Outlander’s Malva Christie star on shooting sex scenes ‘The most exposing thing ever’

Outlander episode promo: "The World Turned Upside Down"

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In a recent interview, the Irish actress, 24, spoke about shooting these moments. She said how she found filming the Outlander intimate scenes to be a positive experience after some previously “jarring” and “awkward” ordeals on other projects. As Malva, she was required to shoot an intimate scene in which she was smacked by her father Tom Christie (Mark Lewis Jones) for what he deemed her wayward behaviour.

The scene involved partial nudity as Malva was hit on her bare bottom as a punishment.

Another scene saw Malva in the throes of passion in a church no less with Roger MacKenzie (played by Richard Rankin) walking in on the moment.

Actress Reynolds worked with Outlander’s intimacy coordinator Vanessa Coffey, who supervised the sex and nude scenes on set for season six.

Reynolds told media including Express.co.uk at a recent Royal Television Society talk: “I think there’s such a level of being protected, having someone like that you can’t compare to not having it. Now, I can’t imagine not having that.”

Reynolds was a newcomer to Outlander and the industry with a couple of roles in the film The Ballad of Audrey Earnshaw and TV series My Left Nut before coming to the Starz series.

She said actors weren’t prepared for the intimate or sex scenes as part of their training at drama school.

The actress said the only “proper simulated sex scenes” she’d done were on Outlander.

Reynolds explained: “Even from my experience on that, I think in my head before when I’m reading the scripts when I see a sex scene, my head goes, ‘Fine, easy great. That’s an interesting scene. My character’s doing this, this is fun.’ I didn’t have any qualms about it whatsoever.

“And then you get on set and it is the most exposing thing ever, even if it’s just kissing because maybe you’ve never met this person you’re kissing before in your life. We all have our different experiences and everything we’ve gone through.

“I think the most important think – and this is something that Vanessa taught me – is that now you can change your mind if you’re not comfortable. In the past, you were literally not allowed to say, ‘I’m actually not comfortable with this anymore.’ You know you have the option.”

She admitted if she hadn’t worked with Coffey, she may have continued to work in situations she didn’t feel safe in.

Reynolds hailed Coffey for changing her “perspective” and giving her a voice on set.

The star detailed some of her previous experiences, saying: “I’m not saying I would dread every sex scene that I have to have. What I’m saying is that, for example, I’ve done intimate scenes with close friends. So I’ve been friends with them for a couple of months on set or whatever. I’m like, ‘This is going to be a bit awkward and funny.’

“Then you’ve for the bonus of helping, someone like Vanessa. Sometimes you meet the person on that day and this is just my experience so far.

“I’m sure there’s a lot to come. But that experience for me, personally, was jarring even though it was a little bit further than kissing.”

“I find that awkwardness of not knowing how to communicate with someone I didn’t know. I’m thinking, ‘Oh my god, we’re going to have to pretend to have sex.’

“And having Vanessa there […] the coordination between the two of us and the safety of not only me but them, it just took all of that yuckiness, the taboo for the people that can’t speak up.”

Reynolds added: “She’s there to be a voice to settle you and I can’t imagine going into that without and now going forward I’m praying there always will be an intimacy coordinator.”

Jamie Fraser actor and producer Sam Heughan enlisted Coffey after hearing about her work as an intimacy coordinator.

Intimacy coordination is a relatively recent role and didn’t exist when Heughan first started out with actors were left to their own devices when navigating these scenes.

Heughan previously said how he wanted the younger cast members on the show to feel safe. The star said when he was first starting out in the entertainment industry he was thrown in the “deep end”.

Judging from Reynolds’ experience on Outlander, Heughan has now succeeded in supporting the younger and newer cast members on the show.

Outlander season 7 is in production and season 6 is streaming on STARZPLAY now

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