Actresses welcome on-set culture changes in MeToo era

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — Lorraine Toussaint welcomes the idea of intimacy coaches on television and film sets, even if the actress wasn’t quite sure what the job entails.

Informed that such coaches help stage scenes involving sex that are respectful to the actors, the star of NBC’s upcoming series “The Village” says she had long been her own advocate when no one else was around.

Toussaint joined Jennifer Carpenter of “The Enemy Within,” Retta of “Good Girls” and Susan Kelechi Watson of “This Is Us” in telling a TV critics meeting on Tuesday that they’re seeing changes in on-set culture since the emergence of the MeToo movement.

Watson says a meeting was held to discuss what is and isn’t appropriate behavior on the set of the hit NBC series. She says the result was a newfound consciousness among cast and crew.