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Actor Harris Dickinson’s career has grown bigger and bigger since his breakout role in 2017’s Beach Rats, a film that nabbed him a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead. Since then, he’s had roles in a variety of projects, from playing a prince in Malificent to a quarterback in Where the Crawdads Sing. Earlier in December, the actor was filming a developing project with Nicole Kidman in New York City, and it looks like they have some fascinating scenes together.
Here’s everything to know about this up-and-coming British actor.
Who is Harris Dickinson?
Harris Dickinson was born on June 24, 1996, in Leytonstone, an area of East London. He said in an interview with GQ that the neighborhood was quiet, but close to a highway that made them a target for thieves needing a quick getaway route.
“Our car got stolen a few times, and our house got burgled,” he said. “Someone robbed a bank once, ran up the road and held a gun up to my mum’s head.”
He attended the Ravensbourne School, and worked part time from the age of 14 in various jobs, from teaching kids to working in a cafe, catering, and hotel work. He already had an interest in performing but tried to find a way into the industry in production, working occasionally as a second assistant camera operator for music videos and documentaries.
“I was with my little DSLR,” he explained. “And they gave me a budget and a kit list. It was way over my head. I lied and said I was more experienced than I was.”
He said on Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky in 2022 that he originally wanted to be in the marines.
“I was in the Marine cadets from age, like, 14, and I really enjoyed it. It sort of gave me this purpose that I otherwise didn’t have, and acting was something I was simultaneously doing. But I never imagined it would be a career,” he said. “It was weird because even at a young age, we used to go on these training camps, and we were shooting rifles and stuff.”
How did he get his start as an actor?
Dickinson attended a performing arts club called the Raw Academy in Walthamstow through his teen years, which led to him being cast in a play called Angels by actor Pauline McLynn. He was only 18 when he performed it at the National Theatre and got an agent.
He was also accepted into the Royal Academy theatre school in London. He said of the experience, “It was brilliant. That was the place you could go, and there was no judgement. You could be yourself. It gives you a chance to work out these things, especially when you’re a young man figuring out who you are, and you place in the world in a safe space.”
But paid work was slow to start. Dickinson was cast in a Volkswagon commercial and tried going to Los Angeles for pilot season. He told the Guardian that he would work at Hollister to save money for his trips back and forth, hoping for a break.
“I remember, I’d be in the basement folding clothes, and I’d get a call from an unknown number,” he said. “And an unknown number always meant it was my agent. So every time, I thought: ‘This is it! I’m out of here!’ And I’d rush upstairs and listen to the voicemail and they’d be like: ‘Yeah, you didn’t get it.’”
He added that he went on to work in a hotel, but had to leave for a role, explaining, “I got some pilot, and I told the hotel: ‘Sorry, guys, that’s me! I’m off to Hollywood!’ Then two months later I had to waddle back in and ask for my job back.”
It wasn’t until 2017 that he was cast in Beach Rats.
“Beach Rats ended up being my first film and then, you know, it won Sundance Festival and ironically it was the one that I came home for and did back in my childhood bedroom,” he said.
What else has Harris Dickinson been in?
The young actor has been in quite a variety of TV and film projects. Of his work choices, Dickinson said, “I had an argument with someone once who was trying to say that you have to do everything from a place of absolute artistic integrity. And I said, ‘I think that’s a very privileged point of view.’ If you look at actors that have been able to only do good work from the very beginning of their career, most of the time there’s some privilege there, which implies another element of support.”
Since his big breakout, he seems to be in loads of projects: acting alongside Emma Corrin in A Murder at the End of the World, sporting with Zac Efron and Jeremy Allen White in The Iron Claw, performing in WWII drama Blitz, playing a superhero in The Eternals, plus the having a role in the award-winning Triangle of Sadness. He’s also starring in upcoming A24 erotic thriller Babygirl with Kidman and Antonio Banderas.
Who has Harris Dickinson dated?
Dickinson is fairly private about his private life, but it’s believed he is dating musician Rose Gray, and lives with her in London.
Aimée Lutkin is the weekend editor at ELLE.com. Her writing has appeared in Jezebel, Glamour, Marie Claire and more. Her first book, The Lonely Hunter, will be released by Dial Press in February 2022.