{"id":802703,"date":"2026-10-14T21:04:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T21:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/802703\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T21:04:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T21:04:13","slug":"how-wicker-became-the-horniest-most-tender-film-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/802703\/","title":{"rendered":"How ‘Wicker’ Became the Horniest, Most Tender Film of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIf you\u2019re online, Wicker<\/a>, a fantasy rom-com focused on an ostracized fisherwoman who enjoys many a noisy night with her wicker husband, will ring a bell.<\/p>\n

\n\tFrom directors, co-writers and real-life married couple Eleanor Wilson and Alex Huston Fischer, the feature has taken on a life of its own since social media and the meme-spawning corner of the internet happened upon this intimately made indie.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd can you blame them? Adapted from Ursula Wills-Jones\u2019 14-page short story The Wicker Husband, the movie stars British Oscar winner Olivia Colman<\/a> as the aforementioned village outcast, who becomes fed up with the snarky remarks from her fellow women (led by The Crown\u2018s Elizabeth Debicki) and implores the local basket weaver (Peter Dinklage) to craft her a husband out of his materials. Enter Alexander Skarsgard<\/a> as an enchanted spouse made entirely of wicker, whose raw sex appeal and tender devotion to the fisherwoman flusters \u2014\u00a0in both good and bad ways \u2014 the whole village.<\/p>\n

\n\tOddly enough, Wicker might have been considered a hard sell until Colman jumped on board as its lead star and executive producer. \u201cYou\u2019re always trying to push the rock up the hill,\u201d begins Fischer to The Hollywood Reporter. \u201cBut then Olivia signed on. And then, boom!\u201d Things turbocharged. Skarsgard, who, like Colman, has made some daring career moves in recent years, became the only man to do this knight-in-shining-wicker justice. \u201cWe wanted him to be strikingly beautiful and in the actor\u2019s likeness,\u201d Wilson tells THR.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut even with two full-fledged Hollywood A-listers game, the couple couldn\u2019t have predicted how horny Wicker \u2014\u00a0and its online image \u2014 would become. \u201cEveryone fell in love with them as a couple on set, even from the camera test,\u201d says Fischer. \u201cSo then, when the trailer came out, we learned a lot about the internet and the viral loop.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBelow, Wilson and Fischer dive into a candid conversation about the journey of Black Bear<\/a>\u2019s Wicker, from its Sundance premiere to hitting the BFI London Film Festival<\/a> just last week. They discuss the insanely impressive work from a New Zealand-based effects studio to create Skarsgard\u2019s practical wicker suit, how the film\u2019s shockingly tender messaging sneaks up on you, and why a project partly centered on the power of a wicker penis might just be what everyone was waiting for.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis must have been years in the making. Tell me about the origin story.<\/p>\n

\n\tALEX HUSTON FISCHER It\u2019s been now five years since we wrote it, which is surprising.<\/p>\n

\n\tELEANOR WILSON Yeah, it\u2019s amazing how time flies. And that\u2019s from first draft to here, talking to The Hollywood Reporter, [which] is actually kind of normal-slash-fast! We shot the film two years ago and we finished it a year ago now, and then it played at Sundance. The origin story is [that] it\u2019s based on a short story by Ursula Wills-Jones called The Wicker Husband, and that short story was shared with us by one of our producers, Justin Lothrop, who was a fan of her writing and brought the short story to us with the view to make it into a film \u2014 and we just loved it. It\u2019s a short, short story. I think it\u2019s 14 pages, but it\u2019s a really beautiful structure, which is a rare gift to be given as screenwriters. We worked on the script for a while. We sent the script to Olivia Colman. She said yes, which was insane.<\/p>\n

\n\tFISCHER You\u2019re always trying to push the rock up the hill. We were trying to make some other movies, and [it was] looking like, \u201cOh, [Wicker] will have to come after those.\u201d But then Olivia signed on. And then, boom!<\/p>\n

\n\tIt turbocharged things, I presume?<\/p>\n

\n\tFISCHER Turbocharged exactly. She\u2019s the jet fuel.<\/p>\n

\n\tDid you know from an early point that Olivia would be the dream, but thought it might never happen?<\/p>\n

\n\tWILSON (Laughs.) Precisely right.<\/p>\n

\n\tFISCHER We never even allowed ourselves to believe in the dream. We know how it goes. Our agent was like, \u201cDon\u2019t bother.\u201d But then she was the same agent who reached out to Olivia\u2019s agent, and then, I don\u2019t know why, but they read it and then they liked it.<\/p>\n

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

\t\t\t\t\tOlivia Colman and Alexander Skarsgard continue to make bold career moves with Wicker.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEverett Collection<\/p>\n

\n\tDo you remember the call?<\/p>\n

\n\tWILSON It was like, \u201cOlivia wants to meet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFISCHER And that\u2019s usually good. That means only you can fuck it up.<\/p>\n

\n\tWILSON You always think you\u2019re gonna get on these calls and you have to do a big pitch and you have to explain and sound professional and make sure to \u2026<\/p>\n

\n\tFISCHER Articulate.<\/p>\n

\n\tWILSON Yeah, which you can say we\u2019re not very good at. But when we got on the call, [Colman] was just like (in a British accent), \u201cOh wow, thanks so much for thinking of me. I love the script. Let\u2019s do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFISCHER \u201cYou seem lovely.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWILSON And then we mostly just talked about our kids.<\/p>\n

\n\tFISCHER Our kid was only like 6 months old.<\/p>\n

\n\tWILSON He was like a baby, in the other room, and we didn\u2019t know how to do everything yet. We were really nervous, but we just talked about kids the whole time. It was great.<\/p>\n

\n\tFISCHER She\u2019s disarmingly kind.<\/p>\n

\n\tDid she tell you what she liked so much about the script?<\/p>\n

\n\tFISCHER It\u2019s funny because a lot of the communication with Olivia is like, nonverbal and instinctual, even when we\u2019re on set.<\/p>\n

\n\tWILSON Yeah. I don\u2019t know that she\u2019s ever necessarily articulated to us what she loved about it, but she does just seem to latch onto things in an instinctive way, and I think she must have seen something in the fisherwoman that really grabbed her.<\/p>\n

\n\tFISCHER I think she understood her.<\/p>\n

\n\tWILSON She did, for sure. All our actors are very different in the film, but [with] Olivia, we don\u2019t talk that much about the character. She just gets it.<\/p>\n

\n\tFISCHER She absorbs 100 percent of what is written.<\/p>\n

\n\tWILSON And brings it to life.<\/p>\n

\n\tSo, when she came on, the money came flying a little bit?<\/p>\n

\n\tWILSON It was still a strange film.<\/p>\n

\n\tFISCHER It was 2023. So it was a pretty bleak time. We were coming out of the writers strike. There were no original films being made. \u201cDon\u2019t even try to make a movie\u201d was the vibe. So [we got] Olivia on board and [special effects studio] Weta Workshop on board early, and they did the prosthetics. Then we went to financiers after that.<\/p>\n

\n\tDid you find it was a hard sell? Just because, obviously, it is such a unique premise for a film.<\/p>\n

\n\tWILSON In every step of the process of making this film, we tried to make it with people that we know. We needed \u2026<\/p>\n

\n\tFISCHER Some control.<\/p>\n

\n\tWILSON To keep control of the thing and make it in a bit of a safe space. So we never actually took it out to the big studios. It was a strange film, and we wanted to make sure we could make it the way we wanted to make it. So we took it to independent financiers who we somewhat knew already.<\/p>\n

\n\tFISCHER And it was unpitchable.<\/p>\n

\n\tWILSON It felt unpitchable.<\/p>\n

\n\tFISCHER The first thing our producer Justin said [was], \u201cDo you want to take it out as a pitch, or do you want to write it basically on spec with a little bit of development money?\u201d And we said, \u201cWe won\u2019t be able to pitch it. We want to be able to figure out what it is and write it for what it is.\u201d So we always went for the control version.<\/p>\n

\n\tWILSON Less money, more control.<\/p>\n

\n\tFISCHER And when we had the script and Olivia and the workshop attached, then we also went to financiers [who] we knew.<\/p>\n

\n\tWILSON And who knew us already a little bit and knew what our sensibilities were and were on board with that.<\/p>\n

\n\tFISCHER Because the worst thing you can have is a movie that has its own DNA and then someone takes it and tries to make it something it\u2019s not. That was the worst-case scenario. That\u2019s worse than not making the movie at all.<\/p>\n

\n\tWILSON Yeah. So we were we were very protective of it. But I think it worked out. You never quite have enough money. I think everyone feels like that all the time. But we had just enough. We got to make the movie we wanted to make.<\/p>\n

\n\tWe\u2019ve spoken about Olivia, but I want to talk about Alexander. At what point did you know that you wanted to make a pretty horny film?<\/p>\n

\n\tFISCHER (Laughs.) There was a line in the short story that said, after their first night of marriage, the wicker husband said, \u201cThe bed is broken. Bring me a chisel. I will fix it.\u201d And that\u2019s all it says.<\/p>\n

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

\t\t\t\t\tWilson and Fischer said the wicker husband had to be \u201cbeautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEverett Collection<\/p>\n

\n\tWILSON It doesn\u2019t describe the night before.<\/p>\n

\n\tFISCHER So we read that and said, \u201cWell, why don\u2019t we show the bed breaking?\u201d And then that was the beginning of it.<\/p>\n

\n\tWILSON But we always thought of the sex scenes as the comedy of the film, too. They were supposed to be played for laughs, and they are. But I think once we actually had Alexander in costume, Olivia and Ita O\u2019Brien, our intimacy coordinator, working together on these scenes \u2014\u00a0that\u2019s when they did become surprisingly more sexy than we thought they would.<\/p>\n

\n\tWas the casting of Alexander quite crucial? Did you envision a conventionally attractive actor for the role?<\/p>\n

\n\tFISCHER He had to be beautiful.<\/p>\n

\n\tWILSON Yeah, I think for everything that happens with the villagers, he needed to be very striking. That was the brief with the workshop \u2014\u00a0we wanted him to be strikingly beautiful and in the actor\u2019s likeness, which was huge because we really wanted Alexander\u2019s performance to be able to shine through the prosthetic. And just that the prosthetic could move to his facial [expressions].<\/p>\n

\n\tFISCHER So it reacts to his face.<\/p>\n

\n\tWILSON And we wouldn\u2019t have to CG any movement.<\/p>\n

\n\tFISCHER But both of these roles \u2026 As a movie fan, you don\u2019t really think about it. But when you\u2019re making a movie, you realize who you can cast in a movie, who parts are written for, and this movie only really had two actors. It was Olivia and Alex. When you think about the whole range of actors, you\u2019re like, \u201cWell, I don\u2019t know if it works quite as well with anybody else.\u201d These are the only two people who exist that make this movie work, and you\u2019re always working within a limited number of \u2014\u00a0I don\u2019t know how to say it \u2026 famous people to get a movie financed. Olivia has carved out this career for herself, and Alex has carved out this career for himself, where they\u2019re deciding to choose interesting roles, and they\u2019re so incredibly talented and successful in doing that. It allows movies like this to exist, and movies like this wouldn\u2019t exist if they didn\u2019t take risks like that.<\/p>\n

\n\tA quick moment for the suit. You guys tried to use as little VFX as possible, I presume.<\/p>\n

\n\tFISCHER It was used for some of his hollowness.<\/p>\n

\n\tWILSON There\u2019s a ton of invisible VFX in the film. VFX is a hugely important tool, but it\u2019s all hand-done VFX, by humans.<\/p>\n

\n\tFISCHER We\u2019re all sitting in the same room in Adelaide, Australia.<\/p>\n

\n\tWILSON The work that they did is hugely important. Obviously, it\u2019s a practical [suit]; what Alexander looks like [in the film] is what he looks like on set. The work that VFX did made him hollow, which is very subtle throughout the film, and we intentionally wanted to make it not too showy because the performance is the showpiece, and the practical effects suit is the showpiece. So it\u2019s somewhat thankless VFX, but it was really important to just adding that layer of this fragility to the character.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat\u2019s the suit made of?<\/p>\n

\n\tFISCHER 3D-printed materials.<\/p>\n

\n\tWILSON And some natural fibers as well, woven into it. But it\u2019s 18 months of [research and development]. Weta Workshop started with us 18 months before we shot the film. They [had] concept art and early materials testing.<\/p>\n

\n\tFISCHER And they sort of invented a new technique for this 3D-printed technology.<\/p>\n

\n\tWILSON But it\u2019s a prosthetic that is glued to his face, which is pretty intense.<\/p>\n

\n\tFISCHER Totally glued. It\u2019s a modular prosthetic, so anything he does, it responds to any [movement]. Then the weave pattern is very specifically chosen over the course of a year, basically, to be able to mimic a real facial expression.<\/p>\n

\n\tWILSON The great thing about Weta Workshop was that they were so invested. Not only in the design but also in the practicality of how we were going to get him in this suit every day. They got the whole process down to 90 minutes, which is really remarkable for this type of thing. I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve heard stories of how people sit in the chair for eight hours. And we just knew that we\u2019re an indie film, and we wouldn\u2019t have that kind of time.<\/p>\n

\n\tFISCHER It\u2019s a very human film, very tactile. That was always the plan, so he needed to be real.<\/p>\n

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

\t\t\t\t\tFrom left: Wicker co-director Eleanor Wilson, Elizabeth Debicki, Alexander Skarsgard, Olivia Colman, Peter Dinklage and co-director Alex Huston Fischer at the film\u2019s BFI London Film Festival premiere.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Getty<\/p>\n

\n\tThat striking eroticism has done wonders for this movie\u2019s marketing campaign too, which maybe has come as a surprise to you both. What\u2019s been your reaction to the reception on the festival circuit so far?<\/p>\n

\n\tWILSON Taking it to Sundance was wonderful and beautiful. Our first film played at Sundance too [2020\u2019s Save Yourselves!], and it was a real homecoming. It was \u2026<\/p>\n

\n\tFISCHER Very emotional. Last Sundance in Park City.<\/p>\n

\n\tWILSON Yeah. But that was more of a regular moviegoing experience. Since the trailer has come out, it has definitely felt like the film has taken on a life of its own. That\u2019s very outside of us because we\u2019re not really that present on the internet. We didn\u2019t really know about all this stuff. (Laughs.)<\/p>\n

\n\tFISCHER No, we\u2019re not on TikTok or anything. (Laughs.) But we were always very confident that what Weta Workshop had and what Alex had done with the character was noteworthy. Everyone fell in love with them as a couple on set, even from the camera test. Everybody sort of went, \u201cI\u2019m just in love with these guys.\u201d So then, when the trailer came out, we learned a lot about the internet and the viral loop, but it really was a testament to Alex and his career and that prosthetic suit looking as incredible as it does, and Olivia \u2026 It\u2019s just that combination.<\/p>\n

\n\tWILSON [It\u2019s a] time and place thing as well. It feels 2026.<\/p>\n

\n\tFISCHER Everybody was ready for it.<\/p>\n

\n\tWILSON Yeah, it does kind of feel like that. I mean, it\u2019s an incredible year for movies in general. It also seems to be a year where audiences are really asking for originality in film. [It\u2019s] an incredible year to put out a practical effects movie as well because everyone\u2019s pushing back against AI, which is wonderful.<\/p>\n

\n\tFISCHER And I feel like people are rediscovering movie theaters, and they\u2019re thinking, \u201cI want to have some visual spectacle and some kind of excitement, but I can\u2019t get it at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWILSON It\u2019s also great for comedies. We were so excited by films like The Invite doing so well in theaters. We just loved that film. I think I saw it in the third or fourth week of it being in cinemas, and it was still a packed house \u2014 of young people! These young people who know nothing of marriage and came to see this talky marriage comedy. It was so fun.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the U.K. so far this year, 12 of the top 20 films at the box office are original movies. I think Wicker is totally riding the wave of this year that we\u2019ve had. It\u2019s come at the perfect time.<\/p>\n

\n\tWILSON Yeah. I think it\u2019s also about the themes of the film as well, speaking to people in this moment. It is kind of a sex-positive film \u2014 a film about female pleasure, in a way.<\/p>\n

\n\tFISCHER And masculinity.<\/p>\n

\n\tWILSON Right? And how we examine masculinity, for sure. So all of those things are being talked about more in the cultural conversation than ever before.<\/p>\n

\n\tPart of the enjoyment for me was the film\u2019s silliness and jovial surface, cleverly masking what is really important messaging around the patriarchy, the inherent misogyny of marriage and societal othering. These topics are the beating heart of the film.<\/p>\n

\n\tFISCHER And when we read the short story, it was this really witty allegory about jealousy and envy. But we saw it as an opportunity to satirize the whole institution of marriage.<\/p>\n

\n\tWILSON That scene in the bar, I think, is something we talk about amongst ourselves \u2014\u00a0this instinct, when groups of men or women are together, to shit-talk your partners.<\/p>\n

\n\tFISCHER And that was very much in the short story.<\/p>\n

\n\tWILSON But it\u2019s a funny thing. Why do we do that? Why is that \u2026<\/p>\n

\n\tFISCHER The most socially acceptable way to talk about your spouse?<\/p>\n

\n\tWILSON Yeah, is just to complain about them. And when somebody does drop this bomb into that type of conversation, that you love your wife \u2026 It\u2019s all of a sudden very rattling. Most of it is presented as a comedy, but we love that it\u2019s a comedy that could make you think about the way that you relate to your partner and to your friends as well.<\/p>\n

\n\tHow has it been letting the movie go out into the world? Has the buzz around Wicker enabled you to think about what you want to do next?<\/p>\n

\n\tFISCHER Watching the movie in the theater with audiences is electric. It\u2019s very fun, and we have a great time doing it. We like to sit in the middle. (Laughs.)<\/p>\n

\n\tWILSON When we did some test screenings, we had a great time because nobody knew who we were.<\/p>\n

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

\t\t\t\t\tPeter Dinklage plays the local basket weaver in Wicker.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEverett Collection<\/p>\n

\n\tFISCHER But I also think what\u2019s happening is that everybody can identify with this village. It feels like everybody lives in a village, everybody\u2019s from their own village, and everybody knows a fisherwoman, and everybody knows a tailor\u2019s wife, and everybody knows a baker man. It\u2019s very connected to people\u2019s true experience.<\/p>\n

\n\tWILSON We always hoped that it would be very relatable even though it\u2019s a strange, dressed-up fantasy fable. It should still feel like people that you know. We all feel like the fisherwoman.<\/p>\n

\n\tFISCHER We feel very proud of the film and we feel very lucky that we got to make it. It does feel like for the next one, the pressure\u2019s on a little. What we\u2019ve also learned is that people just like to see something wild and human. Something crazy, but also that they can identify with. So I feel like for future projects, [we\u2019ll] just go for it. Go big as [we] want. A lot of time, when you\u2019re trying to write a movie, make a movie, get a movie financed, the wisdom is to play it safe. Follow the classic narrative structure of a Hollywood film, and try to make it as good as possible. [But] you should just throw everything out the window and make whatever you want, and that\u2019s what people respond to.<\/p>\n

\n\tLastly, how do you find working as a married couple? Does it make the job harder or easier?<\/p>\n

\n\tWILSON I like it. It makes it easier. I mean, all of filmmaking and directing is communication, as is our relationship. So one sort of informs the other.<\/p>\n

\n\tFISCHER And we don\u2019t get jealous of each other. If Eleanor made Wicker and I didn\u2019t get to make a movie, I\u2019d be so fucking jealous.<\/p>\n

\n\tWILSON (Laughs.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019re online, Wicker, a fantasy rom-com focused on an ostracized fisherwoman who enjoys many a noisy night…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":802704,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[78969,86102,237520,25570,96,718,2839,44230,56,54,55,147412],"class_list":["post-802703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-alexander-skarsgard","tag-bfi-london-film-festival","tag-bfi-london-film-festival-2026","tag-black-bear","tag-entertainment","tag-international","tag-movies","tag-olivia-colman","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wicker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802703","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=802703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/802704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}