Joseph Fiennes shocked his 'abhorrent' scene in The Mother hasn't sparked debate

Joseph Fiennes is surprised nobody is talking about his "abhorrent" scene in his most recent movie The Mother.

In the Netflix action-thriller, The Handmaid's Tale actor portrayed ex-SAS Captain Adrian Lovell, who stabs a heavily pregnant military operative, played by Jennifer Lopez, in the stomach in an apparent attempt to kill her unborn child.

Speaking to The Observer, the English actor admitted he was amazed nobody reacted online about the scene after the film was released in May.

"I know, talk about abhorrent behaviour. I mean, I'm amazed no one has spoken about that, I'm honestly shocked it hasn't caused discussion," he commented. "I was nervous about how it would be received."

Fiennes revealed that he had a discussion with director Niki Caro about whether the awful moment should be shown at all.

"I found it difficult - I wondered if we should even see it. We had quite a bit of discussion about it. Maybe it should be implied?" he shared.

The 53-year-old also candidly revealed that the final version of The Mother is not the film he intended to make because a lot of the nuanced moments for his character ended up on the cutting room floor.

"There's a lot that's not there. A lot of the reasoning of the character is not there. It's a device that puts the audience firmly in believing this person is evil. There's no subtlety," he explained.

The Mother is streaming on Netflix now.