Exclusive: Gina McKee on My Policeman and Telling Important Human Stories

Tom (Harry Styles) and Marion (Emma Corrin) are soon to be married when they meet a museum curator named Patrick (David Dawson) in 1950s Britain. They begin spending more time together as a trio, though this eventually becomes one on one time between Tom and Patrick. It’s not long before Marion becomes wise to their secret love affair. She and the law stand in the way of them being together, affecting them into their elderly years, illustrated by temporal jumps that unwind their emotional and important story.

Gina McKee plays Marion later in her life, alongside Linus Roache as Tom and Rupert Everett as Patrick. Also in the cast of My Policeman are Kadiff Kirwan, Joseph Potter, Dora Davis, and more. It’s written by Ron Nyswaner, based on the book by Bethan Roberts, and directed by Michael Grandage.

“I think people might feel similar to what I felt when I read it, and certainly when I watched it, is that there’s something about facing your past. If there are things to be addressed… things that have stayed with you over the years, maybe it’s time. Maybe it’s good to have courage and to take that step. That’s something we know academically, but I think that might be a thing people feel, but also, certainly, I think it takes a look at how far we’ve come and how far we’ve got to go in terms of legislation to help the gay community. They ought to be able to live without fear or prejudice. Hopefully, this helps the conversation,” commented McKee.

My Policeman is an Important Human Story

My Policeman looks back at laws and perspectives that plagued the gay community and freedom for far too long. Through the characters in the film facing their pasts, viewers can begin to develop an understanding of the hardships caused by antiquated customs, better equipping them to understand the world today and in their navigation of the future.

“I was really interested in the challenge of the dynamic that set up with the triangle of people. You’ve got this triangle of people who meet in the 1950s when they’re young, and they’re drawn together. Let’s say drawn together by love and torn apart by prejudice, and the actions that they take against one another indelibly mark their future. Then to have a dramatic dynamic where those people are brought back together by a catalyst to face their past is a really fantastic point to start exploring any story,” said McKee.

“It’s kind of intriguing to understand somebody like Marian. Now, on the one hand, it’s very easy to understand, and on the other hand, perhaps you have to really look at the circumstances in which all three of them found themselves when they were young, and the prejudices and the hated, and the ignorance that surrounded them, and what that does to how they behave is really integral… revisiting the facts that surrounded 1950s Britain and the way that the gay community was being treated in this country… it was fascinating to be reminded of it and to have the timeframe in front of me. It made me focus on what their challenges were… We make progress, but if we’re not careful, that progress can be threatened with a reversal. Those elements were really interesting to me as well,” continued McKee.

Related: Exclusive: Jon Voight and Sean McNamara Talk the Making of Dangerous Game: The Legacy Murders

The Duality of Marion

McKee’s character Marion has a duality to her, both in how she requires a second actress to portray her and in how her perspective shifts throughout the film. Nonetheless, what we see on screen is a cohesive character that develops, carefully evading a fragmented portrayal between the two actresses.

“We were shooting in 2021, so there were COVID protocols in place. We couldn’t physically meet, initially, and so we talked on the telephone… and also had a collective Zoom conversation,” explained McKee, referring to the preparation between her and Corrin.

“We used our director Michael Grandage as a conduit to help bring elements together and talked to our costume designer and our makeup designer, just to bring some echoes and ghosts of the past into the older characters. That was all very useful, but what was particularly useful is that the younger characters, they shot the 1950s stuff. So, we were given maybe three of four scenes, and I had some scenes that Emma was in, a rough cut, and I could look at them as a reference,” McKee added.

My Policeman will release in theaters on October 21, 2022, and globally on Prime Video starting November 4.