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.