He’s acted as Nicole Kidman’s love curiosity, delivered an acclaimed directorial debut, and been forged in Sam Mendes’ upcoming “The Beatles” movies, however Britain’s Harris Dickinson insists he is holding his toes on the bottom.
The modest Londoner, who turns 30 later this 12 months, has had a whirlwind 12 months that has seen his stock rise additional as an actor who can straddle each artwork home cinema and extra business TV and movie work.
But the “Babygirl” star and upcoming on-screen John Lennon insists he will not be swapping Hollywood for his beloved dwelling within the British capital — now or ever.
“It feels like I’m grounded by London, east London specifically. It feels like a very important place,” he advised AFP in an interview. “I have my people. I have my family. I have my own little community there,” he added.
The metropolis is the backdrop to “Urchin”, his first movie as a director which premiered on the Cannes Film Festival final May and which features a cameo from his mum.
The premiere in Cannes, the place he starred in 2022 prize-winner “Triangle of Sadness” by Ruben Ostlund, was so aggravating Dickinson felt sick earlier than the screening.
But his movie, a couple of homeless man struggling after his launch from jail, gained over critics with the power of the performing and directing, in addition to its wry humor.
Dickinson sees it as containing an necessary message about neighborhood: the significance of it, in addition to the hazards for drug customers of “exhausting (their) support networks”.
“It’s very common, even for people with good family setups, or friends and family, they get to a point where no one wants to help them anymore,” he stated.
Keeping damaging conduct at bay is a battle he pertains to, having seen the ravages of alcohol in his household — but additionally as a member of the notoriously addiction-prone leisure trade.
“Ultimately no one’s safety or path is guaranteed. You have to do a certain amount of work in order to stay on track, especially if you’ve got addictive tendencies or destructive tendencies,” he defined.
Dickinson is at present in the midst of an exhausting filming schedule for 4 biographical movies about “The Beatles” from “American Beauty” and James Bond director Mendes.
Each one is shot from the attitude of one of many Fab Four, with Dickinson touchdown what’s arguably the plum function as Lennon.
Paul Mescal (“Hamnet”, “Gladiator II”) performs Paul McCartney.
“I’m getting up at 4:45 a.m. every day, and I’m getting home at 8 p.m.,” Dickinson defined.
Working with Mendes has made an enormous impression — “he’s a big canvas director” — however one of many hardest issues is pulling himself out of the every day news doom cycle and his analysis into the Nineteen Sixties.
“I do go through periods where I tune out from news a little bit because I can get obsessed with it. I go deep, and I get very troubled by it,” Dickinson defined. “I don’t think our brains and our systems are designed to be that tuned into injustice and tragedy and darkness.”
The troubled postwar period “doesn’t feel any different to what we’re going through today, that’s the alarming thing really,” he added.
“The Beatles” is a long-term job that may hold him busy till December.
After that?
“I’m quite interested in anything apocalyptic, anything dystopian, or a survival film,” he defined. “I’m interested in the idea of what happens when society falls, what happens when we are left with nothing or we’re stripped of everything.”
© 2026 AFP