Emily Osment Asked for an Intimacy Coordinator on Young Sheldon

Emily Osment asked for an intimacy coordinator while she was working on Young Sheldon, and she says the reason was her age gap with co-star Montana Jordan. The account comes from Jessica Radloff's book Young Sheldon: The (Juicier-Than-Meemaw's-Brisket) Inside Story of the Hit Comedy, and The Hollywood Reporter has reported on it.

An intimacy coordinator is a crew member who plans scenes that involve closeness, such as kissing, so that actors know what to expect and can agree to each step beforehand.

Osment played Mandy McAllister on the show. She was 30 when she joined in 2022. Jordan was 18 at the time. Osment said she felt uncomfortable because of the difference in their ages. In the book she describes him in blunt terms: "He was a baby! A baby with a mullet."

According to TheWrap, she requested an intimacy coordinator for planned kissing scenes with Jordan. Osment said she raised the matter with Tim Marx. A coordinator could not be found that late in the day. One was on set for the next few episodes, as the characters' relationship grew more serious.

Director Alex Reid addressed the situation in the book. He said production had "dropped the ball" by overlooking the need for an intimacy coordinator at the start. He linked the oversight to the show's lack of sex scenes, which he said made the role seem unnecessary to the team.

The story matters now because Osment and Jordan are back together on screen. They star in the Young Sheldon spinoff Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage. Osment's comments concern the earlier series, where she played a character who, as the story goes, was married to a much younger man on screen. Her account adds a behind-the-scenes detail to a show that many viewers followed for years.

Osment's account is one of the most specific accounts of how the production handled a scene that involved closeness. Reid's comments show the team saw the gap in planning as an error, not a deliberate choice.