All About Harris Dickinson, From ‘The Iron Claw’ Actor’s Robust Movie Career to Dating Life
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Actor Harris Dickinson’s career has grown bigger and bigger since his breakout role in 2017’s Beach Rats, a movie 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 Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019) to a hotshot quarterback in Where the Crawdads Sing (2022). Most recently, the 27-year-old hopped in the wrestling ring along with Zac Efron and Jeremy Allen White to portray David Von Erich in The Iron Claw, released in December.
Earlier that month, the actor was also spotted on set with Nicole Kidman in New York City filming scenes for the erotic thriller Babygirl, currently in development from distributor A24, and it looks like they have some fascinating scenes together.
Here’s everything to know about the up-and-coming British actor.
Who is Harris Dickinson?
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 his family 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, including teaching kids, 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 [camera],” 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 the 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 your place in the world in a safe space.”
But paid work was slow to start. Dickinson was cast in a Volkswagen commercial and tried going to Los Angeles for pilot season. He told The Guardian that he worked 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.
Harris Dickinson’s Movie and TV Roles
The young actor has been in quite a variety of TV and movie 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 breakout, he has shown off his versatility as an actor, appearing alongside Emma Corrin in the TV drama A Murder at the End of the World and adding a lead role in the award-winning black comedy film Triangle of Sadness (2022). In addition to sporting with Efron and White in The Iron Claw, Dickinson has been cast in the upcoming World War II drama Blitz from Apple TV+, as well as the aforementioned Babygirl alongside Kidman and Antonio Banderas. A release date for either project hasn’t been announced.
Who is Harris Dickinson dating?
Dickinson is, well, mostly private about his private life. He is currently dating musician Rose Gray, whom he met in school, and lives with her in London. Dickinson even directed a video for one of her latest songs, “Afraid Of Nothing.”
The couple don’t have any children, though Dickinson referenced in 2022 they are fur parents to a British shorthair cat named Misty Blue. “He’s a lot of work—he’s a prince, but he’s worth it,” he told The Guardian.
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