Harry Styles Receives First Acting Award at TIFF for ‘My Policeman’
Harry Styles has been quietly moving from music to acting with several appearances in prolific films. While his upcoming movie Don’t Worry Darling has been wrought with scandal, his other movie, My Policeman, has been far less controversial. My Policeman recently appeared at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival), where Harry Styles won his first acting award.
Harry Styles stars as a gay policeman in ‘My Policeman’
My Policeman is an upcoming romantic drama from Amazon Studios directed by Michael Grandage. My Policeman stars Harry Styles as Tom Burgress, a gay policeman married to a school teacher (Emma Corrin). He’s also in a secret love affair with a museum curator (David Dawson). Set in 1950s Brighton, England, Tom’s secret relationship could create devastating problems in a society where it is looked down upon.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Styles described the movie as being about “love” and “wasted time.”
“It’s obviously pretty unfathomable now to think, ‘Oh, you couldn’t be gay. That was illegal.’ I think everyone, including myself, has your own journey with figuring out sexuality and getting more comfortable with it. It’s not like, ‘This is a gay story about these guys being gay.’ It’s about love and about wasted time to me.”
Harry Styles wins his first acting award at TIFF
My Policeman recently premiered at TIFF and earned mixed reactions from critics. Despite the response, Styles and the rest of the cast of My Policeman received the ensemble award at the festival’s Tribute Awards on Sunday night. This marks the first time the pop singer has received acclaim for his acting, even if it is an award meant for the whole cast.
“Thank you so much to everyone here, on behalf of all of us, for this wonderful, wonderful award,” Styles said in his speech per Variety. “We all loved working on this film so much. And we hope you enjoy it.”
Other recipients at the ceremony included director Sam Mendes for his movie Empire of Light and Brendan Fraser for The Whale. Michelle Yeoh, star of Everything Everywhere All At Once, also received the Journey Groundbreaker Award.
Styles addresses backlash he received for playing a gay character
Despite receiving praise for his performance in My Policeman, Harry Styles has received allegations of “queerbaiting.” “Queerbaiting” means marketing yourself as a member of the LGBTQ community without being a part of the community. Styles has never confirmed his sexual orientation, but he has been dating Don’t Worry Darling director Olivia Wilde. The two have been seen together publicly, but Styles believes that still doesn’t confirm his sexuality.
“Sometimes people say, ‘You’ve only publicly been with women,’ and I don’t think I’ve publicly been with anyone,” Styles shared. “If someone takes a picture of you with someone, it doesn’t mean you’re choosing to have a public relationship or something.”
My Policeman will arrive in select theaters on Oct. 21 and will be available to stream on Amazon Prime Video on Nov. 4.
