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IYou may be shocked to learn that Alexander Skarsgård, star of true Blood And Infinity Pool And who has been walked on a red carpet on a dog leash, can’t stay boring“I’m afraid of the corny stuff,” he explains, “The middle stuff, The normcore stuff, The normal characters make me nervous, They make me insecure,” But a sub-dome romantic comedy about a smoldering, affluent biker and the little barbershop quartet singer who loves him? Yes! Yes! A thousand times yes! “It’s pure joy,” Skarsgård continues, “It’s funny, sweet, tender and weird, With just the right amount of sex,”
Okay then. the film is called back seatand stars Harry Melling As Colin, whose isolated existence in a small English village is transformed by the arrival of Skarsgård’s Ray, who prefers leather and silence, and has an eternal devotion to his lovers. First time film director Harry Lighton wanted back seat To walk a tonal tightrope of outrageous sex and grotesque ordinariness. “I haven’t necessarily seen many movies where the very aggressive elements of life and the sweet things sit neatly side by side,” he says. “But the idea that you can skip the orgy and go hang out with your parents on Sunday is very real to me.”
I meet all three people in London for a chat, which is quite a thrill back seat Myself – Between sincere honesty and phallocentric cynicism. Skarsgård, a man of such astonishing height that he more or less resembles an imposing giraffe, dresses modestly by his usual standards. Later, at the film’s London premiere, he will change into a backless halterneck shirt and lace-up leather trousers, but for now he is in tracksuit bottoms and a red jumper decorated with the words “Super Speed”. Meanwhile, Melling’s faces are the most extraordinary, full of sharp edges, yet soft, delicate and strangely beautiful. He holds his head at a low angle as he speaks, his ocean blue eyes looking upward. he is like Princess Diana talking to Martin Bashir,
“For me, there was no sense of fear in the movie,” says Melling. “But I would start explaining the general premise of it to people, and they would gasp and say, ‘You can’t do that!’ He remembers telling a family member about it. “And they were like, ‘This sounds like pornography’. And I said, ‘Okay… yes and no.’ But I want to do it.”
“Yes you want To make pornography,” jokes Lighton.
“Absolutely,” Melling says, laughing. “I’m a porn star, Mom!”
A lot of thought went into what a penis actually looks like
Harry Lighton
Its credit, back seat Refuses to ever sand down its edges. It’s as romantic and heartwarming as a film, trafficking in genuine tenderness along with excitement, but also making its eccentricities genuinely subversive. It doesn’t shy away from puppy masks, boot-licking or carved limbs, and never evaluates its characters based on their attractiveness to outsiders. Even though it avoids some of the darker brutality of its source material, Adam Mars-Jones’s sexy but nihilistic 2020 novel box hill,
“I didn’t want anyone to see back seat To feel like it was pandering directly to the audience,” says Lighton. ”I remember talking to Adam about this, and he said how gay sex scenes in novels are romanticized, or written in the typical language of straight sex scenes. He told me that straight writers make their sex scenes smell like truffles and roses. He wanted her to smell like shit and feel remorse.
Skarsgård is excited. “That could have been the title of our movie.”
On-screen weirdness is nothing new for the 49-year-old Swede. It would be even weirder if he was not Doing unspeakable things here at the picnic table. What is more surprising is the appearance of the 36-year-old Meling. Not because his first big role was as Dudley Dursley in the Harry Potter films (following the Coen brothers’ playing a tragic, limbless nuff). buster scruggs song Mind his memory, surely?), but because he was never cast in roles that were particularly cheesy. I ask him, was he nervous?
“Yeah,” Skarsgård interjects. “How was I as a lover, Harry?”
“Amazing,” Melling says, laughing. “They made me feel very comfortable. Even though I’ve been a fanatic on stage before.” It was in the production of King Lear At the Old Vic, many moons ago. “And that was fine until one day our school audience came in, and I couldn’t finish my conversation because they couldn’t control themselves.”
“Because they were excited?” Skarsgård asks.
“Because they were laughing!” There was shouting. “There was such an uproar in the audience that I couldn’t get my words out. And it was as minimal as I could get in terms of nudity and exposing myself to the public. So everything went well after that.” And, he continues, the sex scenes between Colin and Ray are a little clumsy and awkward anyway, so it wouldn’t matter if he Was nervous. “But I was really ready for it.”
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Was it helpful to work with someone who is such a long-standing expert in the field?
Skarsgård raises his eyebrows. “You mean I’m a cinematic slut?”
Melling and Lighton start laughing.
“We were absolutely comfortable,” says Melling.
“I can definitely feel a little lost during sex scenes,” says Skarsgård. “But only if I can’t figure out their purpose. Often they can be quite boring on screen – hand-holding the bedsheet, arching the back, that kind of bulls***. But here they are important moments for Colin: the blow job in the alley, the orgy on his birthday, his first orgasm. They’re important, dramatic scenes, so I got into it with gusto.”
Actual members of the community depicted in the film – the courageous Leathermen of Britain’s Gay Bikers Motorcycle Club – were less than immediately on board. Obviously, Lighton had to earn their trust. “I was an outsider coming into their world, so it was understandable that they were a little wary of me at first,” he says. “I think it took them a meal or two to allow me a seat at the table.” Ultimately, he began providing advice, suggestions, and appearing in the film with Skarsgård and Melling. He has since attended events and premieres with the cast and crew, and even participated in post-screening quizzes without Lighton and his leading men. “I think he felt very proud of his involvement in the film,” he says. “He has real enjoyment in it.”
I tell Lighton that this was one of the biggest surprises for me while watching back seat The fact is that it was partly funded by a BBC film and, therefore, by the taxpayer. Which, in this environment of forensic oversight of how the BBC operated, seemed somewhat radical. being a drag queen strictly Makes outrageous headlines, for God’s sake. “The film will obviously hit a certain pocket of people,” says Lighton. “They certainly won’t see it, but they’ll hear about it.” He says he has met other people who have expressed the same surprise as me. “People approached me and said, you know, ‘I can’t believe the BBC funded this.’
That’s why, for example, he took no issue with the scene in which the screen is (briefly, I think) filled with extreme close-ups of Skarsgård’s pierced member – an artificial one, everyone is quick to confirm. “I was put in touch with your, umm, dick man,” Lighton says to a suddenly very quiet Skarsgård. (Again, he’s an old expert on this matter.)
Lighton adds, “A lot of thought went into what a penis actually looks like.” “The piercing says everything about Ray. It says he’s a well-seasoned member of this community. It says he has an edge. Those details were important to me. And it was a way to tell the audience something about this character that doesn’t tell you a lot about himself, you know, through his mouth.”
Skarsgard, who hasn’t said anything offensive in minutes, smiles.
“Right,” he says. “Instead he uses the mouth of his penis.”
‘Pillion’ hits theaters from November 28