your background? Have you you're an actress, have you done you know, scenes in the past that made you feel comfortable enough talking to others about it? Or because you want to feel like you're on the same page, that you're you're dealing with someone that can understand the concerns that you're going through as an actress. What is your personal experience without digging too deeply into it with something like that?

Jessica Erin Bennett 4:06

Yeah, so I have done like nude and hyper-exposed scenes, but I've not actually done a lot of it. I've spent most of my time, I do have a BFA in acting, um, and I have done onstage kisses, I've done onstage makeouts, and and I have done, I've been asked to do more um nude work than has actually transpired. Like it usually gets changed, um, especially for stunts, because it's so expensive. Like I got asked to be in a burning building absolutely naked, and it was gonna be so expensive, but I was open to doing it. So for me, I've always viewed the work as choreography. So I think that's also why it's found its way to myself. And then to add on top of that, I, as a as an early-on stunt woman and as an early-on stunt coordinator, I found myself in a lot of positions where I was doing really sensitive scenes simply because with my only prerequisite of like why they called me was that I was female and that I probably understood harassment and assault better than most. And I was like, well, that's really sad that just because I'm a woman, I'm qualified to do scenes of assault. So I think my biggest back, my personal biggest background is that I found myself choreographing a lot of these scenes and I had the capacity for it. I felt like I had the temperament for it. So that's a little bit about my background, and one of the things that led me to intimacy training, not because at the beginning I was actually not interested in being an intimacy coordinator, I just really wanted to be a really excellent stunt coordinator. And so I went through a bunch of training for that reason, and opportunity fell in my lap. But one thing that I really love your question, and I appreciate your question, is that the other thing about it is you don't have to experience any of it. And I think that's really important. One of like the big foundations of intimacy work is closure. And one thing about closure is being able to like leave work at work and being able to like the way that I mention it to actors when I'm on calls with them is I want my deepest hope is that you film this scene and it gets released and you still feel good about it. You still feel like I made the best choices with the information I had at the time. And you don't have to have a lived experience to be a good actor, and you don't have to have a lived experience to do a hyperexposed scene with diligence and grace because we have homework, we have Google, we have people with those experiences. We can always reach out to. I, you know, I've hired people as an intimacy coordinator to teach me about certain specialties or something that I may not understand. Because it's also great to have someone like an intimacy coordinator who can who knows how to research something. Um, like we've been asked to be like, hey, what would that orgasm sound like? Well, we can give you some tools to assess what that could sound like. And that way you don't have to worry about when a director inevitably goes to you, Well, how would you do it? Well, you may not like how you sound. You may not have ever taken a moment to seem what see what you you sound like. I think that's inappropriate. But it is appropriate to say, what do I want this? How would this character sound like? Is it funny? Is it euphoric? Am I trying to show reality? Am I trying to lean into stereotypes? Like what is we can ask so many bigger and better questions than what's your lived experience? We can say, what's the experience we would like the audience to perceive? And we don't necessarily have to experience it. But that being said, too, is sometimes that's helpful. I'm a queer intimacy coordinator, so I bring a lot of that lived experience in. But I've done male and male scenes, and I'm not a male, and I've never experienced that, but I can do the homework to be able to communicate properly. And hopefully we have a director who's also directing from their heart and their lived experience, and we have actors who are properly cast, who are bringing in their experience too, so we can work together to create the most truth that we can. That was a big long answer. Did I answer any of your

Who She Represents And Why

Jessica Erin Bennett 8:18

question?

Greg Staffa 8:18

It was it was perfect. So I guess my next question is who do you represent when you're brought into something? Because Hollywood has a lot of different agendas. There's the studio that wants to sell tickets, and so you hire Megan Fox. You don't hire Megan Fox to dress her up as a nun, you want her to be scantily clad. Sure. You have a director that has a vision, and you have, again, using Megan Fox as an example, you have Megan Fox who is an actress trying to do her profession. Sure. There's a lot of sides pulling at each thing. The studio wants to see more skin because it sells tickets. The director has his vision of what the character does. Megan has her. So when you come in, who are you representing? Who are you, you know, taking aside? What is your kind of involvement in this?

Jessica Erin Bennett 9:10

That's a really great question. So at the end of the day, I represent actors, but I am hired by the studio or production, right? Because we also work on non on non-union things, so by production. So the way that I like to think about it is I am there to do the job that we've all agreed to. So let's say let's I because I think this is very valuable. Let's use Megan Fox in another Transformers just because that none of this will ever happen, right? So they ask her in a Transformers movie movie to do toplessness. And I get a call and I see toplessness in Transformers. If I take that job, that means I am saying to myself, I am okay with this movie and this ask. Because there's something for everyone. And just because I may not like it, I don't get to, I, as the intimacy coordinator, do not get to choose its morality. I get to say, this is the professional ask. Do I agree to coordinate this project or don't? Don't I? Um, because I if I'm not okay with it, if I'm like, hey, that's not something I'm gonna support, I walk. And I have done that before. I've had projects where they're like, well, we would like you to do this, but not help this person, but do this and not do this. And I go, I'm so sorry. If I can't care for all the actors, then I'm not uh then I'm out. And that was my line for that movie. So I think it's important to we we are allowed to choose what's right and not right for us, but we do not get to check, we have to check our morality on an aspect, that which is I think really important as intimacy coordinator. So we are brought on by production, but we are supported by the actor contract. So in the actor contract, and if not, if you're working on a non-union show, you can while it's not quote unquote required, it is what's considered a professional practice. So I work for the studio in the regard of I'm going to follow everything to the tippy top of the protocols because I don't want anyone to get sued. And I would like for all of us to complete our day of work, right? If I if I surprise an actor with an ask, or if I completely ignore what the actor needs, we will not finish our day of work, right? So while I support production, I'm also saying if an actor says no, let's find a yes, because otherwise your scene won't get made. This thing won't get done. They'll quit the movie and you have to start over. So let's not do that and let's collaborate. And so we're gonna talk about the scene. So let's say, for example, we've got Megan Fox, and she says, This is Transformers, I'm not doing toplessness. And I go back and I say, Hey, one of your big headliners doesn't want to do this, they can choose to recast if it wasn't a previous engagement. So, what that means is if Megan Fox said yes to Transformer 16 with toplessness, and then she later says no, then that's a becomes a contract issue. And that is when it gets a little bit out of my hands. Like if you already said yes to it and signed a multi-million dollar deal, then I get my hands get a little tied. But if they wrote it later on, like they're like, wouldn't it be great if all of a sudden Transformers was edgy? And Megan Fox said, Absolutely not, then my job is to say, absolutely not. And they go, ask her again. I go, the answer was no, I will not be asking again. Would she be willing to do a bathing suit top? And then I could go back and ask. So it's all about it's I think it's not whose side I'm taking, because at the end of the day, I have to choose what's what is good work, and that could mean me being fired. I've been fired for jobs before for sticking up for someone, which sucks. But it I did my job. And there's been times where I've had to tell an actor, hey, I actually don't think this is the opportunity for you. I think this is pushing you beyond your limits, and I think you should reconsider. So it I think it's less about taking sides and looking at the why. And the why is we're here to do work, and how do we get this work done? And can we get the work done? You know, and good collaborators, there's a million ways to do anything.

When A Scene Feels Off

Greg Staffa 13:29

Interesting, and again, we I mentioned Megan Fox, it was the first female that popped into my mind that fits the scenario that I was trying to convey. So, nothing against Megan Fox and Lydia, and so uh, but one of the things that did stand out as a male, you know, I never really thought about nudity or kissing or anything like that, but it was the film Star Trek Into the Darkness had a scene with Alice Eve, and she has come out and fully supported the scene. She has come out and said she had no problem with the scene, but it was a scene where she's talking to one of the lead characters and she takes her top off and is in her bra. And it was the first time, really, for me, watching a movie going, This seems odd and uncomfortable, and it just it felt like did we really need this scene? And so you're saying that your job isn't necessarily to be the nudity or the naughty police. Your job is if this was all agreed upon and the actress says she's comfortable with this, and the script calls for this, and you have no you know, dilemma with this, then you're there to support it. You're not there to go, oh, nope, nope, we gotta behave, and you're not like the the school teacher, you know, the Catholic school teacher looking for any kind of dirtiness.

Jessica Erin Bennett 14:46

You're not I have no ruler on me on set. I have no ruler, I will not slap any knuckles. Um, you know, and that's you know what's so interesting when you mention it about it feeling uncomfortable to you, then it put it actually makes me put my like work hat on. And my work hat like I would ask, hmm, I was did the scene itself was it calling for discomfort? Like, was that an act that was designed to make me more uncomfortable? Two, you know, when I think of Star Trek, I often don't think of people's shirts coming off, but that's just because I don't watch a ton of it. So I also asked myself, like, was it there for shock value? Because that's a bit it's sometimes I've done scenes just because it was shocking. And then when you tell an actor, hi, this is for shock value, they deserve the context as well. So if they were like, this scene is designed to be uncomfortable, she might have been like, What if I take my shirt off? It could have come from the actor. So I it makes me it makes me wonder if it was on purpose. And if it wasn't, and the actor's like, no, I defend the choices that we made, then you know, it could have also what's really tricky when people think that like I could stop something before it begins, or it's sometimes I don't know the bad day or the bad week everybody had. And we could be coming onto a set where people like are coming in hot, you know, just from a week, and I can't control those yeses and no's yet, right? Sometimes I have to wait to see how the cookie crumbles on the day because what we know about consent is consent is should and always be reversible, true consent, which is gets tricky when we're at work and we have contracts. So it just it I it poses so many questions to me. And sometimes in production and in creativity, we don't make the best choice. Sometimes when we're in the middle of it and they're planning it and we see it in our mind's eye, it's brilliant. And you get into an edit, and maybe you're like, Oh, I would have changed five different things about this, but it, you know, the ship has sailed. So those are some of the questions, just as an intimacy coordinator, that I would ask in hindsight, or if like I was interviewing those actors or there if they had an intimacy coordinator, and that's something to ask too. For a bra, that's not something that an intimacy coordinator is required because that's technically considered like a bathing suit. So they may not have had somebody to help talk them through the ideas and and ask questions because I ask a lot of questions in my meetings, and you bring up a great point because actor Ken Jung is famous for his jumping out of the trunk scene, yes, uh, where he's naked, and that was not supposed to happen.

Greg Staffa 17:28

That was Ken's idea, and he brought it to the director, and the director said, If you want to do it, you're gonna sign all these, you know, things saying this is your idea. Exactly. This is nuts, and he's like, I think it it fits the character, I think it's funny, and I'm willing to put myself out there for this character. And the director's like, Well, if you sign off on it, yeah, we'll do it.

Jessica Erin Bennett 17:51

Exactly. And like, that's the shtick. You know, I've done things that I was like, you sure you want to do it this way? And the actor's like, heck yeah, I do. And you're like, I would maybe make three different choices, but that's not my choice to make. You know, and I appreciate that. The director was like, Listen, I love the idea. It's not mine, it's yours. And I want to make sure everybody knows it's yours, so it doesn't look like I'm just like soliciting everybody to jump out of trunks naked. And they I feel like those were a lot of really smart choices. You know, they used back in not even that long ago, but like nudity was like a thought thing onset, and people would just do it. And I actually find that not to be okay. I think that takes everybody out of their mind's eye. And sometimes, you know, by the end of a show, maybe that idea of like what's consensual between people who basically lived together for the last however many months and some of the choices that they make. But in general, the fact that everybody at least knew it was gonna happen and the first time wasn't with cameras rolling with lots of people who weren't ready for it, I think that's really thoughtful. And you know, something you've mentioned a few times is about how we're there for women, but I really want to emphasize how important it is that we're there for men too. In all of my intimacy meetings, when we've asked a male to be naked, and if I I even check in about shirtlessness, are you are you okay being shirtless? Just because you're allowed to go to the beach without a shirt on doesn't mean that you have to be comfortable doing it all the time. It doesn't mean that you are comfortable showing your chest. So it's deserving to check on, even though it's not considered legally nudity. And, you know, I think in the era of Times Up, it's just as important that men check in with an intimacy coordinator because sexual harassment does not discriminate, it visits everybody. And, you know, I've witnessed a lot of men be pushed into showing more because it's not a big deal, but it could be a big deal to that person. And I've worked with really famous men, and one of the other things I tell them is my job is to watch you be a professional. So if you were to be accused of misconduct, well, then I'd be probably one of the people that's interviewed and said, Well, this is what we did, and this is how we planned it, and this was all the steps we took to make it safe. So I'm there for everybody, and there to make sure just everybody learns their lines, learns their choreography, and goes home at the end of the day.

Future Proofing Consent And Boundaries

Greg Staffa 20:30

Without giving any way any personal things that you've talked about, but how much of the talking to an actor or an actress is long-term? I mean, when you're 18 or 20 and you're a young actress, yeah, you may look great and you may have the body for it, but you know, 10 years later, when you have kids and your kids can Google your name and there's mommy, you know, a clip of mommy doing the scene. Is that talked about when you're doing it? Like this is what you're doing, and it's gonna be on film for the rest of your life, or is it this is gonna, you know, this is what you need to do to get through the scene, and that's all of our focuses?

Jessica Erin Bennett 21:10

I think it's a little bit of both, and it depends on the person. You know, when you're talking with a a a working actor, I I would give it a really strong percentage, like a 98 percentage, that they've thought about that. And they've thought they've thought a lot about that. I just worked with an actor who um has been seen naked on screen many times and uh was going to be seen naked again, but their body had changed. And it be, you know, a lot of the talk was, oh, nobody wants to see that. And I was like, first of all, you don't know what everybody wants to see, first and foremost. So, second of all, let's you're being asked. So obviously somebody is open to you as playing this character to be seen. But also, like, if it's a seasoned actor, they it's something that they thought about, but I do bring it up. As often as possible when I'm discussing their nudity writer. So if we're doing a nudity writer, that's a piece of paper paper in addition to your contract. It basically states explicitly what we are doing and what we are not doing. So let's say someone was going to do toplessness, it would the writer would read, it'd be a bunch of legal legal jargon, and then I would submit language like this to legal and they would craft it from there. But player agrees to nudity above the waist, including nipple, for clarity and avoidance of doubt. No below the waist nudity will be shown. So that's basically us saying that. And one thing I talk about is whether we do use a body double, whether you're showing yourself, is that we all understand that everybody for the rest of time is going to be seeing the scene and they're going to be assessing this scene. So that's something that gets brought up when I'm walking, when I'm working with actors who maybe haven't done work like this before, I do definitely bring it up. And I like to, whenever I'm talking about consent, I always say, I want when we do this scene, and about a week later, when you've had time to come down and think about it and see how it went, I don't want you calling me mad. I always say, think of me as like your best friend that you go out with. And we all made the best choices while we were out and making plans and being creative and feeling the vibe. And when all of that high of feeling the vibe and creating drops down, I still want you to be proud of your work. So I often ask people to think about their future self a little bit. I don't usually dive into like kids and whatnot. That's because those are morality and morals that I might talk about that someone might not hold. And so that might not feel supportive to them. But I do try to bring up like, I want us to feel like we're making grounded choices and not choices because I really want this opportunity. And to understand the the power that money plays and the power that opportunity plays. Because I think both of those are really important to assess.

Greg Staffa 24:00

And you brought up an interesting point, you know, inserting your own morality and whatnot into the thing. I have another question, a final question on this topic, and then we'll move on to your stunt work. But I have to wonder for years, things like Playboy, it was common to see an actor or an actress doing Playboy, Playboy spread. And that died down for a while, but now we're seeing actors or actresses doing OnlyFans. You know, Jamie Creasley and Shannon Elizabeth are all starting to do that. Do you I know that doesn't kind of branch into your territory, but do you have people coming to you doing a scene, going, you know what, I'm also thinking about doing this, you know, OnlyFans. Is that something that has kind of dipped in because more and more celebrities are exploring that avenue? Or is that something that's just not related to what you do and isn't on your radar?

Jessica Erin Bennett 24:51

So it's one, it's not really on my radar, but two, it's actually a part of my job in the inverse. And what I mean by that is if we imagine an actor is also on OnlyFans, I would say my experience has been what happens is that producers and or directors or who or writers or whomever just assumes that person will be naked, just assumes that a person will do simulated sex. And one, OnlyFans doesn't have to be nude, right? It doesn't have to be, most commonly is, but you know, kink is many, many things. And OnlyFans is many, many things. So one, I try to stay off of it because I definitely want to keep impartial impartiality in my work. Like I don't want to see how someone chooses to move or chooses to pose themselves because that's not a character that we're developing together. And I and it makes me assume that's something that someone's okay with. Well, that's not true because they were curating it probably in their own room. Like they created a lot of safety measures for them to be able to do that photo or that video, and that's completely out of our control. So that's why I kind of keep a distance. But I think the biggest issue is that directors and producers often, not always, assume that an actor is okay with that kind of work all the time. And they don't, I often have to be like, just because they do this on their personal time doesn't mean they're also okay with doing it on your show. And I have found that when someone's doing it like that, or I I because I live in Atlanta and I've done a ton of strip club scenes, um, and I was a covering intimacy coordinator, meaning I'm not the lead intimacy coordinator, but I came in when I was needed on P Valley. So I've just had a lovely time working with a lot of stripping dancers and pole dancers. And something I've learned too is sometimes they'll say no to certain nudity on screen because they make more money on their other work, their OnlyFans, their club work. They need more money saving nudity for that. So I've had to advocate in the opposite way, which is funny to be like, yes, I understand they're a stripper. I understand that, but they're not okay showing X because that's actually why people come to their show. And I we there they said no. So it's it's super interesting.

How She Built A Stunt Career

Greg Staffa 27:15

Not only that, but you do stunt work too. And I've seen your demo reels, and it is very impressive. Tell us a little bit about what got you involved in stunts.

Jessica Erin Bennett 27:25

Well, the short story is so I I started my my like collegiate acting uh degree at the University of Miami, Florida, and I was really unhappy. I loved the program, I loved my friends, but there was just something about everything that just wasn't clicking for me. And I was um a high-level horseback rider. I was a show jumper when I was a teenager, and actually still am today. And I was just looking at is this is before Google really existed. So I just AOL looked up, searched, asked Jeeves, who are those people riding horses in Lord of the Rings? Because when I was in high school was when the Lord of the Rings trilogy was coming out and tons of beautiful horsework. And I just asked myself, what who are those people? They're working in the movies, they're working with actors, and that's when I discovered stunt folks, and I had done some stage combat in high school. Um so I specifically transferred to a program with a really great stage combat program and with more movement. So I transferred to the theater school at DePaul, and I literally got there with the entire intention of doing stage combat, of learning what it took to be a stuntwoman. Um, so I read books and all that. So really I became a stuntwoman to ride horses for more reasons to ride horses, I suppose. And what it turns out is to do the specialty work, you gotta eat a lot of concrete in the in-between. So I took the time to develop other skills, fighting, um, ground pounding, which is just the proclivity of hitting the ground really hard, wire work, etc. Um, I did go to the International Stunt School in Seattle before my career formally started. And I was living in Chicago and I started hustling and doing stunt work in 2009. 2010, I moved to Los Angeles. This was before local hire existed. And then I got my SAD card in 2012, and I've been doing stunts since 2009, um, which is really crazy to think about. And then just like naturally over time, mentorship to do stunt coordination, slowly building that up over time, doing hundreds of shorts just to learn and to get good at the skill of stunt coordinating. And really, I'm so grateful in my stunt career. I I met a lot of no's. Um, I got also I broke my arm when I was 25. So I was really early in my career and I had to like relearn how to grip. Um I got really, really, really hurt. And I'm grateful for that because it allowed me to study so many different things and it allowed me the boldness to be like, it's okay not to be a stunt woman all the time. And the reason I say that is it without that curiosity, I don't know if I would have studied as hard as I did and got me studying intimacy work to be a really good communicator because it really all of that, all of that, uh, all those hard times really have led me to now where I feel like I truly have like a dual career. Like I really do stunts and I do intimacy and I do them fairly equally, and I just that's pretty cool. And they all kind of feed into each other. It's all about safety, choreography, communication, teamwork. So it just feels like a really cool way to be a storyteller.

Risk Assessment Across Stunts And Intimacy

Greg Staffa 31:05

Well, you just ruined my next question, but I'm gonna ask it anyway to have you expand on it because on paper it does look like two very different jobs. You know, stunt woman, stunt coordinator, and intimacy coordination. They sound very different, but yet at the same time, you're talking about level of comfort, you're talking about communication of here's what's gonna happen. You know, whether it's be a nude scene or jumping off of a you know two-story building and landing in an airbag. Yeah, it's about being able to find you know reason and talk to the studio and the directors of saying, here's what we're willing to do. Here, this might be too much for that person. And so there's a lot of similarity and and connections. Is there one particular one that makes you better at doing the other? I mean, has intimacy coordination helped with your stunt coordination just as far as your approaches or vice versa?

Jessica Erin Bennett 31:59

I mean, a hundred percent, uh, like a thousand percent. I think what makes me what makes me stand out as a stunt coordinator, like I don't think I'm God's gift to violence and fight choreography. Like I like I don't do a lot of my when I describe my fight choreography, it's not flashy. I like to think of it as very brutal, like I really invest in brutality. So, but I'm not special in that. And doing like a special fight, right, that's a teamwork thing. But what makes me special is that I'm a good communicator. And I feel like my hiring practices, I feel like when I hire a stunt performer, I do it better now because of understanding like what does it really mean to say yes to a job? And if I spend an entire day, like literally a whole day, asking an actor how they'd like to show their rear end, then I should spend the equal amount of time for someone I'm hiring to do a car hit. I should be spending the equal amount of time, not just what's really common as a stunt performer is somebody will say, Hey, are you available? And that's all you know, unless it's something really big. And they're like, oh, bring all of your gear to any day on set because you just never know what you're gonna be asked to do. But that's so deeply unfair at the end of the day. And and it and it sets performers up for failure, it sets them up for anxiety, and I want people to feel confident when they come to work for me, just as I would want an actor to feel confident knowing that I'm their intimacy coordinator and I really have their back. So I think I look at my life now and I can't divorce them, but considering I started in the SNP world, it's made me a very unique intimacy coordinator. And I think as an intimacy coordinator, I'm not afraid of risk. Um, and if you look at my resume, I've done a lot of really risky things. And the way that I see these two jobs is risk assessment. If we can make a risky movie and we can do risky things, but we then must have double the amount of threat and double the amount of communication because we're gonna do something dangerous. And sometimes, you know, with movies with less budget, you go, well, we can't do we can't do a car hit at 20 miles an hour. But what we can do is I can put a stunt man on the hood of a car and we can roll two feet and he'll self-propel him off. That's what I have the budget to do, and that's what and the time, right? Oh, we don't have hours for this. Oh, I don't have rehearsal for this. This is what I can do. So I think it's the ability to risk assessment. I feel like I have more tools at my disposal. And I'm yeah, I'm just it's made me not afraid of a scary ask. You know, I will ask the most ridiculous things as long as somebody has a reason to for me to ask it. And sometimes actors are like, that sounds bananas. I can't wait. And sometimes the actor is like, that is too bananas. We need to have more talks. And it's made me really resilient to having hard conversations. Because it's hard to go back to a director or producer and go, that's gonna be a no dog. And they don't like it when you tell them no. But we can find ways to continue to be creative. And so I think being a stunt person going into intimacy has made me a different flavor of intimacy coordinator versus somebody who just got into it for advocacy. I got into it because I'm like, let's tell some stories, let's be memorable, like, let's make some memories, let's push the boundaries, let's maybe learn something new. And and maybe sometimes too, we push the boundaries and we rein it back in because that's also a good skill to go too far, too far, try again. They're all good skills, even when they're uncomfortable. And uh yeah, I guess I mean it's that's such an interesting question. I've never been asked that before.

Greg Staffa 35:55

I can't believe we're running out of time. I do want to thank you for coming on. I think it's absolutely fascinating because we I think we think a lot, we go immediately towards nudity and stuff like that. But in looking at your resume and IMDB page, you know, you have Chad Powers on there as an intimacy coordinator. And my first thought was, when the heck was there any kind of anything? And I believe there was a kiss on on scene, yeah, and it just it doesn't strike me personally as like, well, that doesn't seem like a big deal, but then at the same time, we have actors like Neil McDonough who is married and refuses to do any kissing scenes uh because he values his marriage more, and so just because it's demissive to me and doesn't seem like kissing your co-star doesn't seem like a big deal. Uh, it is, and just because it's not nudity, there is a process of, you know, is this what I want to do? You know, I'm he's married and says I won't I won't do it. I don't see the need to have to kiss, you know, my on-screen wife, you know, to show her that I love her. There's other things I can do, but kissing is for my wife only. And so it's easy to dismiss a need for that, but at the same time, you know, that's something that's deeply important to him. So just because Chad Powers doesn't seem like the thing that would need an intimacy coordinator for uh a simple kiss, uh, it's clear that there are roles for that. And just because we immediately go towards nudity does not mean that at all. So it's been fascinating to talk about that.

Jessica Erin Bennett 37:30

Yeah. Well, and you know what's interesting about Chad Powers is there's a lot of like uh nudity in the background. There's other things that are going on that are like not in your mind's eye. And in the prep, it was a lot of conversation. Like the directors had ideas, but they were like, we don't actually know what we can do. Like, is this possible? And a lot of there was a lot of time with just conversation of like, how do I get this kooky idea out um with the person who's actually maybe done it before, which is me.

Seeing Yourself As An Artist

Greg Staffa 37:58

Well, one final question is one I ask all my guests. Uh-huh. Again, I appreciate you coming on, but so much of our work these days in Hollywood of people like you, we associate with the roles that they've done or the things that they've done. You know, we don't say Jessica Aaron Bennett and say, you know, she's a stunt woman or Jessica is an intimacy coordinator. It's it's connected to things that you've done, work that you've done, or shows that you've worked on. But when you get up in the morning, you go into the bathroom, splash a little water on your face, and look in the mirror, who is it that you see?

Jessica Erin Bennett 38:31

I see an artist. One of my closest friends and business partner that started out as a mentor. His name is Carmen Aiello. And Carmen was just somebody who believed in me before I believed in myself. And he always identified as an artist. When you'd go with your pronouns, or like, what is your general identity? He was like, artist. And I just always found that so beautiful because I feel like that's so all-encompassing. And I um, you know, I've I have two children. I have two daughters and they're pretty little. And like going to work every day is something I don't want to do. I don't want to send a million emails. Um, I run an intimacy company. We run an education company, Intimacy Professionals Education Collective. And I do that work every day. And it's really hard. But I do it because I'm an artist and I want my children to see their mother living her truth. And I want my partner to be with a partner who is investing in their happiness and future because it invests in their happiness and their future. So I think that's probably what I see in the mirror as a storyteller because it just touches so much of my life.

Greg Staffa 39:42

Well, Jessica Aaron Bennett, thank you so much for coming on. I think conversations like these are important to have. And just because you're not big featured on front of the screen doesn't mean that your work isn't important. So I enjoy telling stories like this and looks forward to seeing what the future has for you.

Jessica Erin Bennett 39:59

Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me.