Richard Armitage explains *that pillow scene in Netflix’s erotic series Obsession

‘I was really conscious that it shouldn’t be in any way comedic,’ said actor

Richard Armitage has revealed that he partly improvised a scene in which he humps a pillow in the new Netflix show Obsession.

The erotic thriller, which arrived on the platform today (13 April), is an adaptation of Josephine Hart’s 1991 novel, Damage. It follows William (Richard Armitage), an accomplished surgeon, who gets wrapped up in an intense affair with his son’s fiancé, Anna (Charlie Murphy).

In one scene, William discovers his lover’s hotel room, where he hunts for her scent, sniffing around the bed before making a beeline for a pillow.

Talking about filming that scene, Armitage told Metro: “It was really unexpected because it was written as quite a different scene.

“There was a tissue with her imprint of her lipstick on which we didn’t feel necessarily worked.

“I was really conscious that it shouldn’t be in any way comedic so we sort of left it quite open and it was a bit of an improvisation, actually.”

He added: “Charlie had – without me knowing – sprayed her scent that she’d been wearing throughout the shoot into different parts of the bed and I just got the sense of it, and that’s where the scene just opened.

“But the recording it wasn’t too planned, actually.”

‘Obsession’ (Ana Blumenkron/Netflix)

In an interview with The Independent about making the show and its BDSM themes, Murphy said: “It was really fun to explore that dominant-submissive powerplay – then the signs of his obsession, the signs of her questioning it. Each time we could go a little bit more with the danger.”

Read The Independent’s one-star review of the series here.

Obsession is out now on Netflix.