There's one behind-the-scenes story that the cast of Money Heist remembers all too well — even if they weren't actually present at the time of the incident: When a real-life surgeon gave real-life stitches to actor Enrique Arce on camera — with no anesthetic.

In the first season of the thriller, bank manager Arturo Román, played by Arce, is accidentally shot during a scuffle between the authorities and our heroes. Since Arturo is a hostage, and not a robber, the police send a team of surgeons to operate on him in the bank's lobby. And much like the authorities on the show, production hired a specialist to do the job by bringing in an actual surgeon for the close-ups of Arturo's surgery. 

It’s a moment that lives rent-free in the minds of the entire Money Heist cast — especially for Pedro Alonso, whose character, Berlin, was an integral character in the scene. "They'd given [Enrique] this incredible wound out of latex and whatever else they use. It looked like an open wound, but it was fake," recalls Alonso. "I was giving him all my care, all my tenderness, and he was suffering incredibly. And I was like, 'Wow, you're so dramatic!' So we did the takes, the inserts, the close-ups of the surgeon's hands, and the guy actually stitched him up. On camera. And [Enrique] was like, 'Ah!' No anesthetic, nothing. And he gave him two real stitches!"

The dedication to the bit is what impressed and stuck with Alonso most. And when everyone broke for lunch, Arce removed all the makeup — save for the two stitches in his torso. "That day, I swear we couldn't stop praising Enrique Arce, because it was like, 'What a great actor, that's commitment.' We laughed a lot. It was impossible not to," Alonso tells Netflix ahead of the Part 5 premiere. "At least it was a real surgeon. If I had done it, I'd have killed him. That was a historical moment."

It was so momentous, in fact, that the cast also told it in Money Heist: The Phenomenon, a documentary about how the Spanish drama became a worldwide hit. The entire cast became international celebrities once the show arrived on Netflix (and in more than 190 countries) — a thought that seemed improbable, especially for Alonso, since his character is killed off at the end of Part 2. But Berlin is a key part of the series and returns in many a flashback throughout the subsequent three seasons. That meant he had to reveal new sides to the con man via his past. 

"It [has] involved a lot of energy, a lot of time, a lot of scenes, a lot of searching. I like to let it stew, trying to get all the flavors of the character," he explains. When discussing his tenure on Money Heist, Alonso says, "It's been this kind of a mad journey. My character's circumstances have allowed me to dare to do truly crazy things: break taboos, play with forbidden things, breathe at a rhythm that life doesn't usually allow you to. He's a character with a lot of humor. But then if you met him, you'll probably have an afternoon that you'll never forget."