Skarsgard praises woven costume in offbeat film ‘Wicker’ as a ‘masterpiece’

Actors Olivia Colman and Alexander Skarsgard have both played eccentric characters before but say their new film, in which Skarsgard transforms into an Adonis woven from wicker, is "in quirkiness levels, quite high".

In "Wicker", an absurdist romantic comedy set in a medieval village, Colman portrays an outcast known as the Fisherwoman who longs for a companion. She approaches a basket weaver, played by Peter Dinklage, who creates her a supernatural husband.

Initially jeered, the wicker man surprises both the Fisherwoman and the judgemental villagers with his sensitivity and skills, slowly turning life in the conservative community upside down.

"I'd just never seen anything like that before," said Colman, who won an Oscar for her performance in 2018's "The Favourite". "It was totally original."

It took artists at the Weta Workshop in New Zealand around 18 months to design Skarsgard's suit. The Stockholm-based actor witnessed the costume coming to life over emails and video calls before trying it on some two weeks before shooting began in Budapest.

"That was definitely a moment I'll never forget, when I got to step into him," Skarsgard said. "I really want the audience to know that it was practical and that it wasn't CGI... It was a masterpiece."

Skarsgard credited the team for shortening the costume and make-up application process from an initial "quite a few hours" to under two hours. Acting in it was a learning curve, he said, and required accentuated movements.

"It had different pieces, elements to it, glued to my face, and little added lips and eyelashes made out of flax and hair," he said. "It definitely didn't feel very organic because you had to really exaggerate everything."

The film is adapted from Ursula Wills-Jones' short story "The Wicker Husband". Elizabeth Debicki plays the Tailor's Wife, who takes the lead in a campaign against the Fisherwoman and her unconventional husband.

"There are some lessons in the film that are done very gently," said Colman. "The position of women, which is getting challenged in certain quarters, alarmingly so, and it's just a lovely comment on an equal relationship and kindness and the patriarchy and feminism. It's also enormous escapism, which is also really important at this time," she said.

"It's a commentary on our society and the world we live in," added Skarsgard, "but hopefully done in a very entertaining way."

"Wicker" begins its global cinematic roll-out on Wednesday.

-Reporting by Hanna Rantala, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien/Reuters