“Definitely wasn’t something I thought about, no,” Lighton tells The A.V Club. “I never think, really, about trends when I’m writing.” However, it may have been something A24 was thinking about, having just released Babygirl, another erotically tinged movie exploring power dynamics, last year. “I was sent a link to Babygirl when I was in the edit by A24 because I wanted to make sure that we weren’t doing something completely similar. And actually, weirdly, there was a scene in Babygirl where Harris Dickinson’s character and Nicole Kidman’s character meet and it’s like a dog charges up to Nicole Kidman. We had a kind-of version of that scene, so I did cut that, reacting to Babygirl.”
Viewers of Babygirl will recall a dog charging at Romy (Nicole Kidman) as a key point of introduction between her and her intern-turned-paramour. Similarly, in Pillion, Ray (Alexander Skarsgård) and Colin (Harry Melling) have a first “date” that involves walking their dogs—Ray’s is a large pit bull, and Colin’s a small dachshund. During the chat, the Pillion trio also confirmed that Ray’s tattoos reading “Rosie,” “Wendy,” and “Ellen,” were the names of dogs that Ray had owned at various times. “You’re American, so you should know this,” joked Lighton. “They’re sort of iconic female chat show hosts.” The tattoos were part of crafting the mystery of Ray. “It was kind of fun to sprinkle in things like that. You know, books he’s reading, the music he listens to, that can slightly contradict the stereotype.”
Skarsgård, for his part, seemed genuinely excited to be promoting the movie, a task which began all the way back in May at the film’s Cannes premiere. “I’ve watched this film more times than any film I’ve ever done,” he said. “I obviously love watching myself on screen, but I often just do it once at the first premiere. But I think I’ve seen this four or five times because it can play in so many different ways in so many different rooms depending on the audience. I’ve really enjoyed it, and I’ve really enjoyed talking to people, because people come out of it with lots of opinions and thoughts and questions and it’s been really fascinating. It’s been a long press tour, but I’ve genuinely enjoyed it.”
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