Elizabeth Debicki’s first encounter with Alexander Skarsgård on the Wicker set left her unable to process what she was seeing. The actress and her co-stars broke down the viral costume’s creation and why audiences are responding to the character.
Elizabeth Debicki’s reaction to Alexander Skarsgård’s Wicker costume revealed
Elizabeth Debicki turned “bright red” when she first saw Alexander Skarsgård in his full Wicker costume, she told Varietyin a joint interview with Skarsgård and Olivia Colman.
“I turned the corner, and I was like, ‘Hi, Alex!’ and I went bright red because my brain couldn’t compute what it was seeing,” Debicki said. “I was just like, ‘Oh my God! Welcome to Budapest, I guess.’”
Skarsgård waded through water in full-frontal wicker prosthetics at the time. Award-winning special effects company Wētā Workshop crafted the intricate costume. The team molded the prosthetics from Skarsgård’s actual physique over 18 months. Each day, the actor spent just under two hours putting on the suit.
Colman reacted differently when she first saw the costume. “It was amazing because we’d all been looking at images for 18 months or so, and then to see it in the flesh, it was amazing,” she said. “That [feeling] of, ‘Oh my God, it’s going to work!’”
Skarsgård admitted the stakes felt high before anyone saw the final result. “If it doesn’t quite work, it looks like a horror film because it looks like you cut someone’s face off and glued it onto your own,” he said. “And that wasn’t quite the tone we wanted to go for here.”
Both Debicki and Colman believe the character’s appeal goes beyond appearance. “It’s the soul of the Wicker Husband, which is what I think does it for everyone,” Colman said. Debicki added that audiences are responding because the character “is a really good listener.” She noted he picks up on cues and acts without being asked. “These are the things that women like,” Debicki said.
The fantasy romantic comedy from filmmakers Eleanor Wilson and Alex Huston Fischer also stars Peter Dinklage. Wicker opens in theaters everywhere on Friday.
