Swapping the marines for the movies has paid off for the young British star of Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or-winning Triangle of Sadness. He talks about the tragic death of his co‑star and his unusual route into acting
When Harris Dickinson was recently cast in the film role of a character named Carl, he was briefed that he was playing a car mechanic who was scouted on the street to be a male model and sent to the shows in Paris. Dickinson, a 26-year-old actor from north-east London, knows a bit about the fashion world – he’s a favourite of the designers at Dior – but less about fixing cars. “When I do a character or a project, I really want to get into the role,” he tells me. “So I was doing a lot of research around cars and being a mechanic.”
I have to interrupt: there’s nothing whatsoever in Triangle of Sadness, the new film from Swedish director Ruben Östlund, which won the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes film festival, about the lead character Carl being a mechanic. “Yeah, I remember getting on set and everything just got stripped about that story,” says Dickinson. “I felt like a bit of an idiot.” That he’d wasted his time? “Listen, I work in a garage on Saturdays,” he jokes, “so that’s how successful it was.”
