The Regime Episode 5 “All Ye Faithful” might end in horror for Chancellor Elena Vernham (Kate Winslet) and Herbert Zubak (Matthias Schoenaerts), but it begins with the couple’s own twisted version of domestic bliss. We learn that the two are a legit couple now, with Elena’s doting French husband (Guillaume Gallienne) exiled in Switzerland. As the nation falls apart, Elena and Zubak are more concerned with their relationship, going to couple’s therapy and working on “no biting” during sex. In fact, the duo’s bizarre Regime Episode 5 sex scene had the set of the HBO drama in hysterics. At least, according to Kate Winslet…
Let’s back up a beat. At the very end of The Regime Episode 4 “Midnight Feast,” Zubak murders his way out of the palace’s subterranean dungeon and into Elena’s arms. The two finally bang, offering one form of catharsis to Regime viewers. The Regime Episode 5 opens six months later. Elena and Zubak, in matching beige PJs, attend couple’s counseling. The issue? Once again, Zubak places an incredible amount of import in what he sees in dreams. Specifically, he wants to bite Elena’s fingers.
Later in the episode, we watch the two happily ignore the ever-encroaching rebel forces to get down and dirty between the sheets. Their athletic love-making is sweaty, quirky, and involves Elena putting her fingers in Zubak’s mouth, with the warning, “No biting!”
It’s the latest absurdist moment to grace the HBO drama. However, as Regime star Kate Winslet revealed at a press conference Decider attended, this particular scene had its own challenges. Specifically, key members of the crew were laughing so hard, they had to be excused from set!
“We did have a couple of moments when things would happen that were so funny that people had to be sent out,” Winslet said at the HBO organized event. “When we were shooting Episode 5, Elena and Zubak having sex, and she’s screaming at him, ‘No biting! No biting,’ two people had to be sent out for laughing.”
Two people leaving the set for laughing doesn’t sound like a huge deal, but the exiled parties were cinematographer Alvin Küchler and a hair and makeup artist, “which was actually kind of a problem,” Winslet said.
“Matthias had all these [fake] tattoos. He was getting sweatier and sweatier, and they just kept sort of rubbing off on parts of my body,” Winslet said. “I was like, ‘This is really like I’ve got the newspaper printed on me.’”
Somehow, professionalism came out on top. Winslet and Schoenaerts were able to complete the scene, which we can now enjoy in The Regime Episode 5.
” Yeah, but they had to be sent out,” Winslet said. “That would happen, that happened a lot.”
