Written and directed by real-life married couple Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson, “Wicker” feels like a proper fairytale – which is a dying art, these days.
Based on a short story by Ursula Wills, “Wicker” immediately feels whimsical and magical in equal measure. We meet the Fisherwoman (Olivia Colman), the village recluse who bucks at the town’s patriarchal bent (this is a village where women get collars when they wed in lieu of rings). But, stalwart in her oddity as she is, she can’t help but feel lonely. One day, she asks the Basket Weaver (Peter Dinklage) to make her a husband. And make her a husband (Alexander Skarsgård) he does – the perfect specimen, handsome, kind and true. And made entirely out of wicker.
Ahead of the film’s release this weekend, entertainment journalist Lauren Veneziani hosted a press conference featuring Colman, Skarsgård, and Elizabeth Debicki, who plays the imperious Tailor’s Wife (no one has real names in “Wicker”). During that press conference, Skarsgård touched on the peculiarities of bringing the Wicker Husband to life.
Skarsgård is best known for roles in projects like “Big Little Lies,” “True Blood,” and, more recently, Harry Lighton’s “Pillion.” The Wicker Man – in all his basket glory – represents a departure from the darker characters that make up the bulk of the actor’s career.
“I wouldn’t say that I always play a bad guy, but I tend to gravitate towards morally conflicted characters and slightly troubled characters, sometimes with a dark past,” Skarsgård said. “The Wicker Husband doesn’t have a past, and is just the epitome of goodness and purity, as a juxtaposition to the morass that’s the village. That was exciting, but also quite intimidating.”
There’s a clear pattern throughout the film – the happier the Fisherwoman and the Wicker Husband are, the angrier the villagers become. When the Wicker Husband enters the frame, the husbands of the village start to feel inadequate, to say the least. The Wicker Husband doesn’t mind staying at home while his wife serves as breadwinner. He’s focused on making her feel good in bed. And he says horribly romantic things like, “The load is always lighter when you are by my side.”
The Wicker Husband has quite the way with words, but Skarsgård didn’t want to overplay his romantic hand. As swoonworthy as the character is, he comes by it earnestly.
“There was something quite innocent about those lines, and I wanted to deliver them in a kind of matter of fact way that wasn’t too charged,” he said. “The words do all the work for you there. They’re so beautifully written and it’s so profound. I think what makes a lot of those moments really special, is the fact that he says something so profound but in kind of a matter of fact way.”
The Wicker Husband is immediately infatuated with the Fisherwoman, but it takes time for that relationship to grow into one full of mutual respect and love. In the meantime though, “Wicker” features plenty of raunchy sex scenes, filled with both humor and intimacy. While the scenes can be funny – the couple breaks the bed multiple times – Skarsgård also wanted to focus on bringing the connection between the two characters to the forefront.
“You want to feel the connection between these two characters,” he said. “These moments should be steamy as well, and not just laugh out loud moments.”
Finding the connection between the characters was made easier by the fact that Skarsgård fully transformed on set, not just in post. The Wicker Husband’s practical suit and facial prosthetics were created by Wētā Workshop. According to the New Zealand company’s website, sound design and some visual effects allowed for the character’s finishing touches, such as making it appear as though light is shining through his hollow body. But, for the most part, the Wicker Husband is a practical creation.
“The craftsmanship was extraordinary,” Skarsgård said. “The way the character looks in the movie is what it looked like on the day when we were shooting.”
Having something practical to latch onto helped him find the character’s physicality, Skarsgård said, and also helped his connection with Colman, giving the actress something real to work with and react to during their scenes together.
“In this day and age when there’s so much CGI, and characters like this would 99 times out of 100 be created in post, it was so fun to have the tactile experience of it,” he said.
