Michael Grandage hopes people forget they’re watching Harry Styles in ‘My Policeman’ at TIFF – Toronto Star
Celebrated theatre director Michael Grandage felt a personal connection to “My Policeman,” only his second feature film as a director and one of the most buzzed about movies at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Starring pop singer Harry Styles alongside Emmy-nominated Emma Corrin (“The Crown”) and David Dawson, the LGBTQ drama follows Tom (Styles), a police officer in 1950s England who falls for Patrick (Dawson). Due to the laws of the time, they keep their relationship a secret and Tom marries Marion (Emma Corrin). Shifting to the 1990s, the film examines the lives of the three (played by Linus Roache, Rupert Everett and Gina McKee) and the regrets they carry.
“I was born in the England that’s represented at the start of the film when it was illegal to be who you are really,” said Grandage in his only Canadian interview at TIFF. “As a young gay man growing up, I was very much aware of the world I was growing up in.”
Grandage is one of the world’s most celebrated stage directors and a multiple Tony and Olivier Award winner. His work includes the Tony-winning “Red,” “Frost/Nixon” and a stage adaptation of the Oscar-winning Disney film “Frozen.”
As a gay man, he wanted to bring his experience to “My Policeman” and remind people of how recently homosexuality was criminalized. He was also very much drawn to making a film that has something to say as part of a larger debate in today’s society.
When it came to casting the leads, Grandage shared that it was actually Styles who reached to him via his agent, expressing an interest in the film.
The 28-year-old pop star, who is arguably one of the most recognizable faces in the world, is fairly new to acting. He made his debut with a gritty supporting role in “Dunkirk,” the Oscar-nominated Second World War drama from Christopher Nolan. This year, he’s in another buzzy film, Olivia Wilde’s “Don’t Worry Darling” alongside Florence Pugh.
For Grandage, there were no inhibitions about casting an actor with so little experience, as Styles did his research and convinced him that he was fit for the role.
“I was very aware the moment we met he was somebody who’s done a great deal of reading — he read the screenplay several times. He’s read the novel a lot as well and came as somebody who just knew why they wanted to play it, what they wanted to bring to it, why they wanted to develop their career as an actor and how they were looking for the right material,” Grandage said.
“It was a very exciting meeting that led me to believe whatever risks have come with casting someone with little film experience was weighed by the fact that we have somebody who really wants to do it.”
The 60-year-old director hopes people forget they are watching Styles.
“The point of acting is that you take on another character and then you inhabit that character … The ultimate goal is that somebody as global as Harry would, as quickly as possible in the film, make you forget that you’re watching him and you watch the character instead of the actor.”
With his choice of actors, Grandage is aware of the power of the film in terms of starting a conversation, which is his hope.
A beautifully crafted story of forbidden love and changing social conventions, My Policeman follows three young people – policeman Tom (Harry Styles), teacher Marion (Emma Corrin) and museum curator Patrick (David Dawson) as they embark on an emotional journey in 1950s Britain. Flashing forward to the 1990s, Tom (Linus Roache), Marion (Gina McKee) and Patrick (Rupert Everett) are still reeling with longing and regret, but now they have one last chance to repair the damage of the past. Based on the book by Bethan Roberts, director Michael Grandage carves a visually transporting, heart-stopping portrait of three people caught up in the shifting tides of history, liberty, and forgiveness.
“With people like Harry Styles and Emma Corrin, I’m very aware that we have an opportunity to play into a very large demographic of young people who may well not know what it was like before the world they’re in at the moment … people who see that the world shouldn’t return or go back (to the way it was), then I think that’s a very powerful part of the messaging of this.”
The Yorkshire-born Grandage is also “particularly thrilled” to have brought “My Policeman” to TIFF, thanks to the support of the community and fans.
“It’s always been an amazing festival in terms of the support system, a group of people who love film and it couldn’t be a better environment. I’m very happy.”
Grandage believes that any good film should offer a reflection of one’s life, even in the tiniest of things, and hopes “My Policeman” offers viewers that self-reflection.
“For me, the beauty of any story is when you’re watching it, and you think it’s about three people that have nothing to do with you, and somewhere in the film you make a connecting point that affects you either emotionally or intellectually; something happens that either engages you in the story further, or fosters discussion with who you are and where you are in your own life. I think it’s something I’d like to happen.”
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