In the A24 film “Pillion,” kink is neither punchline nor provocation. Instead, writer-director Harry Lighton and stars Alexander Skarsgård of “True Blood” and Harry Melling, the English actor who played Dudley Dursley in the “Harry Potter” films, craft something far rarer: a tender story about desire set within London’s gay biker dom/sub scene.
What unfolds between Colin (Melling), a shy young man discovering himself, and the magnetic Ray (Skarsgård) is a shared journey that ultimately explores agency within the messy, moving process of defining what you want. That the film features butt plugs, bootlicking and a wooded orgy while still feeling like something you could maybe watch with your mom is part of its quiet magic.
As headlines roll in and queer audiences debate the balance between visibility and protecting community “secrets,” I spoke with Melling and Lighton about moms who didn’t run from the screening, why Tiffany’s “I Think We’re Alone Now” might be the most subversive needle drop of the year and making a film that refuses to water itself down for the mainstream.
It’s rare to see a film featuring butt plugs and singlets portrayed with such tenderness. I was thinking about how, if this film didn’t exist, we wouldn’t be seeing headlines like this one from the Boston Globe: “In ‘Pillion,’ a shy bloke’s heart belongs to daddy.” What have you loved most about the critical conversation surrounding the film?
Harry Lighton: Journalists have quite squarely — in terms of directly, not in terms of them being squares — addressed the film. There’s been lots of really interesting things written on the power dynamics in the film and journalists reaching out to people from the community to get their thoughts on it, and it feels like it has generated discussion. That was always the aim.
Harry Melling: One thing that I can’t help but feel is, just like Harry said: discussion. The discussion about this subculture, the fact that it’s now got a platform that people are talking about and people are engaging in what these dynamics are, and that’s just wonderful that a film can open up that conversation.
Now that audiences are interpreting the film in their own ways, does it feel aligned with what you set out to create?
Lighton: It does seem to be received in the way I set out. I wanted it to have room for contradictions. So when you began your interview by saying that, for a film about butt plugs and arseless singlets, it felt surprisingly tender, that means a lot to me. I was just doing an interview with some pups who were saying how it felt lovely that they’d seen their community represented in a way which felt like it had some honesty beyond stereotypes. So all those things made me very happy, for sure.
There’s often a tension in queer culture between visibility and privacy — wanting representation, but not wanting every “secret” exposed. How do you respond to that mix of excitement and caution from within the community?
Melling: Well, certainly when I started hanging out with GBMCC, the Gay Bikers Motorcycle Club, just to get to know these guys, that was exactly what I thought. As an outside actor coming to this group, I really wanted to make sure that they felt comfortable in discussing this subculture and their world with me. They were so generous with their time, with volunteering stories about how to do a decent bootlick and so forth. Then they ended up being in the movie, which is incredible, and the fact that they went to Cannes and got to have that experience was just a full circle moment.
Lighton: I agree with what Harry said, and I think that, listen, it’s still a film about one very specific relationship. It’s not meant to be a depiction of the blueprint of this community. So there’s still plenty of room for secrets.
What was the most valuable lesson that you learned from people who are living this life so that you could portray Colin?
Melling: One of the things that really attracted me to this role was just how courageous he is in deciding to jump into this new territory, to maybe not at all times knowing exactly what he’s chasing, but knowing that it’s right for him. And certainly talking to the other guys from GBMCC and others from the London kink scene — there are a couple of those guys in the movie — the common thread between all those narratives was just how brave they are to decide that’s the life they want to live. I found that very moving, and it all felt that there was a similar narrative in terms of jumping off something into something that to a lot of people will be different. That bravery was something that I really realized as I was going through the journey of Colin.
Despite its explicit elements, it feels accessible. I kept thinking, “My mom might like this movie.”
Lighton: We both did show our moms and they didn’t run a mile. They laughed at it!
Was there ever pressure — internal or external — to make the story more palatable?
Lighton: Not at all. I think that when I was presented, the book was given to me by Eva Yates, who ended up being an executive on it, and it was very clear from the book that telling a version of this story where it felt too diluted would be to try to pull the material in the opposite direction. When I was writing, I had conversations with myself and others about how to make sure that, without diluting the extremity of the material, we were also creating a world which felt inviting and felt like it had warmth in it, so it didn’t just feel like we were holding an uninitiated audience member at length. But it was never a pressure in terms of trying to hit that mainstream.
Melling: I also think because you are with Colin, who doesn’t have prior knowledge about this world, [you are] so up for it. It’s just a useful gateway in terms of allowing those people access to something because you’re seeing it through someone’s eyes who’s taking it all on. And also just the fact that it’s a first love story, which I think is hopefully a very common thing for a lot of people. The way that Harry found that tone is just really excellent and wonderful.
The wrestling scene set to Tiffany’s “I Think We’re Alone Now” is such a brilliant tonal choice — sexy, irreverent and unexpectedly tender all at once. What inspired that music choice, and what were you hoping it would bring to the scene?
Lighton: I actually hadn’t planned to have a needle drop over that scene, but when it was just thud, grunt, carpet, that scene felt a bit cold. So I wanted to warm it up with something which also gave us some insight into Ray’s character. Because the song’s playing on the speaker, it’s diegetic in the scene, and I thought it’d be a nice moment to provide some juxtaposition. Because Ray on the surface seems like this epitome of masculinity. He embodies that kind of gay fantasy, but I also wanted him to be gay, and Tiffany to me is gay with a capital G. And so the idea that Ray would unabashedly wrestle to Tiffany, I thought it was also a nice way of showing the mischief in Ray and the fact that he refuses to neatly fit into these categories.
Was that song playing for you while you were shooting that scene?
Melling: No, it wasn’t. It was just us grunting and huffing and puffing. One whole sequence.
Lighton: Initially I planned to have that be a one-er and I made the actors do it all in one take. It was very exhausting. So I remember they were being real troopers, but after about eight takes, Alexander said, “I’m running out of energy.”
Can you take me behind the scenes of shooting the woods orgy sequence? It’s not something we often see handled this way by a major studio film.
Melling: I remember the opening shot, which is the biker coming in. It follows him around and then you get the reveal of them playing cards, and then you get the reveal of the trestle table. Obviously I’m just on the trestle table bent over, and it was like, “Action.” And I had no idea where the camera was. I just hear this bike go around, my ass is out, and because it’s a good 10-minute shot, I was like, “I have no idea what we just shot.” I didn’t know where the camera was. That was certainly the initial orgy moment: me just being confused.
Lighton: I just remember we were losing the light, so I was fairly stressed. I think it was probably the most stressed I was in the entire shoot, but I’m very happy with how it turned out.
How did you approach directing that orgy scene?
Melling: Quit asking questions, Melling!
Lighton: Yeah, we don’t have time for your questions. [Laughs.]
Melling: You’re a sub! [Laughs.]