Someone you know, love and trust.
/Use this as a ‘like or as if’ when needed.
Playing to the lens in a commercial extolling a product the question can come up ‘Who am I talking to?’. Picking a real person you know, love and trust can assist you to make the pitch intimate.
Giving a speech to a crowded banquet scene gets more difficult in the close-up. Who are you talking to then?
Pretending you love your scene partner can work – but substituting a real loved one might make it more real.
The phrase also describes intimates.
Many movie characters who are intimate haven’t had sex. Cops are intimate – they have each other’s backs; partners on TV such as lawyers or doctors follow that dictum; US Marines say they never leave a man in the field; firefighters are definitely intimate.
These TV procedural characters all know, love and trust each other. It’s a key element of the trope.
Could be a useful phrase.