In the 1980s, erotic thrillers filled with treacherous affairs, lusty glances and softcore sex came thrusting into pop culture. After a decline in the 90's, we have seen a steady re-emergence. The reboot of the genre started with Fifty Shades of Grey and now Netflix's erotic cat-and-mouse thriller, Obsession has entered the chat.
_Happy Valley's_Charlie Murphy plays Anna Barton who is embroiled in a passionate affair with her soon-to-be fiancé's father William Barrow (Richard Amritage) and it jeopardizes their relationships with everyone around them. 'The sex scenes were empowering and enlightening,' Charlie says over Zoom. 'I never thought I'd say "Oh, I wish we could have done more," because it was such a brilliant process.'
The four-part limited series is a contemporary adaptation of Josephine Hart's 1991 novel, Damage. Feminist playwright, Morgan Lloyd Malcolm adapted the novel and revealed that the sex scenes, were scripted with an unashamedly female gaze (which was absent within the novel) and early conversations with the intimacy coordinator, Adelaide Waldrop.
Morgan explained, 'They are basically, exploring a BDSM (Bondage-Dominance, Sado-Masochistic) relationship, which is all about consent and the submissive partner, in this case Anna, being the partner who’s actually in control. She’s very insistent about the rules, which is actually extremely empowering for her. The problem is that, because of William’s obsession, he starts to break them.'
Murphy reveals that working with the intimacy coordinator was an incredible experience. 'Everyone had the attitude of that this is important work and what an amazing opportunity to delve into the psychology of this and give it breathing space. Adelaide really brought that extra eye that we needed. We worked through the psychological arc of each sex scene where it's rising, where it's dipping all of that.'
Charlie explained that this continued to evolve as they got on set, 'Richard and I knew the choreography, we knew what was at stake for each character at any point in time, what attitude and temperature of the sex was. Who was in pain emotionally at the time and the driving forces in each scene. It sounds so basic, but it has never really been given as much time as the talking scenes.'
But what was it like working so intimately with Richard? 'Amazing,' Charlie says. 'He's an incredible scene partner, Richard really, really cares and he's so protective over what we're trying to achieve.' But it wasn't always serious between them, Charlie reveals there was a lot of messing around and joking on set. 'We were filming our first sex scene so we were nervous about doing it and we just hoped we could do it as naturally as possible - but it was 4am, freezing cold and we were outside on the grass... So we were just asking the crew, "Can we go again and again?" because it was the only thing keeping us warm!'
As soon as Charlie read the script for Obsession, she was unable to shake the feeling of wanting to be involved. 'I had this kind of defeatist attitude like, "Oh, God. I like it so much and I know I'm not gonna get it" - I had the exact same feeling when I read the Happy Valley script years ago like, "I can't unsee this now." It was like, now these stories exist in the world I have to try and chase it, and it's gonna be painful if it's a no.'
In fact, she was filming Obsession simultaneously with the celebrated third series of Happy Valley. Murphy played Ann Galleger - and the two roles couldn't be more different. We watched Ann's journey from petulant teenage rich kid to troubled, astute police officer after she was kidnapped and assaulted by the evil Tommy Lee Royce. On the surface, the mysterious, enticing Anna in Obsession couldn’t be less like Ann (though as the story unfolds there are more and more parallels between them). Anna has the keys to a swanky flat in the centre of town, perfect for illicit liaisons involving rules, bondage and having sex anywhere that isn’t a bed.
Charlie says it was 'fun' playing both characters simultaneously. She explains, 'Because they are completely different ends of the spectrum you're not going to smudge them. Ann and Anna are not even close from accents, to how they dress so I had great tricks to keep them separate.' And jumping back to Happy Valley was like home, 'Just going back onto a show that I know so well - it was the best thing to be duelling at the same time while creating Obsession's world. So, doing both was weirdly the perfect pairing.'
Of course, fans would be desperate for another series or spin-off of Happy Valley. Whilst Murphy dosen't confirm anything, she happily reminisces on the time shared with the cast, 'I mean it was a special gig.' She reveals, 'Just from a personal point of view, I would love to continue being paid to hang out with Siobhan Finneran (who played Clare Cartwright) and Sarah Lancashire (who played Catherine Cawright). Adding, 'I would do anything to get that back'.
We exist in the world as well as men. So, why shouldn't we be given half the screen?
She also praises creator Sally Rooney, 'To just exist in Sally Rooney's world - she creates incredible worlds. She's a master of creating dialogue, and musicality of those worlds, and also what she puts those characters through - for an actor, it is joyful - maybe not for the audience members though.'
Obsession has now climbed to the top of the global Netflix chart - dethroning long-running #1 show Night Agent. In the past, erotic thrillers were riddled with sexism and two-dimensional female characters who tended to fall into one of two categories: the femme fatale or the scorned woman. But Charlie knew Obsession got the balance just right through digging deeper into Anna's damaged childhood and ensuring her voice was also a priority. 'You don't really see a female character with a healthy sex drive that isn't a femme fatale or one that dosen't have other sh*t going on in her life. Anna can be tethered like she wants to be to this normal life and also have this sexual desire - there are many layers to her and that's true to real life.'
She hopes audiences can see that this is a story that reflects the modern age. 'This is 2.0 version of erotic thrillers. In the past it was created during a certain period in time, and echoed that period of time. Hopefully Obsession is answering to our social reality right now and hopefully any adaptations going forward, are not just from the female point of view but right down the middle. She adds, 'It takes two people to have an affair, so why not show both sides of that? It's so much more dangerous and richer when you see fully fleshed characters.'
But is truly the start of the erotic thriller renaissance? 'Yes! Goodbye vikings, hello erotic thrillers,' Charlie yells and throws her hands in the air.
Obsession launches on Netflix on April 13th