Olivia Colman has opened up about filming some of the sex scenes in the upcoming movie Wicker.
Colman and Alexander Skarsgård co-star in the romantic comedy drama about a fishwife who requests that a local basket weaver and sorcerer, played by Peter Dinklage, literally make her a husband.
Like a folky Frankenstein he does so, constructing a husband, played by Skarsgård, out of wicker specially for her, sparking a whirlwind romance that seemingly makes the previously solitary fishwife the talk of the town.
One look at the film’s trailer, no spoilers here don’t worry, reveals that the Fisherwoman’s new husband certainly puts the ‘man’ in ‘wickerman’, though here it’s the fires of passion being stoked rather than the fires of an island cult intent on murderous sacrifice.
And that involved what Colman has revealed to be some rather amusing moments on set, with the fact that her co-star was wearing a wicker costume funnily enough actually making filming the scenes easier.
The fisherwoman’s wick husband causes quite a stir in the village (Black Bear)
“I do find sex scenes very embarrassing, and I didn’t in this,” Colman told Entertainment Weekly, “because we got on so well and because there was humour to the sex scenes as well, which makes it less embarrassing.”
Colman also revealed a unique approach to the creative process from directors Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson, who are themselves married and who Colman revealed ‘would demonstrate’ during filming the scenes.
“So it was like, okay, we’re all in this together,” said Colman. “And it was a closed set.”
Of course, the fact that her co-star was wearing a wicker costume also helped to make things a little less embarrassing through how surreal the whole situation was.
“And also I suppose a little bitI was less [embarrassed] because I was thinking this poor guy is wearing a basket and so let’s not get too embarrassed that there’s other things at play,” she said.
Their relationship leads to an unexpected reaction from the other people in the village (Black Bear)
And while Skarsgård’s costume might have appeared to be made from hard wicker, but despite appearances there were no risks of getting any splinters, with Colman describing it as ‘soft’.
For his part, Skarsgård revealed that the NSFW scenes (which of course stands for ‘Not Safe for Wicker’) were shot early on in the production, meaning that he was still trying to understand more how the suit worked.
“The restriction of the costume would inform the sex scenes a little bit because again, we shot those scenes very early on. It was the first couple of days,” he said.
“So I was still figuring out the physicality and what the limitations were of wearing the suit.
“So there were certain things like in bed, you’re not super nimble, so it’s like, all right, maybe that didn’t quite work. Let’s do it this way instead, and then you figure out a way to make it work.”
He explained that the suit was made out of ‘a combination of organic materials and synthetic’, which had to be woven to match how a person’s body moves.
The suit itself was made by Wētā Workshop in New Zealand, who also worked on the props, prosthetics, and costumes for The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
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