‘Obsession’: Richard Armitage revealed that steamy scene in new erotic thriller was “improvisation”
(Credit: Netflix)

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'Obsession': Richard Armitage revealed that steamy scene in new erotic thriller was "improvisation"

English actor Richard Armitage is the star of Netflix’s new erotic thriller series, Obsession, based on the novel Damage by Josephine Hart. Although the novel was previously adapted into a film by Louis Malle in 1992 and even an opera in 2008, the story has recently received the Netflix treatment, albeit to poor reviews. 

Premiering today (April 13th), Obsession stars Armitage as a surgeon who falls for his son’s fiance, played by Charlie Murphy. The pair embark on a steamy affair, complete with plenty of BDSM. 

Talking to The Guardian, co-writer Morgan Lloyd Malcolm explained, “The book is so particular about the kind of sex they’re having and the way they do it and how that feeds into their relationship.” She continued, “It was really important to me to not be saying anything like: ‘BDSM sex is bad sex’,” although the sex shown in Obsession is reportedly rather “vanilla.” 

In a recent interview with The Metro, Armitage discussed the sex scenes, explaining that the sequence where his character humps a pillow was partly “improvisation.” He said, “It was really unexpected because it was written as quite a different scene.” The actor added, “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.”

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

Obsession is available on Netflix now.