- Alexander Skarsgård, starring alongside Harry Melling in this tender and funny love story, presented the film alongside the director at SEMINCI
The 70th edition of the Valladolid International Film Festival ( SEMINCI ) premiered Pillion, Harry Lighton‘s first feature film, in its Official Section. The film won the award for best screenplay in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival.
The film tells the story of the peculiar love affair between Colin, a shy young man who becomes involved in sexual domination practices with Ray, the charismatic leader of a biker gang. ‘I didn’t want to shy away from the sex that took place on screen, I wanted the audience to decide for themselves whether they found the sex exciting or repulsive. It couldn’t be provocative for no reason,’ said the filmmaker, talking about the process of approaching the filming of the sex scenes between the protagonists played by Harry Melling and Alexander Skarsgård. The Swedish actor added: ’When I read the script, I was glad to see that it hadn’t crossed that line of morbid curiosity and that in the most intimate scenes you stay with the characters. Those moments are there for a reason; they
For Skarsgård, the script was key when deciding to take part in this small production, which was also the debut film of the young director: ‘I never felt there was any risk in getting involved in the project. When I read the premise, I was surprised, because I think a lot of scripts ramble on, but this one was really original. I saw that it wasn’t just a morbid film about bikers, but that it was tender and a coming-of-age story with very well-written characters.”
The actor, who has had a successful career in big-budget productions such as Tarzan and The Northman, finds little difference between working in Hollywood and Europe: ‘The line is blurred; they are often co-productions. I like having the opportunity to participate in big-budget projects with helicopters and then also be able to do something much smaller.’
In the case of Pillion, he found many advantages to working with a small team, made up mainly of young people: ‘This film was much more intimate, and that gave it an air of authenticity. When there are 400 people, we’re just resting in a caravan. It wasn’t like that here; there was a feeling of constant excitement because, as they were practically all young people, they didn’t think they were just doing a job, they felt that they were also part of this story.’
The complex portrayal of a romantic relationship presented, without stigmatising the characters’ behaviour, in the novel Box Hill, written by Adam Mars-Jones, was the inspiration for Pillion. ‘I didn’t want to answer questions about Ray’s past that might have led him to this kind of behaviour; it takes away any possibility for the audience to establish a morbid, Freudian relationship with the character. I find the questions that arise about him very interesting, and when I tried to explain them, he became a much less enigmatic character,’ said Harry Lighton.
One of the keys to this approach to Colin and Ray was the work between the two lead actors: ‘We didn’t know each other at all before filming, so the mystery was very interesting to me. As the relationship between the characters was very clear in the script, we didn’t have to discuss our visions of their story beforehand; it was better to explore it during filming. It was very exciting to maintain that distance, because we didn’t know where the scene was going to take us, suddenly there was tension or tenderness and that surprised us,’ admitted Alexander Skarsgård.
For Lighton, the challenge was to make a film with an actor with a long career: ‘Alexander is very easy to direct, he has been very docile on set, as if he were my Colin outside the film. I think the key is to treat him like any other actor,’ he joked.
After its premiere in Cannes, both have presented the film at various festivals, from London to Telluride, with Alexander Skarsgård posing at photocalls in very daring outfits. ‘It wasn’t premeditated; when the group of bikers who participated in the film were invited to the premiere in Cannes, I knew they weren’t going to wear a grey suit; that’s where it all started. I decided to play with my appearance and it’s a lot of fun.’