Harry Melling admits his family were "quite shocked" by his X-rated career move

Reflecting on the movie's intimate scenes, the 36-year-old star told WWD: "A lot of them were quite shocked when I mentioned the scenes of orgies in the woods and alleyway blowj***.

"But once you read the whole thing, all that stuff makes sense in the context of what the movie's doing.

"I just knew immediately that I was game."

Harry admitted the back alley scene is one that catches audience off guard as the film itself has a drastic change in tone.

He explained: "Up to that point, it's kind of quite warm and fuzzy. It's a sort of Christmas family movie, and then Colin goes down the alleyway following Ray and the audience go, 'oh wow, no, OK, here we go. We're into something else now.' "

Harry - who played a tragic artist with no arms and legs in the Coen Brothers' film The Ballad of Buster Scruggs in 2018 - has continued to seek out impactful roles to continue his development as an actor.

Referencing the Potter films, he said: "All that happened when I was so young, and I always knew I wanted so much from this career.

"I always wanted to act, and I wanted to have as rich and as varied a career as possible. And so I think I took certain steps, not necessarily to maneuver from Harry Potter, but just to try and get better."

That led him to drama school and theatre work, as he developed "an understanding of how I wanted to act".

He added: "I don't really feel that it kind of pigeonholed me at all because it was so young when I did it.

"But the thing that I was always chasing was, 'How do I try and have the most interesting career that I've always dreamed of doing?' "