Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult Talk Peter Becoming Catherine’s ‘Sex Slave’ on ‘The Great’ Season 2

If you think the first season of “The Great” was naughty, wait till you see what’s coming up in season 2.

“Nothing’s off limits,” Elle Fanning, who plays Catherine the Great in Tony McNamara’s fictional account of her reign, told me Sunday at the Hulu show’s red carpet premiere at The Sunset Room in Hollywood. “We’re unfazed. The whole cast, we’re unfazed by anything.”

More from Variety

• Jane Campion Will Never Direct a Superhero Movie: 'I Hate Them' (EXCLUSIVE)

• InStyle Awards: Melissa McCarthy Tears Up on the Red Carpet, Amanda Gorman Recites Poem to Simon Biles

• Kaia Gerber to Star as Daisy in 'The Great Gatsby' Table Read for amfAR Benefit (EXCLUSIVE)

Nicholas Hoult, who co-stars as Peter, describes his character as now being Catherine’s “sex slave” after she locks him away in his own quarters in the castle.

“There is a fair amount of cunnilingus,” he told me. “Catherine kind of keeps him captive and requests him.”

Hoult admitted, “There were a couple of moments this season that I really never would have expected. But you do after a while, you become not desensitized to it but it almost becomes normal, which is bizarre. But then there are still those moments that catch you so blindsided that you really didn’t see them coming. There’s some really great ones this season.”

Gwilym Lee, who plays Grigor, says McNamara provides very detailed scripts. “There might be a party but it won’t be like, ‘There’s just a party,’” Lee said. “It will be, ‘There’s a party and there are people having sex in the background and raccoons having a fight in a log.”

In one scene on the new season, Grigor is trying to lift Peter’s spirits by dancing outside his window. “The simple thing would be to say, ‘Grigor dances,’ right?” Lee said. “But no, it’s, ‘Grigor dances and he does an impression of an elephant sucking himself off.’ That’s what the stage direction says!”

Lee cracked, “Then I do deep levels of research by looking at David Attenborough documentaries.”

Best of Variety

• The Fresh Prince Has a Memoir (And It's an Instant Best-Seller)

• What's Coming to Disney Plus in November 2021

• Everything Coming to Netflix in November 2021

Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.