There’s a lot Game of Thrones star Sean Bean didn’t like about, well, being a star.
Speaking to the U.K.’s Times Magazine (via Variety), Bean, who played Ned Stark in the Game of Thrones, said he disliked the intimacy coordinators production would bring in to help film the show’s many sex scenes because they would “spoil the spontaneity” of a scene.
“It would inhibit me more because it’s drawing attention to things,” Bean said. “Somebody saying, ‘Do this, put your hands there, while you touch his thing… I think the natural way lovers behave would be ruined by someone bringing it right down to a technical exercise.”
Speaking about Snowpiercer, another series Bean worked on, the actor said he doesn’t like when TV companies or advertisers cut out the most “experimental” part of a sex scene.
“I think they cut a bit out actually. Often the best work you do, where you’re trying to push the boundaries, and the very nature of it is experimental, gets censored when TV companies or the advertisers say it’s so much. It’s a nice scene, quite surreal, dream-like and abstract. And mango-esque.”
When asked if the intimacy coordinators are present to protect the performers, Bean said it depends on the actress.
Some other Game of Thrones stars don’t agree with Bean’s take on the steamy scenes in the show. Actress Gemma Whelan, who played Yara Greyjoy in Game of Thrones, said the sex scenes were “a frenzied mess” due to the lack of direction, and that other projects benefit from intimacy directors. “With intimacy directors, it’s choreography – you move there, I move there, and permission and consent is given before you start. It is a step in the right direction.”
Bean is also not a fan of fan conventions, citing a bad experience he had at one Lord of the Rings convention. Bean said the fans were “good-natured, positive people who were getting tossed around and overcharged for things.”
The conversation surrounding Game of Thrones’ sex scenes is continuing with the franchise’s prequel show, House of the Dragon. Just over the weekend, House of the Dragon star Matt Smith said he thinks there are too many sex scenes in the series.
Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.