Harry Melling Went From PG ‘Harry Potter’ to B.D.S.M. ‘Pillion’

Harry Melling, long known for playing Dudley Dursley in the Harry Potter films, appears in Harry Lighton’s queer romantic comedy Pillion as Colin, a bashful, choir‑singing parking attendant who enters a rigidly proscribed B.D.S.M. relationship with Ray, a leather‑clad biker played by Alexander Skarsgard.

The role continues a post‑Potter career marked by wide-ranging choices, from a tragic, exploited figure in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs to parts in Macbeth, The Pale Blue Eye and The Devil All the Time, and significant stage work including King Lear and a one‑man play, Peddling.

Pillion premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won a screenplay award, and was later named best film at the British Independent Film Awards; Melling earned a nomination for best lead performance and the film received multiple BAFTA nominations. The story presents the central relationship as affectionate yet morally ambiguous, which Melling has described as a love story that crosses gray areas.

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