TIFF: Harry Styles Says “Wasted Time” Is the “Most Devastating Thing” and Is the “Central Theme of LGBT Drama ‘My Policeman'”

A week after he was in Venice to talk about “Don’t Worry Darling,” the actor arrived in Toronto for the international premiere of the movie.

 

Harry Styles spoke about Don’t Worry Darling in Venice less than a week ago (and later quipped that he was there to “spit on Chris Pine”), but on Sunday he was in Toronto to discuss a completely unrelated but equally buzzworthy project in which he plays the lead.

 

In Michael Grandage’s film My Policeman, which premiered at TIFF on Sunday night, Styles plays Tom, a police officer in 1950s England who falls in love with museum curator Patrick (David Dawson). Due to the oppressive regulations of the time, the two maintain their connection a secret, but Tom marries the local schoolteacher Marion (Emma Corrin), whose jealousy would lead to negative outcomes. The three, who are now in the 1990s and are portrayed by Linus Roache, Rupert Everett, and Gina McKee, respectively, are still wracked with sorrow but work to undo the harm they caused 40 years ago.

 

One of the most interesting things for Styles to take away from the movie was how it touched on the idea of individuals not making the most of their lives, which is interesting for someone who is obviously cramming both pop megastardom and a developing film career into their constrained schedule.

 

He said during a press conference a few hours before the global premiere of My Policeman, “I think squandered time is the most heartbreaking thing. That’s why I think the tale is so devastating because, ultimately, the whole story is about wasted time.”

 

He said, “Because it’s the one thing we cannot control. The one thing you can never get back is it. And I believe that at the end, when you reflect on your time spent with the people you love, that is all that matters – regardless of the kind of life you have led.

 

The film’s themes of “love and freedom and the pursuit for those things,” according to Styles, are “very ageless,” and he was intrigued to the idea that viewers may identify with one or more of the characters.

 

The fact that all of the characters have some really admirable characteristics as well as some weaknesses that we might wish they didn’t have but that all humans have, he said, is what he finds to be the most beautiful aspect of the story. And I believe that you can recognise aspects of yourself in various characters, perhaps even your least favourite parts of yourself, at certain moments in the story. And I believe that’s why it struck a chord with me so strongly.

 

Director Grandage previously told The Hollywood Reporter that he believed Styles, like himself, was intrigued to the “political side” of My Policeman’s tale. The theatre director, who is gay and was born in the age it depicts and is working on his second film project, stated that because the advancements gained since the 1950s are now in threat, the film had an unfortunate poignancy in today’s society.

 

“I think it’s fragile again for the first time in my lifetime. And I believe that by doing this, people will be made aware of the fact that if you allow something to be weak and to fall apart, this is where you end up. People eventually reach a point when they are unable to be themselves or free.