Nicole Kidman has spoken about the violent sex scenes she endured at the hands of John Cusack while filming 2012's The Paperboy.
The Australian actress said she didn't complain during filming despite turning up to set covered in bruises because it was part of her job.
The film starred Kidman as the fiancee of a death row inmate, played by Cusack, and also paired Kidman and the much-younger Zac Efron together as on-screen lovers.
In a Q&A with The Paperboy director Lee Daniels for Interview Magazine, Daniels - who also directs hit show Empire - said he worried Kidman took her craft a little too seriously.
"What kills me is that you don't complain. I don't know whether that's a good or bad thing," he said.
"I remember the love scene you did with John Cusack. I said, 'John, you're hurting her.' You were bent over the washer and dryer.
"I said, 'Nicole, are you okay?' And you said, 'I'm fine.' But it was clear that he was throwing you around the f***ing room like a mop. And the next day you came to set bruised."
Kidman said she wanted Cusack to feel "free" during the intense scene.
"Actors have to protect each other in a way. The idea of humiliating another actor or being humiliated myself is devastating," she replied.
"So that's why, if he's a little rougher than he knows he's being, the last thing I want to say is, 'Oh my gosh, you hurt me'.
"Most actors are like that. We all go, 'No, no. I'm fine. Don't worry about it.' Because that's how you release into things and find stuff.
"If you're tentative and scared that you're hurting someone or that you're overstepping a line or that there's a boundary that you've crossed, it makes everybody too cautious."
After churning out dozens of Hollywood films in recent years - most notably 2014 disaster Grace of Monaco - the 48-year-old actress has returned to Broadway to star in Photograph 51.
Kidman said she was "terrified" about starring as historic female scientist Rosalind Franklin.
"It's a 95-minute play and I haven't done that for 17 years. It's a whole different ballgame."
