Cannes Rendezvous With Harris Dickinson

Harris Dickinson has the daunting task of bringing music icon John Lennon back to life, on screen, for the four-part Sam Mendes Beatles biopic, rumoured to start filming this summer.

But there can be few prospects more daunting for an actor than to unveil a passion project that also happens to be his directorial debut and then wait for the critical and public response.

‘Everyone wants to direct’ they say, but few actually do it and do it sufficiently well to be hailed as a major new filmmaking voice in the industry.

With Urchin, a film about a homeless man trying to turn his life around, Dickinson has managed it. Reviews have been very positive, with his bold filmmaking vision particularly praised. His lead actor Frank Dillane won Best Actor in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival 2025. And the film itself won the FIPRESCI (International Federation of Film Critics) prize.

I caught up with the man himself at the Festival where the film premiered when he dropped by the UK pavilion, in the International Village which sets up home along the beach during the festival, to talk about it.

The day before, I had spoken to Marielle Heller, director of Nightbitch. She had made the point that some directors are ‘frightened’ of actors but, that as an actress herself, she had a different rapport with them when directing.

So, I asked Harris Dickinson about his relationship with his cast for Urchin, not just the lead Frank Dillane but all the actors and whether he’d ever been tempted to tell them how he might have played a particular scene.

Dickinson: I do think this goes with all directors but sometimes a writer/director, particularly, has a specific intonation or feeling behind the line they’ve written, they want. As an actor, I welcome that from a director because sometimes it can unlock something. So, sometimes Frank would ask for that, as in where is this coming from in a feeling way? I would never give him the line as how I might do it but sometimes by talking it through you can unlock a little something that no one else understands. But actors, we’re vulnerable, we’re a bit mad and each actor is so different too. Everyone is unique in what they need from the process. and they navigate a role very differently. So directing has definitely given me a lot of insight into what I feel is productive on set, what is positive and what is negative. I’ve had both sides of it now.”

Urchin is not Dickinson’s first foray into filmmaking, albeit it is his first at a professional level. In his teens he made skate videos, sketch shows and short dramas with the help of family and friends which he uploaded onto YouTube but has since deleted. He didn’t appear in any of them, however, so acting came as a secondary interest for him. He has, of course, achieved considerable success in the field with Triangle of Sadness in which he starred, winning the Palme D’Or at Cannes 2022 and Babygirl, his film with Nicole Kidman receiving much acclaim. However, he said that, despite acting overtaking it, his love of filmmaking remained strong and was a driver for him being on set.

Urchin was a personal project for him because he had known people with addiction issues whose cyclical behaviour overwhelmed them. He was interested in the idea of someone struggling against himself as much as the world and wanted to tap into the psychology of it but with a level of humour too so that it was not a message movie or a political one.

Before the pandemic in 2020, he had worked at a community project helping rough sleepers, so he had some knowledge of that world and wanted to tell a story about it in what he hoped would be a compassionate way, with a level of integrity.

The project involved 4 years of research and multiple people inspired the final story he wrote.

“That dark place is somewhere we can all tap into.”

The film didn’t have a big budget. Filming itself was a challenge, with the 28 day shoot covering 39 locations! In order to do it all, sometimes shooting went on until 4 in the morning. However, Josee Deshaies, his Director of Photography, described Dickinson as a ‘perfect’ director in the sense that he was very collaborative, unpretentious, hard working and someone who never stopped thinking about how to make the film better.

Dickinson himself was more modest, saying:

“I’m still learning. I hope people watch the film and go on a human journey with Mike (Frank Dillane) not a political one. It’s not our job as filmmakers to solve issues. We make cinema and tell stories.”

Asked if he would like to direct another film, he said:

“If I get the opportunity to do it again I’d love to make another film.”

With the hugely positive reception for Urchin, directing offers are as likely to flood in for Harris Dickinson as the acting ones. I wish him and the film much success. And a personal shoutout to him for patiently helping me take the selfie of us, on the Croisette, when I kept getting it wrong – great directing skills, see!