NEW YORK — Alexander Skarsgård has a spanking new romantic comedy.
In “Pillion,” which hits theaters early next year, the “True Blood” hunk plays a stoic, domineering biker named Ray who introduces the sheepish, submissive Colin (Harry Melling) to the kinky world of gay BDSM. Like Nora Ephron’s beloved “When Harry Met Sally…,” the film plays on the classic trope that opposites attract, only with more sex toys, penis rings and butt-baring wrestling singlets.
“We want to call it a dom-com,” Skarsgård quipped after an Oct. 5 screening at New York Film Festival, where writer-director Harry Lighton jokingly thanked the crowd for coming out to see some “hardcore pornography.”
“Pillion” star Alexander Skarsgard, left, and director Harry Lighton speak during a Q&A at New York Film Festival.
“Pillion” is based on the 2020 novel “Box Hill” by Adam Mars-Jones. The titillating drama explores the complexities of dominant-submissive relationships and fetishes, as Ray gets aroused by making Colin lick his boots, buy his groceries and sleep at the foot of his bed. Colin finds pleasure in servicing Ray, but gradually learns that he needs real love and communication, too.
The movie’s graphic sex scenes were “fundamental” to the story, Lighton explained.
“The world was about kink and transgressive sex,” Lighton said. “To not include sex would be to cast a judgment on the sex from me, the author. I wanted to leave the judgment to the audience, whether they find it hot or repulsive or scary, and hopefully go on a journey with the sex as they’re watching it.”
“Pillion” marks the directorial debut of Lighton, who for years tried to make a movie about sumo wrestling before the budget skyrocketed too high. “So I thought, ‘How else can I use wrestling in a film?'” he recalled with a grin.
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Melling is best known to moviegoers as the bratty young Dudley Dursley in the “Harry Potter” franchise, although he’s continued to work steadily in Netflix’s “The Queen’s Gambit” and the Coen brothers’ “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.” Skarsgård, meanwhile, has recently played key roles in HBO’s “Big Little Lies” and “Succession.”
The Swedish actor was drawn to the challenge of inhabiting a man like Ray who is so closed off, but lets his guard down occasionally in flickering moments of vulnerability.
“The prospect of playing a character who is so enigmatic was quite intriguing,” Skarsgård said. “He doesn’t go on this emotional roller coaster where there are highs and lows and climactic moments – well, there are climactic moments (laughs). But I thought it was really interesting to have Colin discover his sexuality with someone so consistent like Ray, who knows exactly what he wants.”
The New York Film Festival continues through Oct. 13 with Park Chan-wook’s highly anticipated “No Other Choice” and the world premiere of Bradley Cooper‘s “Is This Thing On?”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Alexander Skarsgard is a total dom in gay BDSM movie ‘Pillion’
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