The Boys star Chace Crawford has revealed that a scene in which his character has sex with an octopus voiced by Tilda Swinton almost gave him a panic attack.

We know, that’s not a sentence we ever thought we’d write, either. But for the avoidance of doubt, let us explain.

Chace Crawford plays aquatic ‘hero’ The Deep on Prime Video’s satirical, superpowered smash The Boys, and over the course of the four (eventually to be five) seasons, he’s had some pretty diabolical storylines.

One of the wildest of those involves his intimate relationship with his girlfriend Ambrosius, who happens to A) be voiced by Tilda Swinton and B) be an octopus. In season three of the show, during the “Herogasm” episode – a giant, superpowered orgy – Starlight (Erin Moriarty) catches The Deep putting his sea cucumber where he really shouldn’t.

Viewers are treated to a view of Crawford’s tentacle-wrapped bum during the scene, as well as Ambrosius latched onto his front, but speaking about the moment in an interview with Rolling Stone, the actor has revealed that he nearly had a “panic attack” filming the scene.

“It’s so funny and brilliant now, but when that came up, I was like, ‘Oh God, how’s this going to work?’” the 38-year-old explained.

“I was in total denial about it. And then it got 24 hours out from the first day I had to shoot it and I almost had a panic attack. I called [The Boys showrunner Eric] Kripke — he’s so great. He’s got a million things going on, but his door’s always open. So I was worried about the scene.”

Crawford then revealed that Kripke ending up adjusting a portion of the The Boys scene for him. “I’m like, ‘How are we gonna do this? What are the angles gonna be? How naked do I have to be?’ He changed one shot for me. And it was great.”

The former Gossip Girl star confirmed that there was an intimacy coordinator on set during the scene.

“We have one on set. But not with the octopus,” he explained. “But they treated it like, ‘Quiet everyone, clear out’ — a closed set. But yeah, just the act of picking up the octopus and getting a wet octopus in the bed was so funny and weird. And then it doesn’t come out for a year almost, and you’re like, ‘How is this going to be received?’ But everyone loved it.

“I saw someone at the gym the other day, and he was like, ‘I’m actually going to show you this.’ And it was him in a Deep costume with a pink octopus wrapped around him at Comic-Con or something. Everyone loved it, man. I get ragged on a little bit, but it’s good.”

The Boys seasons 1-4 is available to stream on Prime Video.