Harry Potter star Harry Melling’s career has taken a very different turn following his days as Dudley Dursley in the wizarding franchise.
The former child star, now 36, features as a key cast member in the X-rated movie Pillion.
It had its first big screening over the weekend at Cannes Film Festival, and it seems a diversion from all things fantasy has served Melling well, as the movie earned an eight-minute standing ovation inside the theatre.
The plot follows a BDSM relationship between a gay biker and a parking attendant, written and directed by Harry Lighton and also starring Alexander Skarsgård.
‘Colin (Melling), a timid man, meets Ray (Skarsgård), a confident biker gang leader, who initiates him into a submissive relationship, challenging Colin’s mundane existence and prompting personal growth through their unconventional dynamic,’ a synopsis reads.
However, things get complicated when Colin starts to struggle with always having to be the submissive party out of the two.
The film has already generated quite a buzz and received positive first reviews.
‘A film that deftly balances squirmy comedy with gentle pathos, social suspense with offbeat warmth. Pillion gives little indication that Lighton is a first-time feature director,’ writes critic Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair on Rotten Tomatoes.
‘The emotional and dramatic weight lies almost entirely with Collin, and Melling makes a strong impact in a role that is far away from his turn as the boorish Dudley Dursley in Harry Potter,’ praises Nikki Baughan.
Ryan Lattanzio also hails it as a ‘deeply moving love story’ for filmmaker Lighton’s ‘strange, beautiful, and sexy vision.’
‘It’s basically what Fifty Shades of Grey should have been,’ adds Peter Bradshaw of the Guardian.
Melling’s own performance has also struck a chord with critics, with David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter declaring it his ‘breakthrough role’ and a ‘joy’ to watch how he portrays Colin’s self-discovery arc.
Attending the premiere of Pillion at the Cannes Festival last week, Queen’s Gambit actor Melling looked dapper in a black tux, while co-star Skarsgård turned heads in a pair of thigh-high leather boots.
The movie is far from the first time we’ve seen Swedish star Skarsgård, 48, in racy scenes.
Having also filmed gay sex scenes in vampire show True Blood, he previously quipped that he has no issues being nude on set.
He declared to uInterview: ‘I’m Scandinavian, godda***it! We love to be naked.’
Meanwhile, Melling has spoken about the legacy of the Harry Potter franchise and how perceptions of him might have changed after he lost a lot of weight.
‘Listen, I get it. Well, I don’t get it, but I, um…’, he began in a chat with the Independent in December 2022.
‘When you’re 10 years old and you play a role like that, people are going to think of you as that thing and are going to want to hold on to that thing.
‘Obviously, that was 23 years ago.’
On whether his physical transformation had an impact on his career and shedding the association with Harry Potter, he added: ‘I think you can be an actor in whatever shape you want to be.
‘But losing weight at the time was not a conscious decision at all, it was just something that happened. And of course, that makes people see you in a different way, and maybe that opens up different casting opportunities. I don’t think that was a conscious decision.
‘I mean, maybe in hindsight, somewhere in me, I’ve always been interested in the actors that transform… so maybe that’s where the instinct to do that came from.’
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