Barry Keoghan says shocking ‘Saltburn’ scene was improvised

This scene gives a whole new meaning to the term “laid to rest.”

Barry Keoghan revealed Sunday that the creepy, erotic graveyard scene in his brand-new film “Saltburn” was fully improvised.

“I wanted to see what Oliver would do next,” Keoghan, 31, said on the red carpet for the 2024 Golden Globes, per Deadline. “I wanted to see what the next level of obsession was.”

“And by that [I mean], I just wanted the camera to roll,” the “Dunkirk” star continued. “Not to kind of preempt it or rehearse it and what happened, happened. It was one take, and I think it was right. It moved the story forward.” 

In the film, which received two nominations at the awards show, Oliver (Keoghan) is seen sobbing over the grave of his love interest Felix (Jacob Elordi). Then, he falls on top of the freshly covered grave while slowly taking off his pants and dry-humping the pile of dirt.

The scene sent shockwaves all over the internet, with many users expressing their surprise that the entire scene was not scripted.

“What do you mean Barry Keoghan IMPROVISED the graveyard scene in Saltburn,” one fan of the film posted on X. “Shut the h–l up!! Whaaaat????”

“I know Barry Keoghan took the longest shower of his life after the graveyard scene,” a second user chortled.

“The graveyard scene was apparently improvised and now I have a rational fear of Barry Keoghan,” stated a third person.

Keoghan didn’t stop there.

The “Batman” star also treated viewers to a fully nude dance to Sophie Ellis-Bextor‘s 2001 hit “Murder on the Dancefloor” at the film’s conclusion.

“It totally felt right,” he told EW. “It was fun.”

“The initial thing was about me having no clothes on. I’m a bit, ehhh,” Keoghan continued.

“But after take one, I was ready to go. I was like, ‘Let’s go again. Let’s go again.’ You kind of forget, because there’s such a comfortable environment created, and it gives you that license to go, ‘All right, this is about the story now.’”

According to director Emerald Fennell, the entire sequence was filmed 11 times.

“A walkthrough didn’t have that post-coital triumph. If we all did our job correctly, you are on Oliver’s side,” Fennell, 38, told EW. “You don’t care what he does, you want him to do it. You are both completely repulsed and sort of on his side.”

“It’s that kind of dance with the devil,” she continued. “It’s like, ‘F–k. Okay, let’s go.’ And so at the end, it needed to have a triumph, a post-coital win, a desecration.”

Keoghan said the dance is all about “ownership.”

“It’s ownership. This is my place. It’s full confidence in, ‘I can do what I want in this manor. I can strip to my barest and waltz around because this is mine,’” the Oscar nominee said.

“I didn’t know I could dance like that, by the way,” Keoghan added with a laugh. “I was like, ‘Wow. Where did them things come from?’ Do ya know what I mean?”

“Saltburn” is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.