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Action shots from the beachy Brighton, England, set of My Policeman first began trickling in more than a year ago, thanks to the star power of Harry Styles (in full retro-bobby costume) and The Crown’s former Diana, Emma Corrin. But it is the scene-stealing third member of the drama’s love triangle—British actor David Dawson—who is likely to earn a legion of new fans when My Policeman premieres in theaters on Friday and makes its streaming debut on Prime Video on October 29.
Dawson, a television and stage actor best known for British series The Last Kingdom and Ripper Street, brings gravitas to the film as Patrick Hazlewood, an intellectually dazzling art curator who falls for Styles’s titular policeman, Tom Burgess, and broadens Tom’s perspective on culture, travel, and his suppressed queer identity. Further complicating matters: Patrick (who is played in his elder years by Rupert Everett) also forges a kinship with Tom’s wife, Marion (Corrin). Dawson faithfully captures the erudite, expressive Patrick first created by author Bethan Roberts in the 2012 novel on which the movie is based, as well as the agony and longing of the character hiding his true self in 1950s Britain, when homosexuality was still illegal.
Vogue recently spoke with Dawson via Zoom about learning his country’s dark history, bonding with Styles and Corrin, and the sex scenes the internet can’t stop talking about.
Vogue: When you first read the script for My Policeman, what did you respond to most strongly?
David Dawson: Well, I didn’t know an awful lot about this period in my own country’s history, and as someone who’s fascinated by our past and how we can learn from it, that was one of the reasons I was excited—also to play somebody who is living during a time where it’s very difficult to be yourself. How can they not only survive but thrive during this time and achieve their life’s ambitions and find happiness and love and passion? That’s what drew me to want to play Patrick.
We’re both 40. It’s pretty astounding—although I guess it shouldn’t be—that within our parents’ lifetimes, it was essentially illegal to be gay in the U.K. Working on the film, did you reckon with that?
The more research I did, it kind of got into my gut. I watched a beautiful docudrama the BBC made called Against the Law, with a lot of gay men who had lived during that time. It was incredibly moving and eye-opening in terms of what people had to go through. But what I equally found inspiring was the determination and strength to continue to find joy. I really searched into: What is a safe space for somebody who has no affirmation in their life that to be themselves is good and right? I looked into the history of gay bars as safe spaces because Patrick frequents one in Brighton. That feeling, to walk into this secret space and find people who are just as intelligent and bright and ambitious and passionate as you, how would that have felt? I certainly came away from this film, as a gay man myself, with a greater feeling of acknowledging the privilege that I have, the freedoms and rights that I have. I’m getting married next year…
Congratulations!
Thank you very much. But yeah, [I want] to acknowledge what’s been fought for and achieved over the years to allow my generation to have what we have.
This became one of those movies that was relentlessly documented while you were shooting. Was that an obstacle in any way? Did it feel like pressure?
It was a brand-new experience. Everything I’ve filmed beforehand, you’ve worked on a set that’s closed. Like, I did The Last Kingdom, and they built medieval Winchester in the middle of the Hungarian countryside, but this was bang right on the beautiful streets of Brighton. It reminded me—because I love working on the stage as well—of having a live audience. What I found very moving, actually, and surprising was that all of these people came to watch Harry work or to see what the film was about, but they were incredibly respectful. You could hear a pin drop when we were working.
My Policeman is truly a love triangle. Even though the real romance is between Patrick and Tom, I feel like there’s love or something like it between Patrick and Marion too. What did you make of their relationship?
I’m glad you asked that. There’s a scene in the film that really sticks out to me, where we’re having dinner and Marion’s talking about wanting to continue her career once she’s married. I think Patrick has a growing admiration for this young woman in 1950s Britain who wants to continue a career and achieve her intellectual goals away from just being a supporter of her husband. Patrick’s quite progressive, so I think he sees a fellow person who’s hungry to learn more about life. He has an enormous respect for Marion, which makes the triangle far more complex and difficult, the more fondness he has for her.
So much of this torturous love story hinges on the chemistry between you and Harry Styles. I’ve read you both saying that it took a lot of trust. How do you build that trust?
When I read the script, I hoped upon hope that the person that I was going be on this journey with is someone you can trust and somebody down-to-earth, who will support you and you can support them throughout this process. From day one, I got all of that in Harry. Yes, we promised each other very early on that we would continue to check in all the time, to ensure that we had each other’s backs, because some of the scenes can be vulnerable emotionally as well. So I greatly appreciate the fact that we were constantly in communication.
We made this during COVID, so normally the great joy of filming is when you wrap at the end of the day and you can go for dinner or have a drink, and we weren’t allowed to do that. But [director] Michael [Grandage] created a three-week rehearsal process, so the three of us—me, Harry, and Emma—got to spend an awful lot of time together. In a room from nine till six every day, you get to know each other very well. Michael’s really big on collaboration in his scenes, so that bond and that chemistry was forged quite early. We did have a little gap where me and Emma got to walk our dogs together, like a two-week hiatus when it was safe to do so.
You’ve said that you and Harry are “two Northern lads.” As an American, I would love to know what that means. What are the characteristics of a Northern lad?
I’m from a little town in the northwest, an industrial town called Widnes, and he grew up in Holmes Chapel, which I think is about 20 minutes away. But a good Northern lad, I don’t know. I’m a proud Northern lad, so maybe I’ve associated it with having feet on the ground, being down-to-earth, that kind of thing.
In terms of some of those vulnerable scenes, I’m curious about your experience working with the film’s intimacy coordinator, Ben Wright. What did that process look like for you and Harry?
Michael brought on board Ben Wright, who was a choreographer that he’d worked with before in the theater. Very early on, we got together, the four of us in a room, and discussed exactly what we wanted those scenes to be. We wanted a story to be told throughout, a growing and deepening of love and feelings and longing. We discussed it and created a kind of beautiful dance together, the four of us. He said something really powerful, actually, the intimacy coordinator. He said, “Anything that we decide on in this rehearsal room and we find that we’re happy with, if on set you are no longer comfortable with it, then that’s perfectly fine and we’ll sort out something else.” That gave an awful lot of empowerment to what we were doing. It made you feel incredibly supported at all times.
Writers whom I’ve talked to about their sex scenes have told me that they try to make sure that they’re putting them in for a reason, to advance the story or convey something more about the characters. What do you think the sex scenes are conveying in My Policeman?
Well, I think in terms of the story as a whole, for the character of Tom Burgess, it’s a massive, very long journey of self-discovery, so I suppose all of the scenes are part of that journey.
Did you get a chance to interact with Rupert Everett, who plays elder Patrick?
Sadly, we were in two very separate bubbles—the film was incredibly impressive in terms of COVID policy. But Michael encouraged us to get on the phone in the early weeks of rehearsal to have a private conversation with our older selves, and it was wonderful to get on the phone with Rupert. I’ve been a fan of his for years, so we had two hours on the phone and we discussed Patrick, and I got to ask him all about his life in theater. I saw him in a wonderful play called Judas Kiss about Oscar Wilde a few years ago. I picked his brain about that.
People are coming to the film knowing a very famous pop star and Emma Corrin from The Crown, but I think they are going to leave as new fans of yours. How are you feeling about the movie coming out, especially after all of the attention surrounding it beforehand?
I’d never done a red carpet before. I’m trying to treat it as a new, big adventure that I’m trying to, as a shy lad, fully embrace as much as I can. The more people that we can bring to see this story and learn about a time period that maybe they didn’t know about—my biggest hope is that it can be, even in a tiny way, a part of the conversation in which we learn from our past in order to move forward.
Red carpets are tough if you’re shy.
Well, actually, in Toronto, that was one of my favorite moments. We walked out, and there were thousands of people that had come to support Harry and the film, and it was quite a moving experience, actually, just how many people had come along to see it. It’s something that will stay in my head forever. Even when I’m an old man, I’ll look back and go, “That was fucking cool.”
This interview has been edited and condensed.