First Look: In My Policeman, Harry Styles Plays a Covert Cop!
A sneak peeks at Amazon’s epic romance drama, which contains captivating performances by Styles, Emma Corrin, and David Dawson.
First Look: In My Policeman, Harry Styles Plays a Covert Cop
Robbie Rogers attained his childhood ambition of playing professional soccer, first as a member of Columbus Crew in Ohio and later as a member of Leeds United in England. However, he kept his personal life and sexual orientation a secret.
“In my experience in athletics, homosexuality is prohibited. “The only person I knew about at the time was Justin Fashanu, and he committed himself,” Rogers recalls. “I struggled greatly with determining who I was. I did not have my own love tale.
I was considering my regrets and where I would be 10, 20, or 30 years from now.” Someone gave him a copy of My Policeman, a 2012 romance novel by Bethan Roberts, while he was in Leeds. It upended his world. “It was similar to my coming-out book,” he explains. “I believe the book found me,”
The narrative is set in Brighton in 1957 and follows a police officer named Tom Burgess who is homosexual but lives in a culture where being such is outlawed. He begins dating Marion, a schoolteacher, but also has an affair with Patrick Hazelwood, a museum curator, in secret.
As a result of being compelled to suppress his genuine sentiments, he decides to marry Marion, and as tensions develop between the newlyweds, Patrick’s life falls apart.
It is a compelling tale of forbidden love, regret, and being one’s genuine self. Rogers, who came out publicly in February 2013, had read it numerous times over the years and eventually gave it to his ex-boyfriend, the successful producer Greg Berlanti (they married in 2017).
They collaborated with Sarah Schechter, a partner at Berlanti Productions, and Independent Entertainment’s Cora Palfrey and Philip Herd to develop the project and adapt the novel into a film.
The final product is a sweeping love drama, featuring three bright-burning stars—Harry Styles, Emma Corrin, and David Dawson—that conveys the suffocating hold of societal obstacles.
Rogers believes that the film, which Amazon will distribute in cinemas in the United States and the United Kingdom on October 21 and on streaming services worldwide on November 4, is being released at the perfect time.
“Unfortunately, we see what’s happening in the Supreme Court, in Texas, in Florida, and in other parts of the world,” says Rogers of the current spate of anti-gay “Don’t Say Gay” and similar bills. “The world advances slowly, and then there are others who want to take us back to the 1950s due to their ignorance.”
My Policeman jumps between two time periods: the 1950s, in which Tom (Styles) is navigating a love triangle with Marion (Corrin) and Patrick (Dawson); and 40 years later, when Tom (Linus Roache) and Marion’s (Gina McKee) strained relationship is further complicated when Marion agrees to take in Patrick (Rupert Everett) after he suffers a stroke.
When director Michael Grandage, a prominent British theater director who was intrigued by the subject of a gay man, began searching for three young actors to appear in the 1950s-era plot, Harry Styles was not on their radar.
His staff actually informed Grandage that Styles had read the script and was enthusiastic about the film. Grandage met Styles at his office in London and was immediately impressed by the pop singer.
Styles, well known for his time as a member of One Direction and his successful solo career, made his feature debut in Christopher Nolan’s 2017 war epic Dunkirk. However, according to Grandage, Styles came to that meeting as a fully-formed performer.
“He had read the screenplay so many times that he knew each and every line by heart throughout that meeting. I found this to be quite impressive. He recognized the lines of others, as well as his own.
“He understood why he wanted to discuss it and why one scenario worked one way and another,” adds Grandage.
Styles’ career on stage and his large fan base have also demonstrated that he and Tom have a great deal in common. Rogers explains, “This narrative is about two people who are in love with and a bit obsessed with Tom.” “The entire globe is captivated by Harry’s every move.”
And as it turned out, Styles’s scant acting experience served him well in this role, according to Grandage. “Because he hasn’t accomplished much, he hasn’t acquired the skill to devise schemes or even lie.
He likens his realistic work to that of a young Albert Finney or Tom Courtenay, stating that he can only do it honestly and as he knows it. “They simply bring themselves to the character, and it appears to be a very straightforward process, and Harry had that,” he says.