Sam Neill on ‘Peaky Blinders’ assault scene: ‘Most horrible’ to film

Sam Neill has opened up about Peaky Blinders one of the “most difficult” scenes he has ever filmed.

The 75-year-old revealed in his upcoming memoirs Did I Ever Tell You This? that Peak Blinders scene where his character Major Campbell raped Aunt Polly, played by late actress Helen McCrory was the most difficult scene he had ever shoot.

“Easily the most difficult bed scene I’ve ever done was in ‘Peaky Blinders.’ My character, the hideous Major Campbell, rapes Aunt Polly, played by Helen McCrory. It is deeply disturbing, and I was anxious about how we would go,” the actor added.

Neill continued, “For one thing, this was acting out a situation, a crime, utterly beyond my imagination…By the time we shot this I knew [co-star] Helen very well. We found the same things funny, I respected her deeply, and I think she felt the same about me. We spent a whole morning shooting this horrible, horrible scene.”

Fortunately, Neill and McCrory’s off-screen friendship saved the day.

“As it turned out, we did very well indeed. The more hideous the behavior, the more hilarity,” Neill wrote.

“The worse I was, the more we laughed. The trust was there, which allowed us to go to the extremes. Helen McCrory was one of the greatest people I’ve ever worked with. A grand actress and a fine person.”