Normal People's showrunners brought in Ita O'Brien to be an intimacy coordinator and work with Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal. Edgar-Jones told i-D that with O'Brien's help, all she and Mescal had to do was worry about the story and O'Brien took care of the "choreography" of those scenes. "She was wonderful, she always made sure that we were comfortable with everything and we felt safe and were well looked after."
Director Lenny Abrahamson was hesitant about having O'Brien on set at first, because he felt it would come across as having "a health and safety officer for the bedroom," he told Financial Times. He quickly changed his tune, though, after working with O'Brien, who also worked on Netflix's Sex Education. "We did also have such a laugh because she's got all these videos of different animals, from slugs to snakes to dogs to elephants, making love, so you can say, no, this is more of a sluggy moment. It's a brilliant way of helping the actors to find an external language for it," he added.