Starring opposite Nicole Kidman, Harris Dickinson is a revelation in Babygirl as a cocky intern embarking on a dangerous liaison with a CEO. Here, he opens up on modern crises in masculinity, and the parts of ourselves we try to keep hidden.
About eight years ago, the then-fledgling actor Harris Dickinson recorded a self-tape in his childhood bedroom. On that residential street parallel to the A406 skimming Highams Park, Dickinson’s dreams of success hinged on the balancing act familiar to those of us who don’t distinctly enunciate or elongate their vowels. He would record these three-minute clips in the hopes of securing a new acting gig, while juggling a range of other jobs including, but not limited to: litter-picking (his personal favourite), bartending, cafe work, construction work and maintaining standards in a Hollister stockroom. Incoming calls from an unknown number were, nine times out of ten, his agent, sending Dickinson bolting up the stairs in search of mobile reception. “I would hope it was a call telling me I’d got a job so I could leave [Hollister], because I hated retail and folding clothes in the basement,” he tells me. For the most part, he’d traipse back down disappointed.
Then there was his job as a runner on set for a Stylo G video shot during Notting Hill Carnival. It was his first experience of the annual celebration, and he fondly remembers spending the majority of the time wrangling the Jamaican artist. Or the time his mum made him, rather reluctantly, turn down what he then considered to be his potential big break: three weeks in Nigeria to work on the set of a Nollywood production. “I told her, ‘I’m going to go,’ and she said, ‘Is it paid?’ I said no and she said, ‘Well, you can’t miss three weeks of college. Don’t be stupid!’” Any and every door that opened was a potential opportunity – at least, that’s the way Dickinson saw it. After all, how else would he get the necessary experience or the money to fund those trips to LA so he could chance it during pilot season? “I was trying to climb both ladders at the same time, so as soon as I left school when I was 16, I was working on sets as a runner. I was doing music videos, documentaries… anything to try and get some experience.”
