Harris Dickinson says he’s been left unsettled by the way fans sexualised him after starring in the steamy drama Babygirl, and admits the reaction has crossed lines he “really didn’t enjoy.”
The 29-year-old actor, who is preparing to play John Lennon in Sam Mendes’ upcoming Beatles biopic series, admitted that the public response to the erotic thriller was far more intrusive than he expected.
“If I’m honest, there was a big part of that that I really didn’t enjoy,” he said.
“I’m proud to have worked on it, I love Halina [Rejin, the writer, director and producer] and working with Nicole was the most exciting thing for me. But the way the fans reduced some of it was quite strange.
“You can’t really control that and you can’t really get caught up in it, but people are strange.”
In the film, Dickinson plays an ambitious intern drawn into a dangerous affair with Kidman’s married character.
The movie’s raw, charged energy earned critical praise, but the attention it brought to the actor personally has been harder to handle.
“I think it’s OK to do this to male actors, weirdly. That’s the problem,” he said on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. “I think it’s become OK and acceptable to do that to younger male actors. I get a lot of women say things to me that are deeply inappropriate.
“Like when I was doing press [for Babygirl] and when we were doing the Q&A afterwards, there were some situations that were completely unacceptable. And you’re expected to just laugh it off. I think that’s why I struggled with that experience.”
The actor went on to describe one particularly uncomfortable moment on a recent flight.
“On the plane, someone was like, can you dance for me?” he said. “Then she’s like, ‘Oh, you won’t believe what I was [doing] when I watched that film. I won’t say the rest.’
“And it’s like, that is not okay. I don’t want to know about your sexual experiences with this story. It is odd.”
Dickinson stressed that the film’s intention was never to be merely provocative.
He continued: “People could say, ‘Oh, well, you did a film that you knew was going to be somewhat erotic,’ and it’s like yeah, but the film that we made and the approach that Halina spoke about, for me, it was something way more unique.
“It wasn’t a reductive thing in my mind. I guess you can’t control the perception of it and the way that people want to talk about it and the narrative... I feel like I’m constantly rejecting that a little bit.”
Earlier this year, Dickinson, who is in a long-term relationship with British musician Rose Gray, 28, previously told The Independent that he finds being labelled a heartthrob “strange”, admitting childhood insecurities make it difficult to reconcile his past with how he is now perceived.
“I grew up as a really chubby boy,” he explained. “I didn’t shed that until I was in my late teens. I’ve always got that in my mind, and I don’t think that ever leaves you.
“It feels kind of strange to me, because it’s not something I’ve been particularly used to… ‘being desired’. I’m happy to lean into it for the right film, but it’s not something I’m comfortable with.”
Dickinson is currently promoting Urchin, his first film as a director, which follows a homeless man in London fighting to escape a cycle of self-destruction as he tries to rebuild his life.
The British actor not only directed but also wrote the drama, which arrives in cinemas on October 3.
