Sam Phillips has revealed that he was left feeling a tad uncoordinated after a dramatic scene on the set of Bridgerton.

The English actor, 40, who plays Lord Debling in the period drama, saved Nicola Coughlan‘s character Penelope Bridgerton from an errant hot air balloon.

It didn’t go to plan, Sam told Australian current affairs show The Project on Friday night.

‘I had to do a scene where I had to dive into a  hot air balloon. I had to sort of do this very heroic swoop in to save Nicola’s character, Penelope’ he explained.

‘Most of the time I looked like I was getting her in a wrestling headlock’ he added with a laugh.

‘We had to do six or seven times, maybe more. I was just surprised at how unsmooth I looked, basically’ he said.

Nicola, 37, previously described the scene as fairly difficult and said the pair had to learn stunt work to achieve it.

‘The hot air balloon scene was wild because initially it was scripted not as intensely as it was’ she told Teen Vogue.

‘It was sort of like, it came in Penelope’s direction, and Lord Debling was going to whisk her away. But then they were like, No, we’re going to make this a full stunt.’

She continued: ‘I was like, you are kidding me! And we had to head off and do full stunt rehearsals for it. I had to, like, throw myself onto a crash mat.

‘Sam Phillips fully rugby tackled me, like at one point, he went in so hardcore that his coat stuck to my wig and we were attached to one another.’

Sam appeared on The Project alongside his co-star Jessica Madsen, who plays Cressida Cowper in the series.

The pair are visiting Australia to attend  Metro Comic Con on the 13th and 14th of July in Melbourne.

The actor told the show that he has also had his first experiences of being photographed in public.

‘I just had that the other week. I was dressed – I looked appalling. Had a big horrible T-shirt on. Just going for a stroll’ he explained.

‘And they were like, click. It’s now all over the internet. There we go.’