Jacob Elordi was rushed to hospital after burning his back in the bathroom

Speaking to Esquire magazine, he said: "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.' I said, 'Well I'm going to go away and maim myself on the weekend to prove to you that I'm Heathcliff!' "

Jacob explained that he went to the house he was staying at during filming, which had a steam shower with "a brass knob that steam came from out of the wall".

The star was "sitting on the floor of the shower" to clean his feet when disaster struck.

He said: "The full story is that, when I was doing Frankenstein, I had so much make-up in my fingers and in my feet all the time, and I left it on for the whole shoot because I couldn't be bothered washing it all off.

"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.'

"So I went to clean my feet, and I leant back and my back seared into the steam knob and I stood up screaming; it tore up my back. When I went to work on Monday I had a second-degree burn."

Wuthering Heights director Emerald Fennell can remember being told about his accident and assuming the worst.

She said: "I think that was in the first week of shooting. I got a text from Josey McNamara, the producer, saying, 'Jacob's in hospital.' "Obviously I thought, 'Oh my god, he's had a car accident,' and then he was like, 'He's burnt his back in the shower.'

"I was like, 'You know what, Josey? Start with that.' Do you think it was the spirit of Daniel Day-Lewis?"

Jacob quipped: "It was actual Daniel Day-Lewis."