Sam Neill talked about Peaky Blinders one of the “most difficult” scenes he has ever shot.
The 75-year-old revealed in his upcoming memoir Did I ever tell you that? This peak blinders The scene where his character, Major Campbell, raped Aunt Polly, played by the late actress Helen McCrory, was the most difficult scene he had ever shot.
“By far the hardest bed scene I’ve ever done was in ‘Peaky Blinders.’ My character, the hideous Major Campbell, rapes Aunt Polly, played by Helen McCrory. It’s deeply disturbing and I was anxious to know how we were doing,” the actor added.
Neill continued, “On the one hand, it was playing out a situation, a crime, entirely beyond my imagination… By the time we shot this, I knew [co-star] Helen very well. We found the same things funny, I respected her deeply and I think she felt the same way about me. We spent an entire morning shooting this horrible, horrible scene.
Fortunately, Neill and McCrory’s off-screen friendship saved the day.
“It turned out that we did very well. The more hideous the behavior, the more hilarity,” Neill wrote.
“The worse I was, the more we laughed. The confidence was there, which allowed us to go to extremes. Helen McCrory was one of the best people I’ve ever worked with. A great actress and a beautiful person.