‘Wicker’ Cast Discusses the Heart Behind Its Unconventional Romance

Olivia Colman, Alexander Skarsgård and Elizabeth Debicki are emphasizing the emotional stakes beneath the fantastical comedy of “Wicker,” discussing its mix of absurdity, intimacy and heartbreak in an interview with Variety. The film follows a fisherwoman who commissions a husband made from wicker, turning a private search for companionship into a village-wide disruption.

Debicki recalled encountering Skarsgård wading through water when she first arrived on set, his character’s unclothed appearance rendered in wicker rather than exposed flesh. She described blushing as she struggled to process the sight. The anecdote captures the unusual visual premise the performers had to treat as part of their characters’ everyday world.

The Variety interview frames the film as both “very silly” and “really heartbreaking,” resisting a description limited to slapstick or sexual comedy. That distinction places the central relationship, rather than simply the spectacle of a woven husband, at the heart of the cast’s discussion. The humor and emotional vulnerability are presented as complementary elements.

According to Black Bear’s official synopsis, the story begins with a single fisherwoman living on the outskirts of a seaside village and enduring persistent ridicule. Fed up with her neighbors, she decides to have a husband fashioned from wicker. Her response to exclusion is to create a relationship outside the expectations of the community that rejects her.

That decision does not remain a private matter. Black Bear describes the unconventional romance as provoking outrage, jealousy and chaos in an otherwise conservative town. The premise makes the neighbors’ reaction a central source of conflict: a woman they have mocked finds companionship, and her happiness becomes something the wider community struggles to accept.

The Sitges Film Festival’s description similarly presents “Wicker” as a comic fable about sex, marriage and social convention. It identifies the perfection of the fisherwoman’s new lover as another ingredient in the upheaval. In that framing, the fantasy offers a way to examine not only romantic desire but also the comparisons and resentments that a relationship can stir among outsiders.

Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson wrote and directed the film, with Peter Dinklage joining Colman, Skarsgård and Debicki in the cast, according to Black Bear. Sitges lists its running time as 105 minutes and notes that the filmmakers’ previous feature together, “Save Yourselves!,” premiered at Sundance in 2020. The festival places the new film within a tradition of fantastical storytelling directed at recognizable social behavior.

Black Bear currently lists “Wicker” as playing in theaters. For audiences encountering its unusual premise, the cast’s discussion supplies a clear framing: the woven husband is the starting point, not the whole story. Their account asks viewers to look beyond the visual joke to a romance whose comic disruption also carries the possibility of hurt.