David Dawson opens up about working with director Michael Grandage and getting intimate with Harry Styles in MyPoliceman.
in the romantic drama—had spent the first few months of rehearsals in 2020 running lines over Zoom. When the cast was finally able to get together in person, director Michael Grandage devised an unexpected meet cute for the actors.
Rehearsals continued in the spirit of Styles, Corrin, and Dawson’s first meeting: Grandage split up Dawson and Styles to read together, separate from Corrin, who did their scenes individually with Styles and Dawson as well. “You only knew as much as your character knew,” Dawson explains. “I found it incredibly effective, especially in terms of the secrets that are kept in the film.”
“Patrick has to, out of necessity, lead two very different lives,” Dawson says. “The public life, which enables him to not only survive but to thrive–you know, he’s an ambitious person—and then to explore the private side of the man and the vulnerabilities of him: a man who, like everybody, just wants to find love.”