“Doctor Who” and “True Detective” star Christopher Eccleston has revealed he was once accused of “copping a feel” by an A-list actor with whom he was shooting a sex scene. Eccleston described the accusation as an “abuse of power.”
“I did a sex scene with an A-list actress — not Nicole Kidman, who was brilliant — and she implied, in front of the crew, that I was copping a feel. Because she didn’t like me,” the actor told The Independent, who reported that Eccleston’s “anger” over the incident was still palpable.
Eccleston added that he was “fortunate that happened to me before the Harvey Weinstein stuff came to light, so I wasn’t put in the stocks for it. But I’ve never felt more betrayed by a fellow actor than I did that day.”
“I have to say to you that I would sooner have put my hands in a food blender than copped a feel of that person,” he continued. “It was an abuse of power, what she did. I don’t think that would have happened with an intimacy coordinator on set. I could have been accused of all manner of things… that’s about what passes between actors, with trust and the abuse of it.”
Eccleston, who has also appeared in “Thor: The Dark World,” plays a police boss having an affair with Jodie Foster’s character in the long-awaited new season of “True Detective.”
“I’d never have taken such a small part if it wasn’t for Jodie,” Eccleston said of the role. “But all my scenes are with her, and she’s been a heroine of mine for many years.” He told the newspaper he has had a “total emotional, intellectual, artistic crush” since they were both children.
The actors worked with an intimacy coordinator on the show, which the former Timelord called “a wonderful innovation in the industry.”
“Not just because it protects people, but to creatively decide how a scene should be played,” he explained. “If I were a writer, that would be very important to me — because the way people have sex is how they communicate.”