Alexander Skarsgard says he couldn’t wait to become the braided imaginary husband conjured up for a single woman in the whimsical romantic drama “Wicker.”
But when the time came to don the intricately detailed costume, which sent the internet into a frenzy, the Swedish actor admits his immediate reaction was “panic and claustrophobia.”
The suit “was quite heavy and hot and stuck to my face a bit. I couldn’t really take it off during the day,” Skarsgard told AFP in an interview.
“Wicker,” currently showing in U.S. theaters, is based on “The Wicker Husband,” a short story by British author Ursula Wills-Jones.
In the film, Skarsgard stars alongside British actress Olivia Colman, who plays the fisherwoman with her new spouse in a medieval, patriarchal village, where residents are known for their professions.
For the fisherwoman, it is a hostile place where she is excluded because she is independent, without any man to support her – and because she smells like fish.
So she defiantly asks the basket maker (Peter Dinklage) to create a husband for her. A month later, the character of Skarsgard appears – a big, sexy, carefully woven dream of a spouse.
His housework – and bedroom skills – quickly become the talk of the town. Men are irritated because they can never measure up, and women are jealous.
“The movie can just be enjoyed on the surface, and it’s a fun spectacle,” said Eleanor Wilson, who made the film with her work and life partner, Alex Huston Fischer.
“But underneath there’s a lot of stuff going on that feels very modern and relevant to us,” she said, adding that she thought it wouldn’t work as a fable set in modern times.
With its medieval setting and original characters, “you can see it more clearly,” Huston Fischer said.
– ‘Passion’ –
Wilson said the couple “fell in love” with the story right away.
“It’s just about looking at how envy can corrupt love and how we all perceive ourselves in relation to others,” she told AFP.
For Huston Fischer, the challenge was to rise to the challenge of creating a visual treat for moviegoers.
“We wanted to see what the wicker husband might look like,” he said.
This task was entrusted to Weta Workshop, a New Zealand special effects studio which worked on the films “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Odyssey” by Christopher Nolan.
The details of the Wicker Man’s face resemble those of Skarsgard, but the actor said the prosthetic made it difficult to convey his emotions.
“I had to exaggerate all my expressions,” he said.
With the mask stuck to his face, “all the subtleties would be lost, so a slight frown would be nothing. We had to play,” Skarsgard said.
He said he felt like a “clown” during rehearsals, but Colman applauded his efforts.
“He’s incredibly humble,” the Oscar winner said. “All credit to Alex, because to get that – the love, the nuances, the humor and all that – through a basket is incredible, and not many people could.”
The couple explained that filming began with the sex scenes. The clips quickly went viral, so much so that even Swedish big-box furniture retailer IKEA ran cheeky ads promoting some of its rattan products as being “made from husband materials.”
“There’s obviously so much passion, so much intensity, but there’s also a lot of humor and warmth and funny, awkward moments in those scenes,” Skarsgard said, calling it a “good way to start the movie.”
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