Michael Douglas slams execs for taking control away from film-makers and using intimacy coordinators for sex-scenes: 'In my experience you talk it through and say I'm gonna touch you here if that's alright'

Michael Douglas has claimed that production companies are 'taking control away from filmmakers' by using intimacy coordinators on Hollywood film sets.

The Oscar award winning actor and producer argued that when filming a sex scene, it is the responsibility of the 'man to make sure the woman is comfortable'.

Douglas, 79, was questioned about the apparent trend of having less sex scenes in movies during an interview Tuesday with Radio Times.

'I'm past the age where I've got to worry about that. But it's interesting with all the intimacy coordinators,' the Fatal Attraction star said. 'It feels like executives taking control away from filmmakers.'

He admitted there been 'some terrible faux pas and harassment' in Hollywood, but reiterated that he believes actors should be accountable to 'talk it through' before filming intimate scenes.

'Sex scenes are like fight scenes, it's all choreographed,' Douglas explained. 

'In my experience you take responsibility as the man to make sure the woman is comfortable, you talk it through. 

'You say, "OK, I'm gonna touch you here if that's all right". It's very slow but looks like it's happening organically, which is hopefully what good acting looks like.'

The actor has said that while he is 'sure' some people 'overstepped their boundaries', he was careful to navigate intimate scenes with his co-stars.

He told The Telegraph: 'I talked to the ladies, [because] I did a few of those sex movies – sexual movies – and we joke about it now, what it would have been like to have an intimacy coordinator working with us. 

'I'm sure there were people that overstepped their boundaries, but before, we seemed to take care of that ourselves. They would get a reputation and that would take care of them.'

Douglas' commentary comes just weeks after his Basic Instinct co-star Sharon Stone revealed the identity of the producer who she alleged pressured her to have sex with another actor in order to improve their on-screen chemistry. 

The actress, 66, previously discussed the situation in her 2021 memoir - without disclosing identities - but in March divulged that the producer was Robert Evans, the actor was Alec Baldwin's brother, and the film was Sliver in 1993. 

Evans, who died in 2019, was also a producer on Chinatown and The Cotton Club, and headed production at Paramount for The Godfather, The Italian Job, True Grit and The Great Gatsby.

Sliver was Stone's next movie after achieving huge success and megastardom in the previous year's hit Basic Instinct.

Speaking on Louis Theroux's podcast, Stone said Evans summoned her from filming to his office to make the request for her to sleep with leading man William Baldwin - one of four acting brothers, and more widely known as Billy - off set.

She said: 'He called me to his office. He had these very low seventies, eighties couches, so I'm essentially sitting on the floor, when I should have been on set.

'And he's running around his office in sunglasses explaining to me that he slept with Ava Gardner and I should sleep with Billy Baldwin, because if I slept with Billy Baldwin, Billy Baldwin's performance would get better.

'And we needed Billy to get better in the movie because that was the problem. 

'And if I could sleep with Billy then we'd have chemistry on screen, and if I would just have sex with him then that would save the movie, and the real problem with the movie was me because I was so uptight, and so not like a real actress who could just f**k him and get things back on track. The real problem was I was such a tight a**e.'

Stone said on hearing his demand she just thought how he hadn't listened to the list of actors that she had suggested for Baldwin's part of Zeke Hawkins, and was frustrated that the film's bosses expected her to go from co-starring with Douglas in Basic Instinct to Baldwin.

She added: 'I didn't have to f**k Michael Douglas. Michael could come to work and know how to hit those marks, and do that line, and rehearse and show up. Now all of a sudden I'm in the "I have to f**k people" business.'