{"id":786432,"date":"2026-09-29T14:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T14:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/786432\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T14:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T14:24:09","slug":"olivia-colman-alexander-skarsgard-discuss-fantasy-wicker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/786432\/","title":{"rendered":"Olivia Colman, Alexander Skarsg\u00e5rd Discuss Fantasy ‘Wicker’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEver since its premiere at Sundance, \u201cWicker<\/a>\u201d has been generating headlines. Mostly thanks to its erotic scenes featuring Olivia Colman<\/a> and Alexander Skarsg\u00e5rd<\/a> as her custom-woven lover, with both characters putting an enthusiastic spin on Taylor Swift\u2019s \u201cWood.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film\u2019s raunchiness might have surprised some unsuspecting viewers at Zurich Film Festival<\/a>. But Colman adored the script.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve never read anything like it before. It\u2019s in my top three scripts that I\u2019ve loved and I\u2019ve done,\u201d she said at the fest, where it celebrated its European premiere.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s beautiful, funny and original. And yes, the only way you can sell it is by having a picture of Alex as a very sexy basket.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn \u201cWicker,\u201d<\/a> Colman plays a medieval fisherwoman who\u2019s constantly ostracized \u2013 until she marries a wicker husband (Skarsg\u00e5rd), created by the basket weaver (Peter Dinklage).<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s directed by Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson, and adapted from \u201cThe Wicker Husband\u201d by Ursula Wills-Jones.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile no stranger to risqu\u00e9 films thanks to \u201cPillion,\u201d Skarsg\u00e5rd \u2013 better known for darker roles \u2013 had to embrace his softer side for a change.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cTo be honest, I found it terrifying. I feel way more comfortable playing dark, twisted, demented characters,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis was a departure and yeah, I was confused in the beginning about how to approach this. He\u2019s so sweet, so tender and caring, and all those things that I can\u2019t relate to personally.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe famed W\u0113t\u0101 Workshop created his woven body.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was extraordinary. It really was,\u201d he said, recalling seeing it for the first time.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cW\u0113t\u0101 is behind \u2018The Lord of the Rings\u2019 and that whole universe. They wanted practical [effects], which was really exciting. This was not going to be a CGI version.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe added: \u201cI\u2019ll never forget the first time I saw the wicker husband at the workshop in Budapest, and looked at that version of myself. We\u2019d done a bunch of tests and scans, but I was shooting something else and they were obviously in New Zealand. Then they built it. Stepping into it was also a way of finding the character because it defined his physicality and who he was.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLearning how to move was tricky, though.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was glued to my face! It was crucial that [the mask] would move with my facial movements so that it wouldn\u2019t be completely flattened, but that meant I had to exaggerate them. Al and Elle, our directors, kept saying that normal movements wouldn\u2019t really register. At first, that felt a little strange, like you really had to overact. Luckily, we had a few days to perfect that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tObviously, Colman has never acted alongside a similar costar.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve never done it before, but we\u2019re in that magical world where we\u2019re just talking to each other. We got on very well, and giggled a lot. It was lovely to play those two people. Well, one person and a basket.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDespite its twisted premise, \u201cWicker\u201d \u2013 whose humor echoes the madness of \u201cMonty Python and the Holy Grail\u201d \u2013 also takes a look at the institution of marriage and gender roles.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNone of the women [in the film] have their own names, except for the fisherwoman, and she\u2019s shunned and ostracized for being sort of ugly and smelly, and unmarriable. But she shows them,\u201d noted Colman.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI like the fact that they are the only equals here. They support each other, listen to each other, take care of each other. It was really about these two humans \u2013 or, again, a basket \u2013 and two souls being kind to each other. We have no same sex marriages in this story, which I just realized and that\u2019s a shame, but they\u2019re kind to each other and that was the important relationship in the film.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSkarsg\u00e5rd added: \u201cIt commented on the patriarchy of our time and on the construct of marriage, but it was done with so much humor. And in a way that didn\u2019t feel preachy or too on the nose.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was so tender, sweet, funny and irreverent, and with a subtlety to it. That\u2019s what really spoke to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter all, it\u2019s all about a girl, standing in front of a boy \u2013 or a basket \u2013 asking him to love her.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2026 Black Bear Pictures LLC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ever since its premiere at Sundance, \u201cWicker\u201d has been generating headlines. Mostly thanks to its erotic scenes featuring…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":786433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[124361,96,2839,44230,56,54,55,147412,74470],"class_list":["post-786432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-alexander-skarsgu00e5rd","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-olivia-colman","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wicker","tag-zurich-film-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=786432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/786433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}