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(Picture: Jesse Laitinen)Six feet tall and with cheekbones like geometry, Harris Dickinson is a convincing model, even if he’s a slightly reluctant one. He has been approached by several designers to appear on their catwalks but has demurred. ‘I don’t think I’d be very comfortable,’ he apologises. ‘I’ll leave it to the models.’
As he makes his way off set, we make small talk, as you do. ‘I haven’t been to this studio before, no, but I live nearby,’ he says. ‘I’ve been to the area; to The Dump and things.’ The Dump? Is that a club? ‘The dump,’ he says, looking at me like I’m loopy. ‘The actual dump. For recycling.’
You might reasonably assume that a person who had starred with Angelina Jolie and Michelle Pfeiffer in Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, played opposite Ralph Fiennes in The King’s Man and is soon to appear alongside Daisy Edgar-Jones in the much-anticipated film adaptation of Where the Crawdads Sing would have better things to do than drive to a recycling centre on a Lea Valley industrial estate — but here we are. You can take the boy out of Walthamstow but you can’t take away the imperative to recycle your stuff at the dump.
‘I don’t feel like I’ve done so much,’ he continues modestly once we’ve sat down. ‘There’s times where I’m just sitting around at home, so I don’t feel like my life’s been unnecessarily busy. But I’ve been very lucky that I’ve worked with some brilliant people.’
He certainly has, even if he’s a little bashful talking about them. What surprised him most about Jolie? ‘That she introduced herself to me as Angie,’ he laughs. What did he learn from Fiennes? ‘His composure, his focus and his diligence to the craft were inspirational. That’s work ethic.’ He is full of praise for Edgar-Jones, with whom he recently spent several months filming in New Orleans on Where the Crawdads Sing. ‘Daisy is incredible: genuinely brilliant as a performer and as a person. I was a fan of hers anyway, from watching Normal People during the heart of lockdown. Me and my girlfriend, that was a big relief for us, that show. It was an escape during a weird time, as it was for everyone.’
Where the Crawdads Sing (in which he plays Chase, boyfriend of Kya, played by Edgar-Jones) is released this summer: but first, he can be seen as Pete in The Souvenir Part II, Joanna Hogg’s semi-autobiographical follow-up to 2019’s critically acclaimed The Souvenir. ‘That’s one of the few projects I’m a part of where I can actually watch it with admiration and enjoyment because I’m not in it that much. Normally I watch films and feel horrible that I’m in them.’
So self-effacing is 25-year-old Dickinson that when he found out he was nominated as Bafta’s EE Rising Star, his first reaction was ‘obviously this is a mistake. They’ve got the name mixed up with someone else.’ After so much success, surely he still doesn’t suffer from imposter syndrome? Or is that a necessary part of being an actor? ‘Kind of,’ he concedes. ‘Probably. I don’t know. I think everyone suffers from a little bit of imposter syndrome.’
With so many old Etonians on the scene, it’s refreshing to meet a British actor who was born in Leytonstone, grew up in Walthamstow, went to Highams Park state school (favourite subject: art) and studied acting not at Rada but at Raw, the east London drama school he attended on and off from the ages of 11 to 17. ‘It was an accessible, reasonably priced theatre school in Walthamstow,’ he remembers.
‘A few of the teachers there were actors, so I realised acting was a possibility. But I never really expected to get work. I hoped and dreamed I would, but I never felt entitled to it.’ His social worker father and hairdresser mother were both encouraging, as were his three elder siblings.
Success came quickly, with Harris landing a part in Angels, which ran at the National Theatre in 2014 and led to him getting an agent. In 2017 he starred in his first lead film role, as Frankie in Beach Rats, Eliza Hittman’s haunting coming-of-age story for which she won best director at Sundance. So convincing is Harris as a disaffected Brooklyn teenager that it’s hard to believe he’d only ever been to New York once, briefly, for an audition.
He was equally convincing as Simon in 2019’s County Lines, for which he was nominated as Best Supporting Actor at the British Independent Film Awards. ‘That project was really close to my heart. I was honoured to be a part of it because it told an important story that did not shy away from truth, about an issue that people don’t always want to address because it’s happening on our doorsteps. Boys at my school were involved in that kind of thing [drug dealing] quite a lot. It was not uncommon. You want to transcend circumstance and attain things, and consumer culture really spurs that on. Now more than ever, there’s a distrust of our political system. If certain people haven’t got the education to unpack the current political climate, they’re going to see a certain thing and latch on to it.’
While more Hollywood blockbusters are undoubtedly in his future, his soft spot for British cinema is evident. ‘What I love about it is that we’ve always championed working-class storytellers like Mike Leigh and Sarah Gavron, or the stories that Danny Boyle and Lynne Ramsay have told. They’re film-makers I love, who’ve stayed true to their grittiness.’
You have to earn your entry into rooms in the UK. I hadn’t been to drama school. I was from a certain area. I felt that. I still feel it from certain people
Like every industry, the acting world is full of nepotism, but Harris is proof that talent will win out. ‘We’re at a place where the industry is opening up to [people of] different backgrounds. It’s way more accessible now than perhaps it was. But I think America has led that charge. Certain people in the UK didn’t really want to see me in auditions until I went off and got a role in an American indie film that won Sundance. I don’t blame people for that because you have to earn your place. You have to earn your entry into rooms in the UK. I hadn’t been to drama school. I was from a certain area. And I felt that. I still feel it now from certain people. Maybe it’s a chip on my shoulder but I can’t shake it off. I feel very welcomed by the UK industry and the US industry, and I feel very grateful that people have given me work, but it’s not been the smoothest path. I’ve had some pretty strange experiences with actors, film-makers and casting directors. It’s not been pleasant all the way.’ He shakes his head. ‘And I’m white. So God forbid what people of colour are going through.’ He pauses. ‘I’m not victimising myself. I’m just being honest.’
After the murder of George Floyd, when everyone was posting black squares on Instagram, Harris posted a more considered and genuine response to the Black Lives Matter movement than most. Eighteen months on, does he think anything has changed? What more can people do? ‘We are definitely not going to find the answer to that sitting in an east London photo studio, and it’s way above my pay grade, but I do feel that whole movement is incredibly important in shifting conversations and bringing awareness. Certain people that didn’t want to open up to new information have been forced to, and certain larger companies and conglomerates are now being held accountable.’
There’s a watchfulness in Harris’s performances that makes sense when you meet him in the flesh. If he hadn’t been an actor he would have made a good journalist: very sweetly, he asks as many questions as he answers. ‘My mum and her work have been a big part of that,’ he says, remembering how he’d observe people coming to their house to get their hair done. ‘I’d watch them come, then leave, then hear my mum’s feedback and realise there was this whole subplot of narrative.’
His parents divorced when he was six. ‘It’s fine. Divorce is not uncommon now. My mum is crazy impressive. At one point, she was a single mum with four kids, and she was working as a hairdresser as well.’
Hair was important in the Dickinson household and he confirms there were some follicular foibles. ‘My mum never went too wacky but I’ve let her do some wacky stuff to my hair. Frosted tips in Year 4 — that was quite a bold thing to do.’ He laughs. ‘Now I look back and think, was everything okay?’
If he weren’t an actor, he says he’d like to be a carpenter. ‘I like making things, and think I’d enjoy the task-based completion. It’s not neurotic.’ Is he neurotic? ‘I am with acting, I think. Acting is so…’ he whistles. ‘You get too involved in emotions and the idea of self. Carpentry is just very simple and skill-based.’ He might equally have been a director: he recently directed a short film that appeared at the London Film Festival. ‘I wanted to make films before I wanted to be an actor. I was considering going to film school and worked on sets as an assistant camera operator, so I was trying to climb both ladders. I’m trying to make space for that in my life again.’
With three more films of his set to be released this year (Crawdads, Triangle of Sadness and See How They Run), he will have his work cut out. His roles have been so varied that I wonder how much he deliberates over taking them. ‘I try to choose them carefully but I’m becoming aware of wanting to be more careful, perhaps. That’s becoming a pressure that I have to let go of, and remember this isn’t life or death.’
I tell him that in 10 years’ time, he will probably be in the frame to be the next James Bond. ‘Nah, I don’t think so,’ he says modestly. In the meantime, he’s planning to enjoy some downtime in London. ‘Little bit of life stuff. Sorting the house out. Writing my feature film.’ And hanging out with his girlfriend, the musician Rose Gray, whom he doesn’t want to talk about but clearly adores. Maybe a trip to the dump is on the cards. Or equally, a trip to the Baftas. He’d be happy either way.
