Elle Fanning, who stars with Nicholas Hoult in the The Great, has spoken up about filming “funny” s-x scenes with him.

On the set of Elle Fanning’s new Hulu series The Great, disembodied heads, guys in bear costumes, and crazy love scenes were all in a day’s work.

The story depicts a young Catherine as she journeys from her home Germany to Russia in search of a fairy-tale future as empress and bride to a handsome monarch, written by Tony McNamara of The Favourite. That’s not what she finds there. Peter’s court is a farce, headed by a royal fool more concerned with his own ego and pleasure than with improving the lives of the people he governs. Cruel and vain, he exploits his young wife like a broodmare, refuses to give up his mistresses, and threatens to burn down his country while drinking large quantities of Champagne.

CREDIT: OLLIE UPTON/HULU

Fanning joked about Hoult to Refinery29 over the phone before of the premiere, “He’s always a bad husband to me.”

When Catherine arrives in Russia, believing she is marrying for love, she is shocked to realize that she is seen as nothing more than a means to an heir. The dissatisfied consort sets out to murder her dreadful husband and uproot the filthy country she’s come to call home over the course of the season, with the help of her servant, Marial (Phoebe Fox), and other newfound supporters in court.

Elle was asked by Entertainment Weekly about the show’s shifting tones during s-x scenes, which were used to emphasize the difference between Catherine’s marriage to Peter and her romance with Leo.

“We had an intimacy coordinator that was on set whenever we had those scenes, to make everyone feel good and make everything look real,” she revealed.

“She [Catherine] was very open and free and loved s-x, so that’s obviously something that I wanted to touch upon. You see the young Catherine on her first wedding night and it’s not exactly how she was expecting it to go.

“And she ultimately gets a lover in Leo, they have the s-x that they have, which is more loving and passionate. The s-x with Nick and the s-x with Sebastian [de Souza] in the show is very different.”

Fanning went on to say of her and Hoult’s on-screen romance: “I think with Peter and Catherine, their scenes are just totally to get an heir. That’s it. And Nick has to say some very bizarre lines that most of the time I was biting a pillow laughing so hard.

Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult, shown in ‘The Great.’ | CREDIT: OLLIE UPTON/HULU

“I think we both like to challenge ourselves, Nick and I, and we’re trying to push each other’s buttons and he’s trying to make me laugh and trying to go there. So I think it really helps those scenes. But especially the scene where [they have to] count his thrusts to 100, that scene, we were dying.

“There’s a real wide shot where we had to kind of go through the motions because we’re way in the background and the other characters are talking. And it was hard. We were just crying with laughter. So yeah, those days were actually quite enjoyable. They were funny.”

The 22-year-old has been acting since she was three years old, and she has been placed in leading parts since she was eight. Sofia Coppola, J.J. Abrams, Angelina Jolie, Kirsten Dunst, Greta Gerwig, Brad Pitt, and Cate Blanchett are just a handful of the people she’s worked with. The Great, on the other hand, is a fresh chapter in her already lengthy career. For starters, it’s her first project as an executive producer, and it’s a challenge that’s opened her eyes to new possibilities for her future.

The series, like The Favourite, combines comedy, wit, and a current point of view with lots of s-x and n*dity to bring this darkly humorous rendition of events to life. “That’s so Tony,” Fanning tells ET’s Katie Krause of McNamara’s decision to flip the world upside down. “It’s just such a fascinating way to tell that story.” Hoult agrees, praising McNamara for revitalizing a “dull and dry” historical drama genre. “This felt just completely different to all those.”

Tony’s voice is so idiosyncratic. Having done The Favourite, I did recognize the kind of rhythm and the pacing and that humor that is in this show