Andy Garcia was much more of a gentleman with Bridget Fonda in “The Godfather Part III” than he was with Joe Mantegna.
Garcia said during “The Pete and Sebastian Show” that his co-star Fonda was “nervous” to be fully nude for a scene in the 1990 Francis Ford Coppola feature. Garcia instead suggested that she wear his coat, which is what we see on film.
“Bridget Fonda was extraordinary to work with, and that’s my coat she’s wearing,” Garcia recalled. “That’s my coat. And initially, you know, they wanted her to be, you know, naked. And she was very nervous. And I said, ‘No, no. She’s not gonna be naked, no. Come on.’”
Garcia continued, “I said to [costume designer] Milena Canonero, I said, ‘Milena, why doesn’t she just wear my leather coat. It’s on the bed, it’s on the floor. Let her come out in my coat.’ And she went, ‘Oh, beautiful. Yeah, let’s do that.’ And you know, they taped it so it wouldn’t open up and stuff like that.”
Andy Garcia, the original intimacy coordinator. A lot of actresses could have used Garcia in their corner back then.
Kate Winslet told The New York Times in March that she ideally would have had an intimacy coordinator for “every single” nude scene and/or sex scene in her career. “I would have benefited from an intimacy coordinator every single time I had to do a love scene or be partially naked or even a kissing scene,” the Oscar winner said. “It would have been nice to have had someone in my corner, because I always had to stand up for myself.”
Intimacy coordinators, the activist of the actor in sex scenes, nude scenes, or really any other intimate scene, are now the industry standard. Winslet wishes she one as a young performer, or even that she had spoken up more for herself.
“I don’t like that camera angle. I don’t want to stand here full-frontal nude. I don’t want this many people in the room. I want my dressing gown to be closer,” Winslet said. “When you’re young, you’re so afraid of pissing people off or coming across as rude or pathetic because you might need those things. So learning to have a voice for oneself in those environments was very, very hard.”
