Harris Dickinson and Frank Dillane are now friends after shooting Dickinson’s directorial debut Urchin, which Dickinson describes as a miracle.

The London-set film follows Mike, played by British actor Dillane, whom audiences might know from Fear the Walking Dead, Renegade Nell or as young Voldemort in Harry Potter and the Half Blood-Prince.

A drifter, he sleeps on the city streets and attempts to patch together his life while caught in the throes of addiction. In between working as a chef, litter-picker, Mike relies on meditative tapes and his social worker to get sober.

 

“I think people’s tolerance for stories like this is low, because they don’t want to look at the other side of certain social issues,” Dickinson say.

His inspiration was an “amalgamation” of people he’s crossed, but some introspective work was done, as well. “Mike represents people that I’d worked with in the community and people close to me, and the darkest versions of the things we’ve encountered within ourselves as well.”

Dickinson, who recently earned good reviews for playing Nicole Kidman’s object of desire in A24’s Babygirl, recalls his last Cannes Film Festival. “It was five or six meetings a day of me essentially begging for money and telling the story with my whole heart and trying to convince hungover, tired and bored execs of my wonderful idea,” he says of the time he spent in 2023.

Thankfully, seemingly disinterested execs finally wavered. “I was really excited by the prospect of the film and the story that Harris had created,” Dillane says. “It’s not necessarily a Hollywood story… It’s about someone struggling with themselves and trying to own their demons.”

In conversation, Dickinson and Dillane bro down about their time filming Urchin, which is being repped in Cannes by Charades.

Dillane discusses what he expects from audiences who watch Mike while Dickinson explains balancing stardom with his directing dreams and making a movie about an addict in a precarious film industry and polarized world: “I think stories like this are getting harder to tell and they’re difficult subjects that still need to be tackled within cinema.”

HARRIS DICKINSON I started writing it about six years ago. Mike was always a character in it, but originally it was a loose two-hander, a different form, but I really needed it to be Mike’s story. And I think Mike, throughout the years, became an amalgamation of all different types of people that had crossed into and out of my life. People that I’d worked with in the community and people close to me and the darkest versions of the things we’ve encountered within ourselves as well, I guess. I just became really fascinated to try and tell a story about one man ultimately just battling with himself. Despite his and everyone else’s best efforts to get out of a cycle. That then became the focus: “How do we follow Mike and go on a journey with someone that is immoral and badly behaved and unkind, but also lovable and charming and trying to survive?” He constantly evolved up until we were working and then Frank brought him alive.

DICKINSON: We auditioned Frank. I’d seen Frank years before. I’d seen Frank years before in The Walking Dead spin-off Fear the Walking Dead. I was always fascinated by that performance, because I loved that series. I remember being like, “Wow, this guy is really fascinating. And then I found out he’s from the U.K. But I never encountered Frank, and then casting director Shaheen Baig had worked with Frank, and she brought him in after a long period of meeting people and trying to find our actor. We knew that Frank was the person immediately.

Frank’s first reaction to the script?

FRANK DILLANE I was really excited by the prospect of the film and the story that Harris had created, the themes he had instilled in the script were not the kinds of things you read every day. It’s not necessarily, for want of a better word, a Hollywood story in some way. As Harris [said], it’s about someone struggling with themselves and trying to own their demons, their humanity and trying to navigate their way through what it’s like to be a human being in a difficult situation. So there was a certain amount of trepidation I felt. I felt a great responsibility to do this vulnerable character justice. And I really was just very excited about the prospect of working with Harris. I’d known his work as an actor, and similarly, was intrigued and taken with the way he approached his work. I remember in Triangle of Sadness… I mean, Harris just spoke about Mike [and said] he’s a bit immoral at times, does things that are questionable, but ultimately we empathize with him. I remember thinking the similar thing with Harris’s performance in Triangle of Sadness. And having seen Harris’s [2021] short film 2003, I knew I had the possibility of working with a really serious and good artist.

Harris Dickinson the director?

DILLANE: He created a really safe environment for us to play and explore. He always was very clear that he wanted to experiment, and we would try different things. Harris was always very keen to approach the scene differently. He always kept a very close eye on things that I would maybe miss. In terms of one thing that I really struggled with this part, this film, was staying optimistic. The whole thing relies on Mike continually hoping, continually believing. And there were times when I found that difficult to believe and to hope, as the character, and Harris would always come by and instill a little bit of humor in the situation… I think we complemented each other quite well.

DICKINSON: I wanted to direct before I wanted to act. I’ve been making short films since I was eight, nine years old: skate videos, films in the forest, web series. And I think they’ve obviously coincided with each other in terms of just making stuff with other people. Once I made my short, I think Urchin took about four or five years to write and get made and get financed, but I was doing that on the side. Writing has always been something that I’ve quietly been able to do. There is a lot of downtime on set. It was the perfect complement to being an actor as well and having a desire to do a bit more. I don’t think you can give yourself to that many characters at once. I don’t you can do project after project after project. It seems like I’ve been doing more than I have. [But] I’ve only really done a project a year for the last few years. I finished Babygirl in February 2024, I came home to London, and then we were in [Urchin] prep from March. We shot in May, June, and I edited all the way until January, and then we were in post until February. That was a full year of just Urchin, and the way I wanted it to be. That was my sole focus for that period. It’s always going to be an adjustment for people who have known me as an actor, but for me, that’s been my goal. And the dream was to do full-length film, and hopefully, I get to do it again. If someone lets me, I’ve got something ready to go.

DICKINSON There’s a certain amount of collaboration, the early involvement in an idea from start to finish, that acting doesn’t always allow. Really, specifically with Urchin, I wanted Frank to be a part of it from early doors. So we started working together from six months or so before we actually went into principal photography, because I wanted Frank’s view into the film. But that’s not always the case. I think with acting, sometimes you’re sort of brought on, you get a couple of weeks beforehand, maybe you do a little rehearsal, you do your job, and then you go.

A big part of directing is getting to build your own team, to surround yourself with amazing artists that support your vision and that look to you for answers. It’s a dream because it really means you’re exercising creative exploration, and you’re getting to dig deep within yourself for ideas. With acting, that level of intricate detail isn’t always there. You go home and you continue to think about how it’s going to work [with directing], whereas with acting on other jobs, I’ve had too much time waiting around. I’m grateful to act and I love it and continue to do it, but this opportunity to lead, it challenged me in new ways.

DICKINSON We had an actor drop out and then it was too close to the shoot. We offered it to a few people that didn’t work out. And then after a while, I said to Frank, “Hey, what do you think about me doing it?” Because we’d already been reading it as well, rehearsing a little bit and throwing it around. I never liked the idea of doing it, I never wanted to be in it. So we said, “Okay, let’s just go away and, like, forget about this for a second.” And then the next day, late at night, Frank called me. He was like, “You have to do it.”

It was fun getting to do Frank. We had a good time, and I think we already had that trust. The crux of their relationship was the fact that there was history there. They were in it together at some point. Nathan was supposed to be this example of how low things had got… There were days, with the big fight scene, and I’d be whispering things to Frank as we were rolling around on the floor.

People like Mike, on the fringes of society, are usually shown less empathy 

DICKINSON: I think there are two sides of it. I think people’s tolerance for stories like this is often low because they don’t want to look at the other side of certain social issues. I don’t see this film as a force-feeding of moral explanation or political judgment on how people should be. This is about the individual. This is about Mike’s character and us gaining some insight into someone going through that. I think stories like this are [getting] harder to tell, and they’re difficult subjects, and that’s that still needs to be tackled within cinema, but the brutality of it is, and the confrontational elements of these themes are, always going to be difficult for people. They’re always going to be precarious and harder to stomach. But that doesn’t mean we can’t tell these kinds of stories, and it gives us more responsibility to tell them with a full, human approach with humility and empathy around the rough edges.

Hollywood becoming more risk-averse in telling downbeat stories?

DICKINSON  I think cinema is still pushing boundaries and still pushing the envelope of what’s possible. If you’re looking to bigger, tentpole cinema, that’s not gonna break the boundaries of cinema, but I don’t think anyone expects that of a certain kind of film. You have to look to different genres. I don’t know. Maybe. It’s a much bigger conversation, but it’s also such a broad question. Because I still watch cinema that is confrontational and provocative and challenging, but maybe those sorts of films aren’t in many theaters. It’s weighing up the scale of what people want… And what people go and actually watch. It’s a hard one.

DILLANE I hope we make people feel. I hope people feel for my character. Harris alluded to this idea that Mike is ambiguous. At times, you may like him, or you might hate him. You may dislike the things he does or the ways he behaves. But you know that there is a humanity to Mike that I think we all share. You take away from a human being certain essentials, like somewhere to live, or a family or a community that supports you — if you strip these things away and you’re struggling with your own demons, anyone can end up in Mike’s position. Mike is not a particular person. We all have a Mike inside us. There is the want to be loved, to be understood, to be accepted, the want of friends. We also have inside us feelings of being rejected, feeling upset, feeling hurt, maybe behaving in ways you wish you hadn’t behaved. These are universal human traits, and I hope that the film humanizes us and, I’m worried about using this word, people who are maybe sleeping a little bit rough. People in worse situations than you. One thing that’s very dangerous that we, as human beings, have to look out for is when we start to dehumanize people and start to imagine people don’t have feelings, or people are not hurting or trying. It’s much easier to sideline people if they are not human, but we are all human, and I hope that this story reminds me of our humanity.

Reaction to choice of Urchin in Cannes?