Ewan McGregor: Why intimacy coordinators were necessary for sex scene with wife Mary Elizabeth Winstead

The love on the screen is not so lovely behind the scenes.

Ewan McGregor is no stranger to sex scenes, and believes that intimacy coordinators are a necessity on set — especially when he’s acting alongside his wife, Mary Elizabeth Winstead.

The Scottish actor, 52, and the “Birds of Prey” actress, 39, star in the upcoming miniseries “A Gentleman in Moscow” together.

McGregor recently got candid with the Radio Times about working with his spouse, whom he married in 2022, and why it felt slightly uncomfortable to shoot sex scenes with her in front of the film crew.

The couple married in 2022 and share one son together. Getty Images for GreenSlate

“We did have an intimacy coordinator,” the “Star Wars” alum said. “It’s still necessary, because it’s also about the crew, and it’s odd to be naked in front of people, it’s odd to be intimate in front of the camera.”

“If you were doing a dance scene, you’d have a choreographer. It’s an important part of the work now, because it’s somebody that the director and actors meet in the middle,” he continued.

He then explained how other younger actors — similarly like his daughter Esther — could have felt coerced by filmmakers to film a shot that they weren’t comfortable with.

Ewan McGregor as Count Rostov and Alexa Goodall as Nina in “A Gentleman in Moscow.” Ben Blackall/Paramount+ with Showtime

Thus, intimacy coordinators are important on movie sets to ensure that everyone is comfortable with the action.

McGregor went on: “My daughter is 22. If an older, famous director goes to a 22-year-old and says, ‘I want you to be naked in this scene,’ that actress might feel, ‘Oh my God, I’ve got to do it, my career might depend on it.’”

“And then five years after that, she could look back and go, ‘I wish I hadn’t. Why am I naked in that scene? It’s unnecessary,’” he stated. “Now there’s somebody she talks to whose career doesn’t rest on the shoulders of this person.”

Winstead and McGregor have been together since 2017, following the latter’s split from ex-wife Eve Mavrakis.

“It’s still necessary, because it’s also about the crew, and it’s odd to be naked in front of people, it’s odd to be intimate in front of the camera,” McGregor said. Getty Images

In 2021, the “Sky High” alum gave birth to her first child with McGregor, a son named Laurie.

The “Halston” actor and his oldest daughter, Clara, 28, recently starred in the flick “Bleeding Love” together, portraying a father-daughter duo who take a road trip together.

Clara and her famous dad stopped by “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” last month where she divulged that she was forced to watch his full-frontal nude scene in her high school health class.

She recalled having to view her dad’s 1995 romance drama,“The Pillow Book,” with her peers.

“Watching this one in particular was quite memorable because when I was a senior in high school, I took a gender studies class,” she laughed at the time.

“My teacher came up to me near the end of the semester and said, ‘Listen, there’s a movie I usually teach as part of the curriculum,’” Clara recalled. ”’Your dad is in it, and there is some nudity, so I wanted to run it by you before we watched it in class.’”

“And I said it was fine, I didn’t really think much of it, and so we watched a movie called ‘The Pillow Book,’ which is a brilliant film,” she said. “But watching that movie at 17 with your entire high school class, it’s more like they’re watching me watch that film … which was interesting.”

“A Gentleman in Moscow” begins streaming on Paramount+ March 29.