Harry Styles wows Toronto Film Festival crowd, calls 'My Policeman' a 'timeless' story
TORONTO – Harry Styles' latest film-festival appearance involved more heart, and less (alleged) saliva.
Last week, the British pop star hit the Venice Film Festival to premiere "Don't Worry Darling" amid a bunch of movie drama, and a hubbub arose over whether he spit on co-star Chris Pine. Styles' appearance at the Toronto International Film Festival Sunday to unveil "My Policeman" was less controversial: Onstage, he helped co-star Emma Corrin ("The Crown") with the formidable cape on her bodysuit and outside, Styles was greeted with Beatlemania-style shrieks and screams from his fans.
The British ensemble drama "My Policeman" (in theaters Oct. 21; streaming on Amazon Prime Nov. 4) tells its story through two different timelines, in 1957 and 1999. Styles stars in the '50s narrative as closeted gay Brighton police officer Tom, who marries young schoolteacher Marion (Corrin) while engaging in a secret love affair with their friend, museum curator Patrick (David Dawson).
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The '90s narrative catches up with Tom (Linus Roache), Patrick (Rupert Everett) and Marion (Gina McKee) four decades later, as they face tough decisions about their past.
During a Q&A after the premiere, Styles remarked he felt "very lucky" to work with Corrin and Dawson in scenes where the three enjoy life as compatriots but also sequences of intimacy and arguments. "Having a base of a real friendship outside of the characters obviously (helps) the friendship scenes: It doesn't require much acting," Styles said. "And then in the more intense scenes, there's a lot of trust and a safety there. All of that benefits from just a real connection with the people you work with."
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Director Michael Grandage told the older actors that they "didn't have to be the exact mirror of your counterpart" because no one is the same person 40 years later, Roache added. "Harry, for me, was the young man with all of his future ahead of him and all that possibility and color and potential. And then I'm the man frozen in time who's living with that heartache and heartbreak."
In a press conference earlier Sunday, Styles called the themes of "My Policeman" – “love and freedom and the search for those things ... incredibly timeless,” and "at different points in the story, audience members will be able to see bits of yourself and sometimes maybe not your favorite parts of yourself in different characters. And I think that’s why it kind of resonated with me so much.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Harry Styles wows fans, calls 'My Policeman' a 'timeless' story
