he cast of Netflix’ new erotic thriller Obsession admit they were left aching and bruised after shooting their sex scenes.

Obsession is a new British limited series, loosely adapted from the 1992 movie Damage starring Louis Malle and Jeremy Irons. It focuses on a father who develops a dangerous obsession with his son’s new girlfriend, with the two starting a passionate love affair in secret.

Richard Armitage (The Hobbit), Charlie Murphy (Peaky Blinders), Indira Varma (Game of Thrones) and Rish Shah (Ms. Marvel) play the lead roles in Obsession, which drops on Netflix on April 13. All four sat down to speak to Newsweek in London ahead of its release.

“The most bizarre thing” about shooting sex scenes

Obsession is a steamy British thriller, with the core storyline centered around sex between two characters. As a result, there are plenty of spicy scenes shown throughout.

Armitage’s character William and Murphy’s character Anna enter into a passionate love affair, despite the fact that William is married to Ingrid (Varma) and Anna is dating, soon to be engaged to, Martyn (Shah).

In the build up to launch, Murphy and Armitage faced a number of questions about nudity and sex.

“It’s not strange talking about it. It’s quite strange doing it,” Armitage told Newsweek. “I think it’s the most bizarre thing. The illusion that you’re creating is that something amazing is happening spontaneously, but it’s very technical. And you’ve got a crew of people standing around, filming it and repeating it.”

Murphy weighed in with the aspects that she found odd. “Certain positions. Holding it while the cameras were rolling. You’re like, ‘I don’t know if my thigh can hold my bodyweight here,'” she told Newsweek.

“I was aching at the end of the day,” Armitage added.

“We were covered in bruises,” Murphy said.

“Knees, elbows, forehead,” Armitage said, listing where they found contusions.

Brit romcom Love Actually famously featured two characters, played by Martin Freeman and Joanna Page, who have completely ordinary conversations whilst filming sex scenes for a fake movie. The banality of their conversations is something Murphy and Armitage related to.

“Completely. We’d break a conversation on ‘action’ then rejoin it after,” Armitage said.

“‘Oh what holiday was that? Was it all inclusive? Great, OK.’ Then we’d start rolling again,” Murphy added.

“We’d mainly talk about interior design, food, all kinds of things,” Armitage continued, “Definitely not what we were actually doing, unless it needed it.”

Acting against self-interest

The characters in Obsession, especially the adulterous Ana and William, consistently make decisions that could have serious ramifications. Shah and Varma’s characters are sidelined by their partner’s infidelity, but the actors couldn’t watch it happen either.

“I do watch it like a horror film, but in so much as I go, ‘oh no, why did I do that? God that’s so embarrassing,'” Varma told Newsweek. Shah said that’s relieving to hear, as he does the same thing.

“Watching Episode 1, I felt like I was on the edge of my seat and going ‘Oh I so want them to get together. I want Anna and William,’ and I’m playing Ingrid [his wife]!” Varma admitted. “But I was like, ‘Yes! Do it, do it.’ And then the minute they do it, I think ‘oh that’s awful’ I will have to watch the fallout, it’s going to be a car crash.”

Shah added, “The whole affair is—I really wouldn’t want to say it’s hard to believe, I just want to say it’s like, so wild, right? That it’s kind of difficult to watch.” Varma added that she hopes audiences will watch Obsession and root for their characters who she thinks are great and lovable despite what happens to them.

Obsession is based on the 1991 novel Damage by Josephine Hart, which was quickly turned into a 1992 movie of the same name. Obsession features a modern-day retelling of that story.

“It’s very much a female-led piece, written by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm, and the directing, husband and wife duo of Lisa D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn, which gives a really interesting dynamic.” Varma continued, “It’s very much told from an equal standpoint between Anna and William. We’re following both of their motivations.”

Intimacy coordinator

As has become commonplace on the sets of TV and movies now, intimacy coordinators are hired to help orchestrate sex scenes. Obsession is no different as Adelaide Waldrop was there every step of the way, and afterwards, for Murphy and Armitage within the show.

“[Adelaide] plays a lot of roles,” Murphy begins, “she’s part director, part choreographer, part psychologist, part welfare officer. She text me the other day and she’s like ‘I’m aware Obsession is coming out. I just want to double-check to see how you’re doing,’ she just cares so much.

“To have that role filled, it makes you retrospectively look back and think, wow we were really missing something from the industry,” Murphy said.

The entertainment industry has seen a rise in the use of intimacy coordinators since 2016, coinciding with the #MeToo movement. Olivia Colman and director Sam Mendes spoke to Newsweek in December about their use of the profession in the recent movie Empire of Light. Mendes admitted he initially had trepidation, but was ultimately glad they were involved.

Armitage had performed intimate scenes in the past, but Obsession actually marks his first interaction with an intimacy coordinator. He echoed a similar sentiment to Mendes.

“This was my first time and I feel like there’s a perception that it’s about policing. I mean, it’s there for a sort of legal and safety reason, but actually, I found that it freed the work rather than restricted it,” Armitage said.