Article and interview by Nik Mohan

After the success of acclaimed short film ‘Sister Wives,’ Louisa Connolly-Burnham’s unique balance of acting, writing, directing, and producing has elevated even further with psychological thriller ‘The Intimacy Coordinator.’

It’s quite simple (yet complex). Louisa’s character Kate is an intimacy coordinator who just happens to be a sex addict.

Louisa spoke with Top Film about her new short film, the intricacies involved in balancing her toughest character yet within acting and directing, and why stories like this not only resonate with her, but take hold of audiences and never let go.

‘The Intimacy Coordinator’ isn’t just about sexual addiction: it’s about abuse of power and self-worth. How did this concept come to you and what sparked this idea?

Louisa: I always want to make films about things that people are talking about. It’s one of the reasons I made ‘Sister Wives’ … For the last couple of years I’ve been noticing a lot of articles about intimacy coordinating. It seems to be quite a divisive role. I personally love intimacy coordinators despite what you might think from watching the film. I ask for them as an actress, I implement them as a director-producer. I really do actually stand by the role. But so many people have been coming out and questioning the position. A lot of really well known actors — Mikey Madison, Florence Pugh — it seems to be something people are really interested about. I wanted to make a film about it — I say about it but for me this film isn’t about intimacy coordinating, it’s about addiction, abuse of power, hierarchy, turmoil.

Louisa: I also find sex addiction really fascinating. I don’t think it’s been something that’s been massively explored yet. And to also see a woman in a position of power that she abuses instead of a man… I feel like we’ve seen a lot of that.

Is there a feature expansion in the future?

Louisa: I like to think that every short I’ve made, there’s always an idea at the back of my head to expand it into something bigger. ‘The Intimacy Coordinator’ is being developed into a feature film which is really exciting. It came off the back of the premiere. I can’t unfortunately at this stage name any names. An amazing woman was at the premiere and loved it and asked afterwards if I had any interest in developing it further, to which I said yes — because you always have to say yes! We’re in the early stages right now, fleshing out what the feature version would look like. I’m very excited to dive further into Kate.

The cast you’ve assembled: Kieron Moore, Sophie Simnett, Alexander Arnold. Did you know them prior to this and how did they come on board to the project?

Louisa: I did! I’m very lucky because I’ve been an actress for so long. I started when I was quite young… I got my first acting job twenty years ago, my first TV job. And so over the last twenty years I’ve collected lots of brilliant actors, lots of brilliant friends. Kieron, Sophie, and Alex are all dear friends of mine. I always feel guilty — I always ask my friends to do weird things. You would think perhaps that doing some of the things I have to do in this film with friends might be easier because you know them and trust them, but actually it’s slightly weirder, having to do intimate scenes with your mates than strangers.

Louisa: The fact that all of them that have these huge, substantial, brilliant careers would do a short with me, to do me a solid and turn up with so much energy and positivity, and promote the film afterwards as well… they’ve been so down, so game, and I’m very, very lucky in that sense.

Louisa: Supporting artists need to be on their A-game as well. When I’m watching something, my eyes darting around the screen. I’m looking at everyone! And as soon as you see a weak link, it can take you out of it. Every actor, every support artist, and every crew member in ‘The Intimacy Coordinator,’ was on their absolute A-game. They made my job as a director so easy.

About you direction: there’s a lot of small intricacies throughout the film, such as the head tilt Kate does at the beginning of the film when she sees the two leads kissing. How particular were you about your direction and how much did you allow your actors to play with the material?

Louisa: I’m always pretty clear going in. I have meetings with my actors before we even get to set. I always like to check in with them after each day as well to make sure everyone’s okay, and do we still feel like we understand everything, and do we know where our characters have come from, and where we’re going.

Louisa: Kate was tricky to find — one of my most tricky characters to find and place within myself. I knew there was such a fine line for me to walk between this girl being hated because obviously she does some very terrible things in this film. But I really wanted to try to find the balance, that there were moments of light and shade, and moments of vulnerability when the audience could feel for Kate, and feel sorry for her, and rooting for her to get out of this cycle of chaos.

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Louisa: You have to trust stillness. You have to say so much with your eyes. This scene that you’re talking about when we’re moving very, very slowly into Kate and she goes from being a responsible observant intimacy coordinator to that very tiny shift of the head, that very slow changing of the breath. Because if I’m suddenly gonna start going “Oh my god, yes, this is amazing,” and I start going overtly sexual or overtly dramatic, she’s [Kate] is not gonna do that because she’s surrounded by crew. It has to be so gentle, and so subtle.

Once again, you’re a writer, director, producer, actor… How do you separate these roles on set with a project this emotionally charged?

Louisa: I leave the producer hat off on day one. I will produce right up until we are on day one. It can be quite confusing because I could be emailing a lot of the crew as a producer for months and so they naturally come to me about certain questions… Luckily I had two other wonderful producers as well, so they can handle that easily.

Louisa: It terms of directing and acting at the same time… I’ll tell you how I do it technically. I always make sure there’s a mini monitor on my kit list. That’s a monitor that doesn’t need to be physically connected to anything so I can take it around with me for the day and it’s just close to me at all times. And it just means I can stand on my mark as an actress with a camera and my cast, and I can light the scene and frame the scene with my DoP whilst looking at it [monitor]…

It’s time consuming because I’m not watching it in really time. Sometimes, when it gets to the end of the day and I’m running out of time, and my 1st AD says; you can either watch playback or you can get another shot — which one are you thinking? I’m always gonna choose to get more coverage. I’m trusting the people around me.

In terms of how do I emotionally separate it… I don’t know, man! I’ve done the acting-directing thing a lot and I did it on my first ever film as director. So I don’t really know anything else.

This film looks incredible. How did you come across Laura Bellingham’s work?

Louisa: My friends Daisy Ridley and Tom Bateman made a beautiful film called ‘Magpie’ a few years ago and I went to see a screening of that film, and was blown away by the cinematography. I asked them who it was and they said it was somebody called Laura Bellingham, and they said that she was so sound on set. They were like she is the easiest, kindest, most wonderful DoP to work with. And as soon as I knew she was a woman I was like let’s go, because all of my sets are usually ninety percent women anyway. That’s kind of how I’ve built my production company, by really focusing on female voices… So yeah, I was a fan. And I did not think she would say yes to doing a short film but she liked my previous work and we had a really lovely meeting and she hopped on board. I have plans to make many, many more things with Laura.

When audiences see this film, what do you want them to leave with and what questions do you want them to start asking?

Louisa: I want the audience to be so confused at the end as to how they are meant to feel. Are they meant to be sad? Are they meant to be scared? Are they meant to be horny? Are they meant to have found it all quite funny? I think it’s a little bit of a rollercoaster of a story, I like to think there’s going to be a lot of laughter, confusion and sadness and anger. I guess I want people to sort of feel like the wind has been knocked out of them. The way ‘The Intimacy Coordinator’ ends is not what people are expecting.

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