Harris Dickinson on joining the exciting King’s Man universe

The rising star plays a World War I soldier in Matthew Vaughan’s wild story that mixes history and fiction.

The Kingsman cinematic universe launched back in 2014, where we met Colin Firth’s Harry Hart, and then newcomer Taron Egerton’s Eggsy Unwin. We can only hope that the same career trajectory for Egerton happens for The King’s Man’s Harris Dickinson, who stars in the prequel – a story that sets up how the Kingsman secret service was formed. Dickinson is an up-and-coming actor who fans of indie films may recognize from Beach Rats or The Souvenir Part II. He also starred in Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, playing Prince Philip. It was the Kingsman: The Secret Service that launched Egerton to mainstream audiences, and it’ll likely be The King’s Man that does the same for Dickinson.

The King’s Man is set during World War I, with Ralph Fiennes playing Orlando, The Duke of Oxford and in the end, the creator of The Kingsman secret service. A pacificist whose wife died in a war battle in front of his young son, Orlando swore he would never let his son encounter war again. But when World War I rolls along and his son, Conrad (Dickinson) is nearly of age to go to battle, it becomes hard for Orlando to stop him, and that becomes a big conflict for the father and son.

We spoke to Dickinson about joining the Kingsman universe, and he was very excited to become a part of this world, saying “I was excited to join this universe. I was also excited by the fact that there was new characters, it was a new world, there was some history. Ralph Fiennes leading the charge is big enough appeal for me. So many amazing people in it, such a brilliant ensemble cast. I think when you work on a film of this size there’s just incredible people that come and collaborate on it, whether that’s the cast, the HODs, the set designers, the stunt department, so to collaborate on something like that and be a part of that, it’s just cool.”

And it’s certainly a big, flashy film, with an impressive ensemble cast including Fiennes, Gemma Arterton, Djimon Hounsou, Matthew Goode, Stanley Tucci, Daniel Bruhl, and Rhys Ifans – who is unrecognizable as the Russian healer/villain Rasputin. Ifans is a complete scene-stealer in this, and a lot of the comedy in the film comes from his performance as a rogue working for a mysterious leader who sets World War I into motion. We asked Harris about working with Ifans, to which he said “Rhys is like, in real life, he’s such a kind, funny, giving person, so the transformation he made into Rasputin, it was amazing. Physically he changed himself, he changed his voice…it was just impressive to watch and so entertaining. There were certain scenes where he was playing off of me and I couldn’t hold it down because of how funny he was.”



In The King’s Man, Dickinson’s character Conrad goes to war and his scenes in the trenches of World War I are very intense. We asked Dickinson about preparing for playing the role of a soldier, and he said “We had a lot of historians on the film, we had a lot of military advisors, we had a brilliant advisor who was ex-special forces. He’d take me up in the woods and we’d do a lot of military drills. He was so experienced to the point where I’d be about to complain about my sore wrist and he’d start telling a story about his time in the jungles in Indonesia, how he hadn’t slept for 8 days, and I’d have no room here to complain. Perspective is a mighty thing. But it was a lot of prep, a lot of physical training, it was great you know, a brilliant part of the job, you get to learn these new skills.”

But another challenge for a movie like this is balancing the comedy and the drama. The King’s Man is a whole lot of fun for a film set during the war, but it manages to be serious when it needs to be, and outrageous in just the right number of doses. Dickinson spoke to that balance, saying “I feel like dancing between comedy and drama is something we do in our day to day lives anyways, I know a lot of people that always turn to humour when things get really hard. Our initial reaction with severe situations is often to laugh or smile, cause it feels like it’s the thing that’s going to cut through. It’s part of us.”

Dickinson doesn’t just do a dance between comedy and drama, but a dance between independent and studio films. It’s fun to watch this talented actor jump in between art-house films and bigger studio films – why not do both, right? We asked him about how the two compare, and he said “I think, it’s different isn’t it? The quantity of people. The scale, the amount of money that’s put into things. Everything changes with a bigger budget. There’s a little more pressure. It feels like you’re contesting with a few more obstacles in terms of trying to tell a story. I feel a little more nervous when there’s more people, more things going on, the stakes always feel a little bit higher. But also it’s nice to do both because it flexes different muscles. There’s not many films where I get to learn all these skills and physically be tested. It’s different things, and Indie films will always be something I do because I love them, I love cinema, I love art house cinema.”

Dickinson surely can do both, and we’re certain we’ll be seeing a lot more of the talented actor. For The King’s Man, he just hopes that audiences will have a lot of fun with it, saying “I suppose they should take away, a great deal of pleasure and entertainment. I hope people enjoy it, it’s one of those films that can be viewed with your friends and family on the big screen, I think it needs to be seen on the big screen, it’s a big spectacle with a mix of worlds and characters and stories..”

The King’s Man opens in theatres on December 22nd. Click here for tickets.