Ever since its premiere at Sundance, “Wicker” has been generating headlines. Mostly thanks to its erotic scenes featuring Olivia Colman and Alexander Skarsgård as her custom-woven lover, with both characters putting an enthusiastic spin on Taylor Swift’s “Wood.” The film’s raunchiness might have surprised some unsuspecting viewers at Zurich Film Festival. But Colman adored the script.
It’s in my top three scripts that I’ve loved and I’ve done,” she said at the fest, where it celebrated its European premiere. And yes, the only way you can sell it is by having a picture of Alex as a very sexy basket.” In “Wicker,” Colman plays a medieval fisherwoman who’s constantly ostracized – until she marries a wicker husband (Skarsgård), created by the basket weaver (Peter Dinklage). It’s directed by Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson, and adapted from “The Wicker Husband” by Ursula Wills-Jones.
While no stranger to risqué films thanks to “Pillion,” Skarsgård – better known for darker roles – had to embrace his softer side for a change. I feel way more comfortable playing dark, twisted, demented characters,” he said. He’s so sweet, so tender and caring, and all those things that I can’t relate to personally.” The famed Wētā Workshop created his woven body.
It really was,” he said, recalling seeing it for the first time. They wanted practical [effects], which was really exciting. This was not going to be a CGI version.” He added: “I’ll never forget the first time I saw the wicker husband at the workshop in Budapest, and looked at that version of myself.
We’d done a bunch of tests and scans, but I was shooting something else and they were obviously in New Zealand. Stepping into it was also a way of finding the character because it defined his physicality and who he was.” Learning how to move was tricky, though. It was crucial that [the mask] would move with my facial movements so that it wouldn’t be completely flattened, but that meant I had to exaggerate them.
Al and Elle, our directors, kept saying that normal movements wouldn’t really register. At first, that felt a little strange, like you really had to overact. Luckily, we had a few days to perfect that.” Obviously, Colman has never acted alongside a similar costar.
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