Olivia Colman and Alexander Skarsgard have joined forces to tell the tale of the unlikeliest of romances: that between an outcast villager with a prominent fish stench and a man made from the branches of a willow tree.
For “Wicker,” the two convened in Budapest for a 45-day shoot that required Skarsgard to don a 30-pound suit that’s a mixture of 3-D printing and natural material. Under the guidance of the married writer-directors Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson, the two achieved what the New York Times critic Jeannette Catsoulis called a “deliciously wicked adult fable” that is “funny and freaky and sweetly romantic.”
To get there, Colman battled pneumonia and conquered sex scene choreography while Skarsgard grappled with a costume that forced him to emote far more than he was comfortable doing. The result prompted an internet frenzy long before the film was released on Friday. Even the Swedish furniture store IKEA joined in the fun with a social media meme touting its wicker furniture line as “made from husband material.”
We sat down with the stars in Santa Monica, Calif., to discuss marriage constructs, originality in movies and sex after 50. These are edited excerpts from our conversation.
What was it about the Fisherwoman that made this role so attractive?
OLIVIA COLMAN I liked that she was raw and had agency over her own destiny. I liked that she ate with her mouth open and pissed in a pot she kept under the bed, and had a limp and a monobrow and they mocked her. How fun to get your teeth into that. And I liked that she was mocked one too many times and thought, “I’ll show you. I’m going to make a mockery of your stupid marriage. I’m going to get a husband, and it’ll be a big joke.” Joke’s on her because she falls in love.
Alex, did you think this character would be difficult to play?
ALEXANDER SKARSGARD There was a purity there that felt foreign to me. [Laughs] I had come off a string of darker, morally corrupt characters, and there was something so pure and beautiful about this character. It was a bit, I won’t say scary, but playing the nice guy is slightly out of my wheelhouse. It’s easier to find something interesting in the darkness of a character.
COLMAN Did you enjoy it in the end?
SKARSGARD I loved it. I wanted to make sure that it wouldn’t feel flat. There’s also a bit of evolution for the character. He’s got somewhere to go, and that was interesting to track. The fact that he’s unabashedly romantic, and can say stuff with so much sincerity — I thought that was really refreshing and fun.
Is he the antidote to the toxic male?
SKARSGARD Very much so, and the fact that he wants his partner to thrive and be happy, and even when he goes to the bar and hangs out with the other guys, he’s honest about that. He doesn’t fall into the bro banter of, “Oh yeah, the old ball and chain is back home.”
What was it like putting the costume on for the first time?
SKARSGARD We had almost a year leading up to the shoot to talk about the character and the look of the character, but we didn’t have the costume, because it was being built in New Zealand [by Weta Workshop, the “Lord of the Rings” special effects studio] until a few days before we started shooting in Budapest.
COLMAN It could have been quite hairy.
SKARSGARD Everyone was super excited, but also a bit nervous. I think this was a Thursday or Friday. On Monday, we’re supposed to start filming, and what do we do if it’s not great? [Prosthetics were] glued to my face and if it’s not perfectly adjusted, then it can look like a horror movie, like you’re wearing someone else’s face. We also didn’t know how it was going to move with my face. If it doesn’t, it’ll be difficult to portray any kind of subtlety or nuance. But it was a really exciting moment when I stepped into it. Olivia was there when I stepped out of the trailer.
COLMAN Oh, hi! The Fisherwoman has struck gold!
How many hours a day did you spend in that costume?
SKARSGARD Props to everyone at Weta because they not only created this stunning piece of art that is the costume — 40 artists worked for 18 months. This wasn’t a we-will-fix-it-in-post situation. But I’m also grateful because they were so sweet in trying to streamline the process of getting into it. They got it down to under two hours, and just under an hour to take it off.
Could you eat with it on?
SKARSGARD I could eat. It was a little tricky. It was difficult to open my mouth fully.
COLMAN Liquidized food.
SKARSGARD I looked fantastic.
It’s the “Wicker” diet.
SKARSGARD It’s going to be the hottest thing in 2027, the “Wicker” Diet. They made this cute little baby bib for my beard, and a hair clip for my mustache. They peeled off my eyelashes so I could blink properly and give my eyes a little break over lunch because I couldn’t take the mask off.
Was it difficult to emote under all that?
SKARSGARD That was a strange feeling because even though it’s in many ways a comedy, it was played very straightforward. I got to work with a bunch of actors who are masters of subtlety and nuance. And I felt like a clown because I had to really exaggerate all my facial movements. It felt really strange. We did some camera tests to find the right level. I just had to trust [the directors] Al and El because it felt like I was hamming it up.
What about the job was hard?
COLMAN I did have pneumonia. I had about three weeks of feeling pretty grotty. My main annoyance about that is I missed out on so many nights out.
SKARSGARD You made up for it once you recovered.
How were the sex scenes? Did you have an intimacy coordinator?
COLMAN I do find things like that incredibly embarrassing. But this wasn’t as embarrassing as other things I’ve had to do because, well, it felt real. [The intimacy coordinator] made it fun, like a dance routine.
Did you think they were going to be that funny?
SKARSGARD Yeah, because they were very funny on the page. They were steamy and sexy, but there were all these really funny moments. I only feel those types of scenes are uncomfortable if I don’t know what purpose the scene fills in the greater narrative. So be it this or a gay orgy in the woods, like in “Pillion,” if I’m creatively excited about the scene and I see how it fits in, then it’s thrilling. It’s only weird if you’re like, why is this scene here?
What have you two made of the internet’s reaction to the film?
COLMAN I’ve never had that with anything I’ve done before. I don’t look at the internet unless I’m looking at nice vases or pots.
SKARSGARD Or cat videos.
COLMAN Yeah, cat videos. So it was friends going, “Oh my God, I’m so excited about ‘Wicker.’” Oh, OK. Then other people said, “Oh, my God, look what IKEA has done.” I hope it means they’ll all come and see it because I am so fiercely proud of this film.
SKARSGARD When you work on a passion project like this, a small indie film with not a huge distribution budget, that is so original in its tone, it just makes me very happy there seems to be an appetite for it.
COLMAN Also something to remember, audiences are treated poorly sometimes. We want all sorts of things. We don’t want to wear jeans every day. We want to wear something different. Maybe some heels one day. Maybe shave my head. I hate being patronized as an audience member. We shouldn’t underestimate them [audiences]. They’re yearning for something different.
Who is the audience for this film?
SKARSGARD I do think women and gay men have had fun with this idea of what would I do if I had a partner made out of wicker. But I’ve had some really interesting conversations with older men who are re-evaluating their own relationships or their own pattern of how they are in relationships with their partners. Maybe they are inspired by the purity of the character, or his attentiveness, the fact that he deeply sees and respects his partner.
We don’t get to see a lot of romances starring women in their 50s.
COLMAN Why not? All of my friends still very much have sex lives. I don’t think you have to sew it closed once you get to a certain age.
You both have a history of choosing unconventional roles. What’s behind that?
SKARSGARD I’m at a place in my career where I’ve never been before. I can turn down big paychecks if I’d rather do something for no money, but I creatively find more fulfilling. For many years, I couldn’t get a job at all. When I was lucky enough to be a working actor, I wasn’t always super excited creatively. Then suddenly, I can actually only work on movies and shows that I want to work on because I think they’re great people I want to work with. If that happens to be a low-budget movie by a first- or second-time filmmaker, like this or “Pillion,” then of course I’m going to do that.
COLMAN I think I would be terrified to play the normal straightforward romantic lead. I would feel like a fish out of water. I’m more interested in people that are a bit weirder … unless I’ve got a big tax bill. Then I will take whatever they give me.
Additional cinematography by Bobby Moser.
The post Alexander Skarsgard and Olivia Colman on the Joy of a Wicker Husband appeared first on New York Times.
