Harry Styles opens up on playing a gay policeman in My Policeman

Grammy winner Harry Styles is prepping up for one of his most anticipated releases, My Policeman. A romantic period drama set in 1957 Britain. The film shows the love triangle of a gay policeman Tom (Harry Styles), a teacher Marion (Emma Corrin), and a museum curator Patrick (David Dawson). Tom marries Marion while he is still in love with Patrick, leading them on an emotional journey. While the hide-and-seek game results in longing and regret, years later in 1990, the trio has one last chance to repair their past mistakes as they reunite under dire circumstances. Directed by Michael Grandage, My Policeman is based on Bethan Roberts’ 2012 novel of the same name.

 

Harry Styles says that he is proud to be a part of the upcoming film, My Policeman. The story completely moved him and he decided to approach director Michael Grandage himself. In his meeting with Grandage, Styles showed up with all lines memorized and Grandage got his Tom immediately. Revealing what attracted him to the story, Styles said, “It’s not like ‘This is a gay story about these guys being gay.’ It’s about love and about wasted time to me. It’s obviously pretty unfathomable now to think, ‘Oh, you couldn’t be gay. That was illegal (in the 50’s).’ I think everyone, including myself, has their own journey with figuring out sexuality and getting more comfortable with it.”

 

While the film has intimate scenes, Styles feels it focuses more on emotional lovemaking between the gay couple, rather than the physical sexuality. Sharing how director Micheal Grandage wanted to portray gay intimacy, the actor shared, “So much of gay sex in the film is two guys going at it, and it kind of removes the tenderness from it. There will be, I would imagine, some people who watch it who were very much alive during this time when it was illegal to be gay, and Michael wanted to show that it’s tender and loving and sensitive.”

 

Featuring an ensemble cast of Harry Styles, Emma Corrin, Gina Mckee, Linus Roache, David Dawson, and Rupert Everett, My Policeman, will release in select theaters on October 21 followed by a global release on Prime Video on November 4.