Australian filmmakers weave romance and comedy into Wicker
Co-director Eleanor Wilson says the online response to Wicker echoed the behavior of the villagers in the film. The dark comedy stars Olivia Colman as a…
Australian director Eleanor Wilson says the online reaction to Wicker echoed the villagers’ behavior in the film, whose trailer pairs Olivia Colman’s fisherwoman with Alexander Skarsgård’s strawman. The darkly comic fable follows a woman who asks a basket weaver to make her a husband from wicker.
That unusual premise has helped put the film in the spotlight. Some viewers were horrified by the image; others embraced its sexual humor. Wilson said the split response recalled the social divisions inside the story.
“There are some people who are horrified by it, like, 'No thank you,' and others who are really horny for it,” Wilson said.
How does Wicker turn a basket into a romantic lead?
Colman plays a fisherwoman who sells her wares to villagers who look down on her because of her smell. Elizabeth Debicki plays the tailor’s snooty wife, whose meanness helps push the fisherwoman toward a marriage of her own.
At first, the fisherwoman wants no part in a ceremony that pairs off the villagers. But after being hurt by the tailor’s wife, she visits the basket weaver, played by Peter Dinklage, with coins and asks him to make her a husband. Skarsgård plays the resulting wicker figure.
The story’s characters are identified by their jobs rather than personal names. That choice gives the fairy-tale setting a blunt, communal quality: the fisherwoman’s place in the village shapes how others treat her, while her decision to seek a husband comes from a pressure she initially rejects.
Wilson said Colman made that shift feel convincing. The character does not care much about other people’s opinions, but she is still susceptible to their influence, Wilson explained. Colman understood that tension instinctively, she said.
What did it take to create Skarsgård’s wicker suit?
The costume took at least 90 minutes to apply and could remain on Skarsgård for up to eight hours at a time. Wētā Workshop designed the woven suit with costume designers Tóth András Dániel and Godena-Juhász Attila, prosthetics artist Joe Dunckley and makeup artist Sarah Rubano.
It was a demanding fit. Co-director Alex Huston Fischer said Skarsgård sweated heavily and could not be placed in direct sunlight while wearing it.
“To be able to project the beautiful, subtle performance that he did through this prosthetic was very challenging,” Wilson said.
The costume also changed how Skarsgård had to act. Wilson said he exaggerated his facial movements so the performance could register through the prosthetic. The challenge was not simply moving in a restrictive outfit; it meant communicating character through a face partly hidden by the design.
Sound helped complete the illusion. Sound designer Andy Neil created the creak associated with the wicker man, a small but telling detail in a film whose central romantic figure is built from woven material. Cinematographer Lol Crawley helped shape the film’s visual approach after Fischer and Wilson described their aim as making a comedy that looked like a 17th-century Dutch painting.
The film is only the directing pair’s second feature, following their 2020 relationship drama Save Yourselves! Wilson said Colman’s willingness to take a risk on a script helped bring other performers into the project, including Nabhaan Rizwan as the tailor and Richard E Grant as an unprofessional doctor.
For audiences, Wicker’s premise offers more than a provocative trailer image: its odd romance is tied to the fisherwoman’s treatment by her community and the pressure to conform to its marriage customs. The film’s humor and handmade central costume also put the actors’ physical performances at the heart of the story.
“He had to really exaggerate his facial movements to be able to get the movement across,” Wilson said of Skarsgård’s performance.
