"It’s slow. It’s very, very slow. There is a scene where they don't touch for four minutes of screen time. They just... breathe the same air. I think that’s more intimate than any sex scene I’ve ever shot."

Black explains that she now uses a technique she calls "scripted detachment." Before filming a love scene or a painful breakup, she and her scene partner establish a "safe word" that reminds them they are colleagues telling a story, not lovers in crisis.

This clinical approach, she argues, actually frees the actors to be more vulnerable, not less. When the logistics are safe, the emotion can be dangerous.