Nicole Kidman’s sex scene in Netflix’s new thriller series is deliberately ‘uncomfortable’-Laura Harman-Entertainment – Metro

The director of The Perfect Couple has opened up about this new film (Picture: HILARY BRONWYN GAYLE/NETFLIX)

The director of Netflix’s latest psychological drama The Perfect Couple has spoken about filming some of the more ‘uncomfortable’ scenes with Nicole Kidman.

Susanne Bier, 64, is a Danish filmmaker responsible for series including The Night Manager, The Undoing, and Netflix’s Bird Box.Now she’s teamed up with an all-star cast for The Perfect Couple, including Nicole, Liev Schreiber, Dakota Fanning, Jack Reynor, Meghann Fahy, and Eve Hewson.

The six-part thriller is set in Nantucket and focuses on some of the island’s wealthiest residents, the Winbury family who are left in crisis after the ‘accidental’ drowning of a key character on the eve of their son’s wedding.

The six episodes explore the different family members – who all seem as guilty as the next – and as the mystery unfolds, affairs, grudges, and dirty secrets come to light.

Sitting down to chat with Metro.co.uk, the director of the series Susanne spoke about some of the more ‘uncomfortable’ sex scenes to film.

Although characters Greer (Kidman) and Tag (Schreiber) show off their ideal marriage and boast about their active sex life after decades together, all is not as it seems.

In one episode the characters engage in a rather tense sexual encounter that begins after Greer repeatedly tells her husband not to touch her. She then succumbs and they have sex fully clothed against a window.

Explaining the significance of this scene, Bier explained that it was deliberately ‘uncomfortable’.

‘It’s sort of a little bit of an uncomfortable sex scene in there. It doesn’t feel entirely mutual in a way.

‘It was a way of describing the emotional thing that was going on between the two of them, as opposed to just describing the physical.

‘But also, it was very conscious. We understand exactly what’s going on, but we are still keeping certain things literally on the ropes,’ she said describing the character’s position with her back to her husband and her body pressed against a window.

The Perfect Couple is one of the Danish director’s many exciting projects (Picture: Dave Benett)

This isn’t the first time that Susanne has worked with Nicole, after previously directing her in HBO’s The Undoing, a psychological thriller series also starring Hugh Grant.

Commenting on working with Nicole again, the director joked: ‘I mean, she’s like, she’s like a creature from outer space, like, she’s kind of like, you know, she kind of has no fear.’

‘She really just throws herself at things. As a director, it’s an amazing gift, because you’ve got this, beautiful being jumping up from the 10th floor and you just want to make sure that she lands in a gracious way, and she does.

‘But it’s a, it’s, it’s a very amazing ability, being this skilled and having no fear.’

Susanne added that she was ‘obsessed’ with Nicole’s face and spoke about shots she included of Nicole looking at herself in a mirror.

‘I kind of love watching people when they are in a way, looking at themselves, but not in a vain way. So I am obsessed with faces – and it’s very hard not to be obsessed with Nicole’s face.’

The film is based on lies and deceit (Picture: LIAM DANIEL/NETFLIX)

Susanne revealed she initially rejected the role but decided to take the project on after heavy persuasion and coming around to the idea of creating a comedy.

‘I got the script, and I said, No, I loved it, but I said, No, no, no, I don’t…I can’t do that,’ she revealed.

‘After having said no few times, I was like, You know what, I want to do a fun show.’

‘I’ve done comedy in Denmark, but I actually haven’t done any comedy in English. And it was like, Okay, I want to do a fun show out of this.’

The series is dark but has several moments of levity (Picture: SEACIA PAVAO/NETFLIX)

She explained that the fun was in the script and on set, as the cast was given space to improvise.

‘All the cast, had so much fun with the comedy, with playing comedy, and they also improvised comedy.’

‘Jack Reynor and Liev Schriber and Nicole, they’re all improvising, it was a lot of fun.’

Susanne revealed that the off-the-cuff moments were so hilarious she managed to ruin takes by laughing in the background.

‘I actually had, I actually had sound engineer sort of coming with a really grave face to me saying “please do not laugh in a take”’

The Winbury family is completely perfect on the surface (Picture: SEACIA PAVAO/NETFLIX)

By the end of each episode, a new person is a suspect in the suspicious death that takes place in the first episode. Susanne explained that teasing the audience is key to any mystery, but made sure that viewers never felt cheated.

‘You don’t want to cheat audience, it’s a very, it’s precarious. I hate, I hate being cheated.

‘You can’t lie. You have to be honest, but you have to, you have to seduce an audience, down the wrong down the wrong alleyway, onto a point where you become dishonest and you can’t cross that line.

‘Whenever I’m being cheated, I totally lose interest. So it’s that kind of thing of revealing bits and pieces, but not other things. And not suggesting something which is not true.’

The series focuses on the upcoming wedding of one of the Winbury children (Picture: HILARY BRONWYN GAYLE/NETFLIX)

Noticeably, unlike other Netflix shows such as Bridgerton which have been praised for the levels of nudity, there is plenty of sex but barely any nudity in The Perfect Couple.

‘It was a deliberate choice, we make an agreement with the audience that we are only revealing a tiny little bit of everything.

‘Then the sex scene, we’re doing the same thing. We are just revealing a tiny little bit.’

Susanne explained that this was a deliberate choice and she’s comfortable directing ‘explicit scenes’.

‘I’ve previously done very explicit scenes, but for this show, I thought this show is very much about secrets, and that needs to be consistent all the way through in all the different kind of scenes,’ she said.

Kidman plays a character named Greer who is crucial to the series (Picture: HILARY BRONWYN GAYLE/NETFLIX)

Susanne also revealed that she joined this project without reading the New York Times-selling book by Elin Hilderbrand the series is based on.

‘I got involved in the TV series without having read the book. So I read the pilot, and then I read the consecutive scripts, and then I only read the book a few weeks before we started shooting.’

She added that the book helped to add to ‘the actual texture of Nantucket’.

‘The island of Nantucket is, is a, is a player on its own. And it’s not just the physical Island. It’s also like a mental Island, It is very, it’s, it’s very insular for good and bad.’

Meghann Fahy, best known for The White Lotus, plays Merritt Monaco in the series (Picture: HILARY BRONWYN GAYLE/NETFLIX)

The Perfect Couple is Susanne’s latest project but she also spoke briefly about The Night Manager, which is returning for a second season.

Susanne directed the first season but is working on the new season as an Executive Producer, explaining that she was drawn to the project as it was a ‘bit scary.’

‘I’ve never done second seasons of anything. I’m not ruling out that it would ever happen, but I’ve never done it.

‘I guess I’m kind of drawn to things that are a little bit scary and something I don’t know about. I’m not sure I’d be very good at thinking, “How do I do this different from what I did last time?”‘

When asked if The Perfect Couple could be set for a second season the director was contemplative but cagey as she said: ‘Possibly yes.’

The Perfect Couple is set to air on Netflix on September 5, 2024.

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