Harris Dickinson Makes His Directorial Debut In Cannes With ‘Urchin’

Since his 2017 breakout in Sundance hit Beach Rats, Harris Dickinson has been keeping busy, averaging two or three films a year in projects as diverse as Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness, Steve McQueen’s Blitz and Halina Reijn’s Babygirl, in which he co-starred with Nicole Kidman. Somehow, though, he found time to write and direct a movie of his own; starring Fear the Walking Dead’s Frank Dillane, Urchin tells the story of Michael, a homeless young man who winds up in prison after an unprovoked assault. Simultaneously hard-hitting and achingly lyrical, it’s an impressive achievement for any director, let alone a first-timer. But Dickinson is not about to rest on his laurels; after Cannes, he goes straight to work on Sam Mendes’s four-standalone-movie project about The Beatles, in which he plays John Lennon.

DEADLINE: How long have you had Urchin in your head?

HARRIS DICKINSON: I started to think about it about five or six years ago. It was originally a different concept with the same character, but it was sort of a split story, so I decided to focus in on Mike because it felt like I was trying to do too much too soon for a first feature. So, I tried to simplify it with the help of my producer, our development exec, who at the time was Rose Garnett, and then it turned into Eva Yates. So, we had quite a long road developing it. It was a while before it got made, really, but it was nice to sit with it for a while.

DEADLINE: What was the inspiration? 

DICKINSON: I think I was becoming a little bit disgruntled with politics and with legislation in general, and I was trying to find a way to find mobilization within my community [in London] and get involved in causes that felt meaningful and effective. Like, what can I do locally that maybe lends a hand on a smaller level? So, just before the first lockdown, before Covid kicked off, I was working at a local thing in Walthamstow called Project Parker. I was really a small cog in a much bigger machine. It was a community project that was giving a safe haven for people sleeping rough, and I got close to the issue there. And then I continued that by working with Under One Sky, which is a volunteer-led organization that works all over London. They go out each day of the week in different areas, in groups of four, five, six volunteers, and basically refer people to StreetLink and hand out food supplies, teas, coffees, take requests, things like that. So, it’s effective and immediate help for people that are vulnerable; people that are sleeping on the streets and people who are vulnerable regardless of their housing situation. I was writing as well, so it became a bit of an impetus to try and encapsulate a young man’s journey as he tries to break free of those circumstances. So, it became more than just about homelessness, it became about cyclical behavior. I think I just wanted to really try and tap into a character study that tracked someone’s struggle to break free of their own habits.

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DEADLINE: Mike is an interesting character. He’s kind of charismatic, but not terribly sympathetic. Was that your intention?

DICKINSON: It was important that he was likeable, I mean I didn’t want him to just be another sort of cantankerous, unruly stereotype of British cinema. I thought it was important that he was endearing and that he was kind of charming as well. I think you sort of have to be charming to survive in that world, so it kind of becomes an innate part of your character. A lot of the people I encountered along the way, and still do, have an immense charm to them. Because they have to, you know?

DEADLINE: Did you always have Frank in mind for the role?

No, we auditioned a lot of people, and Frank was someone who just stood out. He came in and brought his own feeling to it, and I got an immediate sense from him that he really wanted to go on a journey with this film, and with me. We got him involved probably about 10 months before filming started, so we had a good amount of time to start prepping. It wasn’t like we had the budget to officially bring him on yet, but he was up for understanding the world and the character.

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DEADLINE: The opening scenes in the film look very spontaneous. Did you put Frank, in character, into real situations? Or is it all scripted and choreographed?

DICKINSON: That’s all scripted, but there are a few interactions with real members of the public who aren’t aware what’s going on. Obviously, we had the official signs up, but there were certain people that didn’t realize Frank was an actor. But, yeah, the rest of it was scripted. I mean, it was loose. We’d have moments where Frank could do what he wants. We’d give him the guardrails and then he would do what he wanted.

DEADLINE: What kind of research did Frank do for the role?

DICKINSON: We had a whole team of various different advisors in different fields, like probation, prison reform, addiction, homelessness. We had a few different people that we linked him up with, and then he also started to work with Under One Sky simultaneously, so we gave him some infrastructure and then he also went off and did his own work. But I think it was important that we really entered into the research of Mike separate from the factual stuff around his world. We entered into his world with love, and we tried to give it the most full and loving experience. That was important to us as an entry point.

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DEADLINE: Did you always anticipate playing the role of his junkie friend Nathan yourself?

DICKINSON: No. We had an actor lined up and he had to drop out for personal reasons, quite close to the shoot. We read a few people, we offered it to some people, and then in the end I just decided to do it myself. We had it boarded five days across the whole five and a half weeks, so it wasn’t the easiest role to schedule with an actor. So, it sort of made sense. I mean, I’d been reading the lines with Frank already in rehearsal, so when Frank turned around and said, “You should do it,” I did. And, yeah, it was challenging.

DEADLINE: There are these extraordinarily lyrical, strange, surreal passages in the film. Could you talk a little about that and why you included them?

Yeah. I was researching a lot about trauma and what trauma does to the brain, and I became really interested with the idea that we tell ourselves these stories and our brain is capable of really wild things when we’ve been through traumatic events. And I started to think about how the imagery, the visualization, and the sort of freedom associated with nature can be quite unbearable. The idea of going into a quiet space, or the countryside, or meditating in a sanctuary  can also be really destabilizing. I don’t know, but I wanted to try and move away from archetypical realism, and I thought that it was important to have the more absurd elements in the film because I also think it should feel like a bit of an odyssey for Mike. It should feel like a bit of a cautionary tale rather than just a straight drama. I thought it was maybe a more interesting way to shine a light on this subject, but probably a lot of it was just foolishness, to be honest. [Laughs] Overambition.

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DEADLINE: Is your directing voice different to your acting voice? Or do you see it part of the same continuum?

DICKINSON: I think it all sort of informs each other. I mean I’ve obviously got my own taste as a filmmaker, where I want to be, and hopefully I have my own voice, which I’m still figuring out. But in terms of acting, I can sort of dance between different genres and different tones with filmmakers that work within different parameters. So, I guess they are different things, aren’t they, innately? But I want to be in films that I also want to watch. That’s the thing, I want to be in films with filmmakers that push things and challenge things, and you’re safe within their world. That’s the best thing as an actor, when you can step into a world or, on a more pragmatic level, step into a set and be like, “Oh, I know what this is going to be.” Whether that’s an Ari Aster film, or a Lynne Ramsay film, or a Chloé Zhao film, you know what kind of world you’re stepping into. And I want that to be the same for me as a director. I want people to go, “Oh, great. There’s a film Harris Dickinson has made.”

DEADLINE: There’s a steady drip of information about Michael’s background from the start, and it’s very carefully scripted in that respect. Did you deliberately take stuff out?

DICKINSON: I think, yeah. We started sort of over-informing in the script stage, and then as it got closer and closer to shooting, we realized there was a lot we didn’t need. You realize that you don’t want to be too heavy-handed with that stuff, because it doesn’t really help. The important stuff is happening in front of us rather than finding out what happened to him in the past. We don’t really need to know all of that stuff. It’s about the unraveling in the moment.

DEADLINE: What are your inspirations to make this kind of movie? Or were you deliberately trying to shut out the comparisons?

DICKINSON: Obviously, I grew up on the likes of Mike Leigh, Shane Meadows and Ken Loach, and I was really enthralled by that kind of cinema growing up. I related to it, and I found it really interesting and inspiring. But I also love Fellini, and Agnès Varda, and Leos Carax, and Paul Thomas Anderson. There are films that inspired it from really all types of cinema. So, I hope that shows really. I mean, yeah, we were trying to make a prototype.

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DEADLINE: You’ve obviously worked with some terrific directors yourself. Did you show it to any of them, or did you not want to do that?

DICKINSON: Oh, god, I didn’t really want to. I got a bit worried about hearing too many opinions. Halina Reijn watched it pretty late in the edit. But it’s hard, isn’t it? Because you get to a stage where you lose track of your own ideas a little bit, and then you’ve got financier opinions, which, of course, you respect, and you entertain. But after a while, you sort of have to come back to your own feelings, I think, otherwise it gets really muddy. But it’s hard, man. It’s really hard. Because I’m also curious, and I want to know what people think. I’m impressionable as well, so I’m like, “Oh God, you didn’t like it? Why didn’t you like it?” We did test screenings too. We showed it to small groups when we were about a month or so away from locking. They didn’t know I was the director, so they were really honest, which was nice. And I wanted that. I wanted the honesty. I don’t want to be told, “Great, great.” I’m like, “What did you hate?” I kind of dig for that. So, it was helpful.

DEADLINE: What were the reactions? What kind of things did people latch onto?

Well, they were interesting. I mean I was expecting certain things to go misunderstood, but everything was sort of understood in terms of plot points and characters. Very literal definitions of things. And then one person said, “Oh, you obviously didn’t have enough time with the actor Harris Dickinson, because he was wearing the same makeup for the whole of his scenes.” I said, “Guys, I was there every day.” That was funny. People would also start to say, “Oh, it’d be great if you could have a bit more, like, sparkles and stuff,” and you think, “OK, well this is perhaps not something to listen to.” But it’s definitely interesting, just to get a general consensus.

DEADLINE: Were you surprised when it got accepted by Cannes into the official selection?

DICKINSON: Yeah, I was surprised. It’s not something you expect. I’d hoped and dreamed, but no, never expected it. It was a cool day.

DEADLINE: What’s your enduring memory of Cannes?

DICKINSON: Well, the thing is, I’ve been to Cannes twice actually. Triangle of Sadness was the first time, and the enduring memory of that was the applause and having to stand there and receive it all with all the cameras in your face. That was pretty bonkers. And then we went back a couple of years later to try and get money for this film. Me and my producers went for five or six days, and we begged for money six times a day in various different meetings, and it was tiring — you could see when people were getting a bit bored with the pitch. So, there are two different sides of Cannes that I got to experience. And now I get to go back with my film, so it feels like a nice, full-circle moment. Hopefully we’ll celebrate it regardless of the outcome or the inevitable mixed opinions on it. That’s something I just have to prepare myself for.

DEADLINE: How quickly would you get back behind the camera? I mean obviously you’ve got the Beatles movie coming up. When could you possibly find the time to direct again?

DICKINSON: Well, I’ve got The Beatles, and then I’m going to try and make my next one. I mean I’ve started writing, or I’ve got an idea at least, so I can hopefully just slowly tinker away at that and then see. It is time consuming; that’s the thing. It does take a lot of your energy from start to finish. Unlike acting — once filming stops, you can go onto the next one, but this is more encompassing. So yeah, it’s about the timing, but hopefully someone will let me do it again. I’ve got another idea that I started to think about as soon as I wrapped the film. And then I tried not to think about it, because I thought, I need a break.

DEADLINE: Are you having to clear the decks to play John Lennon?

DICKINSON: Yeah. I think I’ll be doing that for the next however long it’ll be. That’s all I’ll be doing. But it is the way it needs to be, really, with something like that. You can’t try and do a few different things at the same time, no. I don’t like to work like that.

DEADLINE: What do The Beatles mean to you, personally?

DICKINSON: What do they mean to me? Well, they’re becoming closer and closer. They’re becoming dearer to me, the more I go on the journey of understanding John and the rest of them. Yeah, they’re becoming extremely important to me. They’re my every day right now.

DEADLINE: Do you feel particularly bound to staying in the U.K.? You’re obviously in demand overseas, but is it important to you to be in films in the U.K. and make films in the U.K.?

DICKINSON: Yeah, for sure. I mean I’ve always said to myself and to my team, “I want to come back to British cinema whenever possible.” I want to do that and seek out the filmmakers that are working here. We’ll see. I mean I live here; I like living here, and I think I’ll live here for forever. But you never know.