Harry Styles Talks Timeless Quality Of Role In 1950s Love Triangle Tale ‘My Policeman’
12.09.2022 - 02:55
/ deadline.com
Fresh from a tumultuous Venice and a Madison Garden concert in between, Harry Styles was back on the festival circuit this weekend for the Toronto world premiere of Michael Grandage’s My Policeman.
Adapted from Bethan Roberts’ late 1950s-set novel, Styles plays a young police constable who embarks on a forbidden and then illegal relationship with a male art gallery curator (David Dawson) while asking a local teacher (Emma Corrin) for her hand in marriage.
Linus Roache, Rupert Everett and Gina McKee also feature in the cast as older versions of the three characters, 40 years down the line when laws and attitudes around homosexuality have changed and moved on.
The press conference for the film, which world premieres on Sunday evening, was a calmer affair than Styles’ previous tumultuous festival outing at Venice for Oliver Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling.
Beyond reports of a falling out between Wilde and co-star Florence Pugh, there was also a media furore over images that seemed to show Styles spitting at fellow cast member Chris Pine as he sat down for the premiere. Both actors denied the reports.
None of this was alluded to in the controlled environment of the My Policeman Toronto press conference, to which questions were submitted and vetted in advance.
The actor was able to speak at length – alongside the rest of the cast – about his reasons for taking on the role and hopes for the film as launches in Toronto. A key draw had been the timeless quality of his character and its authentic complexity, he said.
“The general themes are incredibly timeless. I think that’s why the film works so well. The themes of love and freedom and the search for that is incredibly relevant, whatever time you want to set it in,” he said.
“Then, for me,