Alexander Skarsgård talks “Pillion”, that viral Pedro Pascal Cannes second, and bringing humor to onscreen BDSM

• Alexander Skarsgård sits down along with his Pillion director Harry Lighton to speak this attractive, kinky romance.
• Skarsgård was unaware his trade with Pedro Pascal at Cannes went viral: "That was fairly overwhelming, that complete expertise after the credit."
• The pair focus on the express BDSM intercourse scenes and the story behind them.

Alexander Skarsgård arrives within the dim-lit lounge of Manhattan’s Bowery Lodge in an identical blue-grey henley and drawstring sweatpants. He’s having a tough go of it. The 6-foot-4 Murderbot and The Northman star sinks right into a deep-cushioned leather-based chair by the hearth as he relays his trials with meals poisoning from the previous 24 hours.

“It was yesterday morning,” he tells Harry Lighton, his director of queer BDSM romance Pillion. “I had breakfast on the lodge. I used to be simply in Zurich on the movie competition, after which I used to be about to board a airplane to New York. I felt a bit queasy. Then I acquired on the airplane and it was eight hours simply on the toilet flooring, the entire journey. Cheek to the ground. That is an excessive amount of data, however I couldn’t get it up. I used to be dry heaving. There was like a line of individuals exterior the toilet. I needed to exit so they might are available in after which get again in there. It was so tough, so f—ing dangerous.”

It appears like a feat for this man to be sitting right here now with on this Friday afternoon, submitting to an interview with Leisure Weekly. Whilst Lighton provides to take over for him, he’s dedicated to doing it. How’s he feeling now? “Nonetheless f—ed,” Skarsgård responds, earlier than flashing an enthralling smile. “Nicely, good to see you guys.”

His character in Pillion would by no means dare be this susceptible and sincere in public, and maybe not even in personal. Skarsgård fills the function of Ray, a motorcyclist and a sexual dom to Colin, performed by Harry Melling (Harry Potter, The Pale Blue Eye) within the movie impressed by Adam Mars-Jones’ ebook Field Hill. Romance and kink, drama and comedy all intertwine as Colin, a candy parking enforcement officer who lives along with his dad and mom and sings in a barbershop quartet, awkwardly follows this good-looking, leather-clad adonis into the world of BDSM.

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Aside from this bout of meals poisoning, Skarsgård and Lighton have had a blast taking this film to worldwide movie festivals. Pillion has been gaining traction and garnering headlines for its overt and unashamed depictions of intercourse — a careless back-alley blowjob and a backwoods orgy included. And the solid could be very a lot channeling that spirit on the street.

A couple of hanging photographs exist on Lighton’s Instagram feed that depict a second from their Cannes afterparty: Paul Tallis, a member of the Homosexual Bikers Motorbike Membership (GBMCC) within the U.Okay. who even have roles in Pillion, squats down on all fours in his leather-based canine masks and harness on the sometimes glamorous occasion.

“It felt sort of naughty in an surroundings the place you're informed that it’s important to put on a sure sort of bow tie,” the filmmaker says. “Paul sneaked within the masks. It appeals to my sense of…I dunno, rise up.”

The one second that has introduced extra goodwill to Pillion than any advertising marketing campaign up to now was a short trade between Skarsgård and actor Pedro Pascal at Cannes. After the screening, video circulated on-line of the True Blood alum, carrying a white Magliano T-shirt with a picture of a boot hovering over a person's outstretched tongue, hugging Pascal and kissing him on the cheek whereas the solid acquired a standing ovation on the screening.

Skarsgård is unaware that the trade acquired any sort of play on-line. “I had no concept,” he says. “Clearly, he was at our premiere. I gave him a bit smooch.”

He can’t even recall what Pascal stated to him in that second. “That was fairly overwhelming, that complete expertise after the credit,” he continues. “It was simply so many individuals and a lot depth. And so thrilling and overwhelming, and in addition sort of awkward as a result of they stored clapping and at one level you're like, ‘Ought to we begin juggling or what?’ Your narcissistic facet is actually lapping it up, but additionally the common-or-garden facet, or the pretend humble facet, is like, ‘Oh no. Cease this.’”

Now in Manhattan for the New York Movie Pageant cease of the tour, Pillion hits the States for the primary time. A film like that is going to naturally really feel disruptive when few movies lately strategy intercourse and kink — and for that matter, homosexual illustration — in such express methods. The Showtime miniseries Fellow Vacationers is probably the closest that involves thoughts in latest reminiscence.

Lighton very a lot needed to “disrupt notions of romance and relationship fashions” with the movie, he says. “There's a model of disruption, notably when utilized to a topic like BDSM, which may very well be fairly deliberate or making an attempt to shock for shock’s sake. My focus was at all times making an attempt to deliver the sort of complexities of the kink world to the display screen…looking for the heat in that group quite than be like Prince Albert, whips, chains, and gags. I believe by nature of it being about exterior tradition, it’s gonna be disruptive in a manner, however I then needed to seek out the methods by which even the skin tradition has an affinity with the mainstream.”

As a substitute of adapting among the ebook’s harsher materials, together with moments of sexual assault, he utilized a contact of romantic comedy to it. Colin is a personality who’s so alienated from the homosexual group, although he has a very supportive mom setting him up on dates. So when he’s thrown face-first (actually) into the world of kink, there’s a, let’s say, studying curve that results in some laughs.

As Lighton describes, “It grew to become about find out how to discover these actions which might carry that very same cost of a naive particular person getting into right into a world which he has no understanding of however approaching it as if he's studying about find out how to fish quite than studying about find out how to f—.”

Skarsgård was hooked by the logline alone earlier than studying the precise script. He echoes an analogous sentiment to Lighton. “Typically you're too respectful and it's too sanitized or it's just like the Cruising model of the movie the place it's the darkish subculture, nevertheless it's harmful and it's a menace,” he says. “This was so lovely 'trigger it felt so heat, attractive, humorous, awkward, and peculiar.”

When it comes to the various intimate bottom-baring moments of Pillion, “I assumed the intercourse scenes have been enjoyable and nice,” he says with a playful smile. “I usually discover intercourse on display screen boring. Usually, the strain, the buildup, the drama is there, however as quickly as they hit the sack, it's like, ‘Nicely then they're f—ing.’ What was so nice in regards to the intercourse scenes in Pillion was that there was an emotional arc to them, a story. Plenty of issues occur in these moments.”

He factors to Colin's birthday scene for instance, which culminates in an outside group intercourse sequence on picnic tables. "It's an enormous, huge emotional second. It's not simply an orgy within the woods,” Skarsgård continues. “I actually love that. If I really feel that pleasure, there's no trepidation going into it. Then it's simply enjoyable.”

One not-so-fun factor was his bike uniform. When using his bike as Ray, Skarsgård is decked out in heavy leather-based from head to toe, resembling in a manner his earlier function on Murderbot. “That house condom was very sweaty and uncomfortable,” the actor says of these six months engaged on the Apple TV+ collection.

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He despatched a photograph of himself within the Pillion costume fittings to the wardrobe division on Murderbot. “They knew how relieved I used to be once I acquired to take it off after these six months," he says. "After which per week later, I despatched a photograph of just about the identical outfit. I’m like, ‘Right here we go once more! God damnit.’”

Skarsgård is pulling it collectively to current Pillion to a New York Movie Pageant crowd on Saturday night time, which features a moderated Q&A with him and Lighton. Meals poisoning be damned! Lighton acknowledges what a film like this implies now for our present actuality. He didn't write it with any intentional political messaging embedded inside. But, at a time when LGBTQ rights are being scaled again and the extra excessive MAGA supporters within the States protest the mere presence of a trans character on an animated present that ended three years in the past, such an unapologetic story as this appears like an enormous center finger to that sentiment.

"Undoubtedly on our facet of the pond, as effectively, individuals who do exist on the margins, notably queer individuals, are having their rights rode again. So I'd in all probability really feel extra defensive about my want to painting these individuals in a fancy, human manner," he says. "I undoubtedly didn't set out for the movie to be a social points movie, however I did got down to make one thing which humanized a gaggle of those who I believe have been portrayed in a really derogatory manner. Take trans individuals, for example. For the time being, there's a lot deceptive, derogatory portrayals of that group of marginalized individuals."

Skarsgård views the film as an opportunity to achieve perception right into a subculture. "I hope that they'll stroll away feeling the way in which I felt once I was studying the script. I actually cared about all these characters. I felt with them and for them, and I used to be invested of their journey."

Pillion is slated to open in theaters in February 2026.

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