Lucas Bravo wasn’t comfortable going all in during an intense assault scene with Diane Kruger in The Seduction.
Bravo plays the villainous Comte de Gercourt in the French HBO series inspired by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos' 1782 novel, Les Liaisons Dangereuses.
Kruger plays seductress Madame de Rosemonde, who schemes with the Marquise de Merteuil (Anamaria Vartolomei) and her nephew, Sebastian Valmont (Vincent Lacoste) to ruin Gercourt's life and power.
In one scene, Gercourt assaults Rosemonde, and Bravo wasn’t sure how far he should go in such a scene.
"I like to go all in, and I had a lot of fun playing that character, but also, sometimes, as you arrive on a project and it's one of your first days, it's hard not to question how far you can go," he told People.
"What's funny for me is that, we were on the make-up chair and we were bonding with Diane, and we were talking about family and very cute things, and then I spent the evenings strangling her on the fireplace," the Freedom star shared.
"And the contrast between those two aspects — it was hard for me to completely let go," the Emily in Paris star added.
While Bravo noted that the intimacy coordinators made the scene easier, he also revealed that Diane permitted him to do what was required for the scene.
"Diane gave me permission, she came to me and she said, 'Go all in, and I'm prepared,' " he said, telling his costar: "I really appreciate that you gave me such permission."
"It gave me a sense of, 'This is what we see for this show and this is how far we want it to go,' " he continued.
As for Kruger, she felt the scene needed to be "as violent and as graphic as it could be."
She explained, "Because I think the story we're trying to tell is exactly that. Women were literally and figuratively raped, physically and psychologically, by the men, by a society that was made by men, for men."
New episodes of The Seduction drop on Fridays on HBO Max until the finale on December 19.
