Neil Patrick Harris spoke to Insider about his new TV show "It's a Sin ," from Russell T. Davies.- Harris said that he was "remiss" not to feature in any sex scenes in the show.
- The actor also spoke about the stigma around Aids as well as the use of intimacy coordinators.
Neil Patrick Harris told Insider that he was "remiss" not to have any sex scenes in his new TV series, Russell T. Davies' "It's a Sin."
In the show, Harris plays Henry Coltrane, who befriends Callum Scott Howells' Colin in a Savile Row bakery. The show has received plaudits for it's genuine and realistic depiction of sex between gay characters, with plenty of sex scenes cropping up throughout the show's five episodes.
Several characters feature in sex scenes, most prominently Olly Alexander, who plays Ritchie. But Harris, who spoke to Insider about the show, was one of the few who didn't have a sex scene.
"I was remiss that I didn't get to film any sex scenes in the show," Harris told Insider, explaining that he would have liked to work with the show's intimacy coordinators. Harris said that every second of the show's sex scenes were all rehearsed "very well" after being carefully choreographed by the intimacy coordinators.
Harris said: "So what you see on camera being steamy, I think when they were actually filming was probably remarkably less so. So my hats are off to the actors, especially Olly, for making it look as tantalizing as it did."
Intimacy coordinators have now become much more common to have on film sets, with "Bridgerton" famously using them for their many steamy scenes. The coordinators work with the actors to choreograph the sex scenes so that it looks natural, but also so that everyone involved feels safe and comfortable.
Harris said that these coordinators are now more common because ensuring people are "comfortable and validated and heard" in any profession is vital nowadays.
"You don't want to have any potential for anyone to feel as if they were doing something that made them uncomfortable," Harris said.
"And so that's the purpose of the coordinators to make sure that there's a layer in between the physicality and the camera, so that there's assurances that everything that wants to be accomplished can be with everyone's involvement and acceptance."
"It's a Sin" explores the lives of gay friends during the 1980s Aids crisis. The show has been praised for its sex scenes and bringing such an important part of LGBTQ history to mainstream TV. In fact, in the UK there has been a record upsurge in HIV-testing following the show.
The former "How I Met Your Mother" star acknowledged that there is still a stigma around Aids, but it is a "different conversation" than the ones had in previous decades, particularly the fear-fuelled 1980s in which the show is set. Harris feels that the show is "great timing" to restart this conversation, but most of all, he is particularly proud that the show manages to be as "entertaining and enjoyable" as it is "educational and emotional."
"The key seems to be, 'How do you have an artistic conversation about it in a way that doesn't make it seem boring, or medicinal, or terrifying?' And that's what I was so grateful to Russell for, because I still feel like the music track, the heartbeat of the show, given its context, was still beating with great vigor," Harris said.
"When you experience the intensity of the very emotional moments, it feels earned when you've spent some time before feeling that you know the people, and that you care for them and about them, and want to see them thrive."