Alexander Skarsgård Admits They Shot ‘Way More Graphic Scenes’ for ‘Pillion’ but ‘You Don’t Show a Close-Up of a D— Just Because You Can’
Alexander Skarsgård is still excited that the story in “Pillion” got to be told.
His latest film, directed by Harry Lighton, stars “Harry Potter” alumnus Harry Melling as a young gay man, Colin, embarking on a dominant/submissive relationship with a charismatic biker gang leader Ray (Skarsgård).
“I found that in this case, it’s not really relevant what my background is. I mean, I do have a kid, but what I’ve done in the past, who I’ve been with, men, women… To me, what was important was that this felt like an opportunity to tell a story about a subculture I hadn’t seen portrayed this way – with so much authenticity,” he said at Zurich Film Festival.
“My experience of watching this on screen was through [Al Pacino starrer] ‘Cruising,’ where it’s this dark underbelly of New York City and it’s dangerous, murderous and scary. Leather gays are scary. I’m no Ray, but I have a little bit of experience from that world and I know that’s not the truthful depiction.”
Robbie Taylor Hunt was the film’s intimacy coordinator.
“It wasn’t so much about making sure we were comfortable, because we were too comfortable with each other. But there’s a dramatic narrative in these scenes, which is not always the case. I often find sex on screen quite boring. Usually, all the tension is leading up to that moment, and then once people are in the sack… During Colin’s birthday and that orgy scene, a lot happens emotionally,” he noted.
“We wanted it to be clumsy and weird. On screen, it often looks like a ballet, but sex can be awkward and funny.”
He appreciated that Lighton “didn’t put on silk gloves to tell this story.”
“He embraced the awkwardness of it. All these characters were fully fledged and the sex scenes weren’t graphic for the sake of being graphic. We shot way more graphic stuff than you’ve seen just now,” he said.
“Harry did a beautiful job of calibrating it. You don’t shy away from it because ‘Oh, we can’t show men having sex,’ but you also don’t show a closeup of a dick just because you can, for the shock value. I think my mom will like this movie, and it’s about kinky gay bikers and a D/s relationship. Portrayed with the perfect amount of respect, but not too much respect.”
Skarsgård didn’t know Lighton’s work before making the film.
“I want to credit the logline,” he announced.
“I hadn’t seen ‘Wren Boys’ or any of Harry’s shorts – didn’t know anything about him. I can’t remember exactly how they summarized the film, but it was something like ‘wallflower Colin meets Ray from a kinky gay biker gang, and this is the beginning of a strange, odd, beautiful love story.’ That piqued my interest.”
He added: “It felt so original, and that’s quite rare. I’ve read great scripts where I’m like: ‘This is great, but it reminds me of 10 films I’ve seen.’ I was invited into this world with so much love and compassion, but he didn’t do it with too much reverence. Sometimes, when you portray a subculture, you’re so worried about offending [someone] or getting something wrong that you’re too precious about it. I immediately called my agents and said: ‘I wanna talk to this mad child.’”
His character, Ray, remains mysterious throughout the film.
“I kind of embraced it as an excuse to be very lazy, and not have to come up with a backstory. I liked that he was enigmatic. Harry Melling and I met two days before we started shooting the film. We met rehearsing the wrestling scene, which is a great way to get to know someone,” he laughed.
“I did love that Ray was an enigma at the beginning of the film, but also at the end. Reading the script, I was so nervous that at some point, say, Colin discovers Ray has a secret wife and then it’s a big dramatic moment. I was hoping Harry [Lighton] was brave enough not to fall into that, thinking: ‘Don’t disappoint me.’ And he sure didn’t.”
Joking about what usually attracts him to his roles – “Money. Yeah! Capitalism, baby” – Skarsgård admitted he approached intimate scenes with Nicole Kidman in “Big Little Lies” very differently.
“On this one, Harry and I were excited about just literally throwing ourselves into that ring. On ‘Big Little Lies,’ it was important for Nicole and I to get to know each other before and really build that trust, because we knew we wanted to shoot in a very safe but authentic way.”
“A lot of those scenes are shot with a single camera. The whole scene plays through from the beginning till the end and they are quite violent physically and really difficult emotionally.
I would go over to Nicole’s house, play with her kids and just hang out and have lunch and talk. By the time we started shooting, we were like two friends getting into this together.”
So far, the subculture it portrays has welcomed “Pillion” with open arms, said Skarsgård, recalling the very first screening at Cannes.
“The bikers in the movie are members of GBMCC, the Gay Bikers Motorcycle Club in the U.K. Five of them drove from London to be there. We had the most extraordinary day and night celebrating together. Paul [Tallis] threw his pup mask on right after the screening.”
“We had a joint after party with a Nigerian film where homosexuality is illegal. It was the first Nigerian film ever to play at Cannes Film Festival, so there were ambassadors and politicians from Nigeria – we had our kinky gay bikers in leather harnesses and Paul in his pup mask. It was pretty beautiful to watch,” he said.
“If you’re not a [professional] actor, even if you’re proud of the end result, it can be really weird to sit in a movie theater with thousands of people, at the biggest film festival in the world, and watch yourself running around naked on screen. That they were just loving it and felt proud, it meant the world to me.”
