Alexander Skarsgård is playing a man made out of wicker as Olivia Colman’s Wicker Husband in the upcoming film Wicker
, which just unveiled its first trailer.
Skarsgård told Entertainment Weekly: “Most male actors dream of playing Hamlet at some point in their career. I never did. My dream was always to have nipples made out of wicker. Thanks to our wonderful directors, Eleanor and Alex, and the brilliant artists at Wētā in New Zealand, my dream has finally come true.”
The film stars Colman as the Fisherwoman who has long been teased for being “single and stinky,” and she recruits local Basketmaker Peter Dinklage to weave her a perfect partner.
The Swedish actor, 49, has achieved a truly bizarre life dream with this role.
The Wicker Husband was created almost entirely practically, with Skarsgård performing inside an elaborate suit designed and built by Wētā.
The elaborate costume was built by artists at Wētā Workshop in New Zealand, the same effects studio behind decades of major fantasy productions.
The costume featured a riotously rigid wicker mask and torso complete with wicker nipples.
Skarsgård noted he sometimes felt “ridiculous” on set due to the wicker prosthetics which masked most of his face, meaning he had to exaggerate “everything” about his performance during filming.
Colman gushed about Skarsgård: “Alex is funny, intelligent, and beautiful anyway — in the wicker costume, he’s breathtaking. Everything is exaggerated; he’s a work of art. Alex fills the Wicker Husband with a beautiful soul.”
The filmmakers had major concerns during pre-production about how the suit would appear on camera.
Fischer and Wilson admitted they had some “anxiety” about what the suit would look like before seeing him in it, later noting: “Alex’s performance, while incredibly nuanced and understated, was very technically and physically challenging, and it’s really the marriage of the prosthetic and the performance that sells the whole thing.”
The film doesn’t shy away from the physical side of its central romance, requiring extensive preparation for intimate scenes, with shots planned, rehearsed, and revised in advance around the limitations and possibilities of the wicker costume.
At the Sundance premiere in January, Skarsgård opened up about his hesitation to take on the role.
During the Saturday Q&A at Sundance, he said: “I was quite intimidated when I read it because I tend to be drawn towards more conflicted characters with more internal turmoil and darkness. And to play this good-hearted, good natured, sweet, morally righteous character was scary to me. I’m not really comfortable doing that.”
He quipped to the audience: “I don’t have anything to tap into when it comes to that, so it was a stretch as an actor.”
But Skarsgård ultimately found the script and character irresistible.
He explained: “I thought it was an incredible script and I thought it was — it is a fable — but it’s also an allegory. It’s a story about our society, but without being heavy-handed or didactic or preachy.”
He added: “It was so funny and sweet. And obviously a very interesting character to play.”
Colman has been equally enthusiastic about the project from the start.
She called Wicker “one of the best and most original scripts I’d read in a long time.”
Colman was immediately drawn to her character’s refusal to conform.
In the viral moment that sparked this story, the film tells of an ostracized fisherwoman relentlessly mocked by her neighbors for being unmarried who eventually turns to the local basketmaker and commissions him to create a husband, resulting in the wicker creation whose arrival sparks desire, jealousy, fascination, and considerable upheaval throughout the village.
The film, which has now wrapped, was directed by Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson from a script they adapted from Ursula Wills’ short story “The Wicker Husband” and was shot by Oscar winning cinematographer Lol Crawley.
At the Sundance Q&A, Skarsgård shared a lighter moment with Colman about the film’s production.
When asked what his favorite piece of production design was, Skarsgard looked at Colman with a knowing grin: “I loved our bed,” prompting the audience to erupt into laughter as she playfully slapped his arm.
The film will get a release on October 23 from Black Bear Pictures, with a wider release on October 30.