Jacob Elordi’s experience on Wuthering Heights wasn’t always euphoric.

Indeed, in the early days of shooting the film adaptation of Emily Brontë’s novel, the actor—who stars as the film’s antihero Heathcliff—had to be briefly hospitalized.

“Siân Miller, the make-up artist, was designing the scars from the whips for Heathcliff’s back. She challenged me: ‘If Daniel Day-Lewis was playing Heathcliff, he would have come in with scars,’” Jacob shared with the film’s director Emerald Fennell in an interview with Esquire published Jan. 30. ‘I said, “Well I’m going to go away and maim myself on the weekend to prove to you that I’m Heathcliff!”

And while the idea of going “method” was a joke, Jacob did end up suffering an injury off-camera.

“That night I went home, and the house I was staying in had a steam shower: a brass knob that steam came from out of the wall,” he said. “I was sitting on the floor of the shower…As Heathcliff, I was covered in mange and dirt, and I thought, ‘I’m not going to do that again, I’m going to clean my feet properly every night and come in to work fresh the next day.’”