Sam Heughan shares his inspiration for sex scenes in steamy thriller The Couple Next Door

He’s going from the Highlands to the suburbs. Sam Heughan, best known for starring in “Outlander” as the dashing Scotsman Jamie Fraser, takes a darker turn in the steamy thriller, “The Couple Next Door.”“It just felt like a completely different character,” Heughan, 44, exclusively told The Post.“I liked the fact that he was ambiguous and you make assumptions about who [my character] Danny is in the first two episodes, and then you reveal more about his past and how complicated it is.”Premiering Friday, Jan.17 (9 p.m.

on Starz), “The Couple Next Door” also aired in the UK (Channel 4).It follows teacher Evie (Eleanor Tomlinson) and her journalist husband, Pete (Alfred Enoch, “Harry Potter”), who move into an idyllic suburban neighborhood next to traffic cop Danny (Heughan) and his wife, yoga teacher Becka (Jessica De Gouw). Evie and Pete are more buttoned up, and they’re surprised to learn that Danny and Becka have a non-monogamous relationship.

Soon, the two couples get entangled with each other a little too closely, and events spiral out of control. As a morally ambiguous man who rides a motorcycle, Danny is a far cry from the ultimate good guy that Heughan plays in “Outlander.” “Jamie Fraser has been an incredible gift of a character and iconic one – one that’s lasted 11 years, eight seasons, 101 episodes.I think it’s rare to get a character like that.

It may be a once in a lifetime thing,” said Heughan.“But, the appeal for ‘The Couple Next Door’ was this morally ambiguous character who, on the surface, is a bit of an alpha male.But deep down there’s just some goodness to him, despite his bad choices.”As different as the two characters are, both “The Couple Next Door” and “Outlander” involve Heughan doing steamy scenes. “I don’t love or hate [doing sex scenes], it’s just a part of the story, I suppose,” he said. “But certainly, I guess my time on ‘Outlander’ has given me a lot of ed...