Tom Hiddleston filmed the famous sex scene in ‘The Night Manager’ multiple times because the director didn’t think it was "sexy enough".
The 35-year-old actor played spy Jonathan Pine in the BBC One crime thriller and set pulses racing when he grabbed co-star Elizabeth Debicki and made passionate love to her up against a wall in a steamy sequence.
Speaking about Danish director Susanne Bier motivating him to make the scene "believable", he said: "She would say, routinely, ‘I think we should go again, it’s not sexy enough.’ And an English director would probably say the same thing, but they would preface it with lots of lovely adjectives, ‘Lovely, love what you’re doing, fantastic. Now, maybe next time…’ and sort of coax you into it. But if Susanne didn’t believe it, she just told you flat out, ‘I don’t believe it.’ Which I actually found quite refreshing."
Elizabeth played Jed Marshall in the series and the pair’s erotic performance was so convincing it set tongues wagging that there was a real spark between them, but Tom insists it was all acting.
He said: "Listen, the scene was an initiation of intimacy, and that is how Susanne wanted it played. It was interesting working with her. She’s Danish, and the difference between her and an English director is that she’s incredibly direct about what she wants."
‘The Night Manager’ was adapted from John le Carré’s 1993 novel of the same name but it won’t be returning for another run, something which Tom agrees with.
The ‘I Saw The Light’ actor said: "As it stands, Pine exists for six hours in a mini-series. The story feels complete. I only ever conceived of it as an adaptation of a complete novel. We made some alterations, we updated it so it had a political resonance and we changed the ending a little bit. I know the rumours about it extending, but none of that is real."
Tom Hiddleston told to sex up Night Manager scene
