Quickie with Harry Lighton
Cheeky director puts pups on the red carpet
Pups on the red carpet? Yes, please. This week, Harry Lighton’s kinky debut feature film, ‘Pillion’, is out in the UK after much anticipation, thanks to its leather-friendly press tour. Based on the novella ‘Box Hill’ by Adam Mars Jones, it follows a shy guy who meets a hot biker and quickly becomes his devoted sub. Swedish sexpot Alexander Skarsgård — leather clad, cock pierced — plays Ray, the dom. Harry Melling of Harry Potter fame plays Colin, the sub. Much sweeter than the film may suggest, and fresh off a train from Manchester, where he presented the film at a preview screening, the 33-year-old director met with BUTT reporter Douglas Greenwood at the Admiral Duncan, famous gay watering-hole in London’s Soho.
Hi, Harry! Are you typically a Soho fag?
When I first moved to London I used to come into Soho but never found my niche. These days my club is Coven, but I’m mostly a music festival guy, in terms of socializing in faggy environments. I don’t give a fuck about the headliners at Glastonbury. I’ll turn up at NYC Downlow and get my moustache on and leave eight hours later.
‘Pillion’ has had some surprise screenings at big chain cinemas, and I heard some audience members left after the first blowjob scene.
That’s, like, 15 minutes in.
Exactly. Did you want to coax that discomfort out of people?
I never tried to comfort the audience in the sex scenes, but I wanted to hug the audience in other ways, by playing with those contrasts of Christmas and skull fucking in an alley. Some syrup and then some spice.
Would you have been sad if the movie didn’t get an 18+ rating?
Fuck yeah.
One of the reasons, according to the British Board of Film Classification: “There is sight of semen”.
We didn’t have to edit the UK release, but we had to change it for the US audiences. We had to color grade the cum in a way that it could get past the licensing system.
If you could change bodies with someone for seven minutes, who would it be and what would you do?
I’d change bodies with a 2000s – crucially, not contemporary – professional wrestler Dave Bautista and I’d just look in the mirror.
That’s your type?
That’s my type. Well, my first crush was Groundskeeper Willie from ‘The Simpsons’, then for a bit, my type got bigger and bigger. My imagination was on steroids. But I feel like that era is ending and my desires are expanding. That’s a relief for me, because there’s only so many people who look like Bautista in the world.
I’m discovering that I’m vain. Gay guys tend to be vain.
How quickly do you fall in love?
Slower than anyone I’ve ever met. I think I’m quite an emotionally complicated person. When I made ‘Pillion’, I kind of identified with both characters, but when it came to love, I identified a lot with Ray’s character. It felt like an alien thing. And then I met someone very early on in the edit of ‘Pillion’ and fell deeply in love with him very quickly. It was weird to experience what my mates had told me they experienced when they were 15 at 32. I felt psychotic, standing over my phone until I got a text from him. But it didn’t work out.
What about gay life do you not give a fuck about?
The obsession with straight white teeth. Invisalign = internalized homophobia. Hair transplants are queer as fuck.
What about gay life do you give a shit about?
The breadth of kink. And girl bands. Specifically The Saturdays’ megamix.
Can you recommend a book for me?
‘Perv’ by Jesse Berring.
You’re one of the filmmakers at the center of the hot director discourse. What’s it like to be perceived?
I’m discovering that I’m vain. Gay guys tend to be vain. But when you see photos of yourself all the time – which is like, the first time this has ever happened to me – I’ve realized I only want my photograph to be taken from a certain angle. I know people talk about getting objectified and the problems of it – people who aren’t a director who’s made a small film and is experiencing it for a week – but I love it when people send me the flame emoji on Instagram.
What are you doing tonight?
My flatmate is a deejay and she hosts a party called Scuttlebutt. I’ve been away a lot with the film, and it’s been nice to come home to someone who’s so lovely. So I’m going to party.
And what are you doing after ‘Pillion’?
I can’t tell you yet!
Did you make Pillion with a specific audience in mind?
Fuck yeah. I think Pillion is a film for both whores and virgins. You know, it’s a film which celebrates people who take real pride in getting their rocks off exactly the way they want to. But it also, hopefully, holds a light up to people who find sex nervous. Everyone’s invited.
