Millie Bobby Brown Called Out by Intimacy Coordinator for Kissing Co-Star Without Consent
It is never acceptable to kiss someone without their consent, even if you have a close relationship. As an actor, all of your kisses will be carefully monitored by the project's intimacy coordinator to ensure that they are consensual and appropriate.
It has recently came to light that Millie Bobby Brown, an actress in the Netflix franchise Enola Holmes, gave her co-star Louis Partridge a non-consensual kiss during a scene in which her character, Enola Holmes, kisses Lord Tewkesbury.
In a video posted on Netflix's TikTok page, Brown recalled what preceded the kiss on screen.
"Right on the rehearsal I grabbed his face and kissed him and he was like…" It was followed by her scared face apparently mimicking Partridge's. "It was so cute really seeing her take the lead. And also seeing a girl just make the first move is just really exciting," she said in excitement.
Brown also said that within this kissing scene she had to punch her co-star.
"Because Louis is a good friend I just kept punching him. I wasn't doing stunts, I really was hurting him. By the end of it he said: 'Millie can you just fake punch me,' I was fully just getting him right in the stomach," she said, adding that the scene was very good and that fans would certainly love it.
Brown's revelations came under fire from intimacy coordinator Jessica Steinrock who nailed it saying that there should be no "surprises" on set. If Brown surprised Partridge with her kiss that means that "she didn't ask consent to kiss him. And when your scene partner reacts in surprise after you've kissed them that means the communication didn't happen the way it really needs to."
According to Steinrock, who is responsible for coordinating intimate scenes and nudity in films and TV series, the incident was far from "cute." She emphasized that while it's important for scene partners to have a strong level of trust, it is never acceptable to surprise someone during a fight or intimate scene without their consent. Steinrock believes that these seemingly small actions can eventually lead to uncomfortable situations for all parties involved.
Many people have voiced their support for the intimacy coordinator and have called for Brown to offer her sincere apologies to both her co-star and the coordinator. It is widely agreed that no one has the right to push someone to do something that makes them uncomfortable and that Brown will likely feel ashamed of her behavior in the future.
As one commenter noted, actors on stage are essentially colleagues in the workplace and what Brown did was "the equivalent of grabbing your coworker and kissing them."
However, a lot of Enola Holmes fans came to the actress's defense, saying that people shouldn't take things like this too seriously because it was part of the script (hence "right on the rehearsal") and it was just a joke made by an 18-year-old girl. On the other hand, some argue that the fact that Brown was called out by an intimacy coordinator and faced a chorus of haters clearly indicates that this is a coordinated attack on the celebrity.
"We love to judge child stars and smugly pat ourselves on the backs when they miss-step or end up dysfunctional or addicted," a comment says.