The Daily Telegraph

Eccleston: I was accused of ‘copping a feel’ in sex scene

- By Craig Simpson

CHRISTOPHE­R ECCLESTON has claimed an actress falsely accused him of inappropri­ately touching her while filming a sex scene.

The actor and former Doctor Who star has revealed he feared becoming the centre of a scandal after an incident on set with an unnamed female star.

Eccleston claims that during filming, the woman falsely claimed that he had inappropri­ately “copped a feel”.

The star, 59, said that the accusation was a “betrayal” of the trust that is supposed to exist between stars on set.

He said: “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.”

Speaking to The Independen­t, he added that he had “never felt more betrayed by a fellow actor than I did that day”, saying: “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.”

Eccleston, who stars in the latest instalment of the hit anthology series True Detective, has not named the actress involved or the production they were working on, but has revealed that it was prior to the Metoo scandal centred on the abuses of Harvey Weinstein.

He said he was “fortunate” that the accusation was made prior to the scrutiny that came with Me Too.

The actor said that the false claim may not have been made had the actors been watched over by an intimacy co-ordinator, a profession­al who choreograp­hs and controls intimate scenes.

He added: “I could have been accused of all manner of things... that’s about what passes between actors, with trust and the abuse of it.”

‘I have to say to you that I would sooner have put my hands in a food blender’

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