Kiernan Shipka Talks Intimacy Coordination on That Scene With Kit Harington and Marisa Abela (Exclusive)

[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for Industry Season 4 Episode 3.]

HBO’s Industry is always swinging for the fences, and it just delivered one of its most audacious scenes in Season 4’s third episode. It was a sex scene involving Marisa Abela, Kit Harington, and Kiernan Shipka, one that Shipka says was choreographed in advance to give the actors a framework to hold up their performances. That’s the value of intimacy coordinating, the Mad Men alum agrees.

Yasmin (Abela) and Henry (Harington) were in Vienna on Tender business with Whitney (Max Minghella) and his assistant, and Hayley (Shipka). They stayed in a castle with a princess and her son, who was investing in the company but casually dropped thinly veiled antisemitism during dinner, and whom Henry called a fascist behind closed doors (Yasmin brushed off these concerns, but that came back to bite her later). After dinner, Hayley went on an unsuccessful Raya date, and Yasmin propositioned Hayley when she came to their bedroom with some statements for the married couple to review.

Yasmin has hooked up with older women in Industry‘s previous seasons, and she was always in a submissive role. This time, she flipped that script and played the dominating role with her husband and Hayley. Yasmin smoked a cigarette and watched while Hayley and Henry hooked up on their bed, and then Yasmin joined in at the end. This is all after Hayley flirted with Yasmin at Henry’s birthday party in Episode 2, not knowing if Yas would bite. She did, but nothing happened until Vienna.

Shipka tells TV Insider that they worked with an intimacy coordinator to give the scene structure and the actors free rein within the agreed framework.

“That scene in particular had a lot of literal choreography in that the room was a very specific room, and there’s a lot of different dimensions to that scene because it starts as a dialogue scene,” she says. “It starts very much so you kind of think you know where it’s going, but also it could go another way. So there was a lot to get to. We worked with the intimacy coordinator, and there was the physical, let’s map this out, let’s figure out where we’re going to go so that we don’t have to think about that when we’re actually shooting it. And we can think about these characters and their intentions and what this scene is really about underneath the physical stuff. It was kind of a process in that way, but that part of it was pre-planned and rehearsed, so that when we got there on the day, that was not the first thing that we had to think about or make stuff up on the spot, which was nice.”

That’s the whole point of intimacy coordination, Shipka says. “Let’s get a structure to this so that we all feel like we know what we’re doing, and then we can get there on the day and try things and figure out what the scene means as well,” Shipka adds.

There wasn’t any pressure surrounding any of Hayley’s risque scenes this season, the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina alum shares.

HBO

“Everyone’s just so fun and chill on the show. I felt that throughout the season, when we would be doing these really intense scenes and these really vulnerable scenes, and then the camera cuts, and not in an unprofessional way, but everyone’s just chill and easy and talking about their weekend and what we’re going to do and what we’re excited about,” she says. “The environment is very chill, and I think that makes the intense material much more manageable to do because the vibe on set is just so good.”

Hayley and Yasmin will continue to have an interesting relationship this season. Shipka says that “Yasmin sees herself in Hayley,” which could be good or bad, depending on the circumstances. Regardless, Shipka thinks “that they have legitimate chemistry, for what it’s worth.”

“It’s interesting because I’m like, is it a chicken or an egg thing?” she wonders about Hayley and Yasmin’s attraction to each other. “Because obviously when Hayley and Yasmine meet, Hayley makes that initial little like, ‘Or I could get into bed with you’ thing to see if she bites and Yasmin does. And then all of a sudden, there’s this spiritual cosmic shift in their realities where now they’re in each other’s lives.”

Shipka loves this character and was thrilled to play her. She’s done the dark, twisted, sexy role before with Swimming With Sharks, but the actor says that Hayley was “a very new character for me.”

“I’ve played people who have had maybe waffs of Hayley before. I know that tone, I know that sort of psyche, but she was a new beast and a lot of the stuff that I do in the show this season is stuff that I haven’t done before on camera,” Shipka explains. “So there was a lot of newness, but the stuff I get nervous about and scared about is more, oh, I really want to do her justice, and I want her arc to feel earned, and I want this character to feel like a human and make sense. And I want to connect in that scene. That’s the kind of stuff that I’m really thinking about before and wanting to be present for and get right, I guess.”

“That’s sort of a weird, maybe not exactly perfect term to use for my approach to doing scenes,” she adds. “But when it came to the big, bold, audacious stuff that this show tackles, that stuff I was just excited to do, and I felt like I was in good hands, too, with everybody.”

Industry, Sundays, 9/8c, HBO