When life introduces you to the handsome, rugged leather-wearing stud of your dreams, what do you do? Follow him into the nearest alley and prepare for the most whirlwind romance of your young gay life, of course!

At least that’s what’s happening in A24’s newest brooding romantic drama film Pillion!

Starring Harry Potter alum Harry Melling and eternal tall, blonde heartthrob Alexander Skarsgård, Pillion (based on Adam Mars-Jones’s 2020 novel Box Hill) tells the story of a young, shy British gay man named Colin who, after a chance encounter in a dark, secluded alleyway, becomes almost embarrassingly down bad for an older biker named Ray, a mysterious member of his town’s local motorcycle club and a self-proclaimed dom in need of an ultraobedient sub.

Gold Envelope had the privilege of getting to speak to the film’s lead star Harry Melling, as well as writer-director Harry Lighton, about what it was like crafting the film, the need for more dom daddies in cinema, avoiding the usual queer tropes, and more!

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“It was lovely,” Melling tells Gold Envelope about getting to play a queer character in a film that isn’t filled with sad, depressing stereotypes. “It was all in Harry’s script. I think you’re right, I think there’s certain tropes in queer cinema that we were keen not to fall into. I think the fact that Colin, on some level, is very normal, it was a lovely starting point. I know some actors that would get scared because they’re like, ‘Oh, but what’s going on?’ But actually, his normalcy was something that I was really interested in, because it’s a great jumping off point. And of course, when Alex’s character comes into the throw and he realizes that there’s something else he wants from life and that maybe this is a dynamic that he wants to explore and understand.”

“We go on this fantastic, big, wild, journey of him discovering what it is he wants from love. So all those things combined was really the selling point in terms of why I wanted to do this.”

When asked about crafting the film with its unique mix of heartfelt moments, emotionality, drama, and, of course, sheer sexy fun with dom daddy Alexander Skarsgård as the object of Melling’s desire and affection, writer-director Harry Lighton said:

“I really loved it. One day we’d be shooting something, a scene which we were playing for laughs, and it’d be quite light on set. And then the next day we’d be shooting, and we’d go from shooting the wrestling scene to then something quite emotionally sincere. I think that it provided us with a lot of bandwidth in terms of being able to explore the different colors of filmmaking. I loved it.”

Watch Gold Envelope‘s full interview with Harry Melling and Harry Lighton in the video below.

And catch Pillion, now playing in theaters nationwide!

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