Pop star Harry Styles may be in one of the most hotly anticipated movies at the Venice Film Festival, but he still considers himself a newbie in the acting world.
The musician told journalists in Venice: “Music I’ve done a little longer so I’m a bit more comfortable. What I like about acting is I feel like I have no idea what I’m doing.”
The “Don’t Worry Darling” star said he considers music and acting to be “opposite in a lot of ways.”
“Making music is a really personal thing,” said Styles, who was speaking at a press conference for the Warner Bros. Discovery movie on Monday afternoon. He was joined by his co-stars Gemma Chan and Chris Pine, and his director and rumored girlfriend Olivia Wilde.
“There are aspects of acting where you’re drawing form experiences a bit, but for the most part you’re pretending to play someone else,” said the 28-year-old. “That’s what I find the most interesting about it. They can aid each other in a way. Any time you get to view the world through a different lens, it can help to create whichever way it goes. I find it really different. I think the fun part is that you never know what you’re doing in either one of them.”
Styles received the most questions from journalists than anyone else in the press conference — quite a feat considering the drama surrounding the movie — with international reporters eager to hear about the “As It Was” singer’s Hollywood ambitions.
“It’s fun to play in worlds that aren’t necessary your own,” said Styles. “This world [of ‘Don’t Worry Darling’] is supposedly so perfect; it was fun to play pretend in it. It’s like driving fun cars, a lot of fun stuff as well. We were lucky to have that world built so well around us, so we could play in reality instead of pretending everything was nice.”
Styles later said that he hopes audiences come away from the movie with more awareness of their “own protected bubbles.”
“What we hope people take away from the movie is — what does it take for someone to give up in order to do what’s right and step out [of their bubble]? We’re all able to sit in a really comfortable life and ignore the consequences of what’s happened in the world. But there’s no denying that those consequences exist.”
Asked how he sees his future shaping up as an actor, Styles said: “I feel very lucky I get to do something I love as a job. I feel like being able to explore this has made me feel even luckier I get to do two things I really enjoy. In terms of the future…I enjoy both. It’s all fun to play in both worlds and see how they affect each other.”
Styles’ previous movie roles include Christopher Nolan’s “Dunkirk” and a bit part at the end of Chloe Zhao’s “Eternals.” This fall, he also leads Amazon’s “My Policeman,” which will world premiere at TIFF next week. Styles will be heading to Toronto, where he and his co-stars will receive the TIFF Tribute Actor award.
