When Elizabeth Debicki arrived on set for “Wicker,” the first thing she saw was Alexander Skarsgård wading through water — full-frontal. But it wasn’t Skarsgård in the flesh; he was “stark naked as wicker.” “I turned the corner, and I was like, ‘Hi, Alex!’ and I went bright red because my brain couldn’t compute what it was seeing,” Debicki tells Variety, sitting alongside Skarsgård and their co-star Olivia Colman in a hotel suite at the Chateau Marmont in L.A. Welcome to Budapest, I guess.’” From married filmmakers Eleanor Wilson and Alex Huston Fischer, “Wicker” follows the relationship between an ostracized fisherwoman (Colman) and her fantastical husband (Skarsgård), who is handcrafted for her by the local basket weaver (Peter Dinklage).
When the wicker husband proves to be a better man and partner than the rest of the married men in the village, jealousy erupts, and the unlikely couple must figure out how to preserve their simple life amid the chaos and vitriol. (And yes, Straw-Skarsgård is on full display in the Black Bear film, now playing in theaters.) While Debicki needed a moment to grapple with the sight of a naked wicker man, Colman’s reaction mirrored her character falling in love at first sight. The prototype had been sculpted after Skarsgård’s features, but when the Weta Workshop artists tried it on someone else in New Zealand, it almost worked, but not quite. If it doesn’t work, then we’re kind of screwed.” Thankfully, Colman’s exuberant reaction eased any of Skarsgård’s fears.
Putting it on and then it helped me find the physicality of the character and then stepping out of the trailer and having Olivia outside going [gasps],” he recalls. It’s even better than we imagined.” The cast’s multilayered reaction is exactly what moviegoers can expect when watching “Wicker.” The film is intended to warm your heart and make you laugh, but it’s also guaranteed to make you blush. Audiences got their first peek at the film with a steamy three-minute trailer filled with sexual innuendo and hard-as-wood jokes.
Since then, the marketing for the Black Bear film has taken on a life of its own, with playful promotional products like hand-woven nipple pasties, a popcorn bucket shaped like the wicker man’s torso and splinter removal kits. But the film itself dares to go much deeper. The stars believe the fanciful romance’s originality is enough to attract moviegoers to the theater — as evidenced by the post-trailer buzz.
So, you just had to follow it, and you couldn’t really go wrong. It can be hard to go from very silly to really heartbreaking, but because it was all done with realism, it worked better. In my saddest moments in my life, I’ve definitely found myself laughing hysterically as well, which is a very human thing, pain and recovery, all those things.
And El and Al just nailed it. It made our journey, our job easier. Hopefully, the love you choose enhances your life, not diminishes it.
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