The singer said he stopped all work on his new album to film the movie.
Harry Styles sat down with Elvis Duran on the Z100 Morning Show on Friday, where the two discussed Styles’ debut acting role in Christopher Nolan’s WWII epic “ Dunkirk ” and how it impacted the creation of Styles’ self-titled solo album.
According to Styles, he stopped all work on his new album to film the movie.
Box Office: ‘Dunkirk’ Battles to $5.5 Million on Thursday Night
“I started the album, I’ d been kind of writing for not very long at all, and then the movie thing happened, ” Styles said. “I just stopped for five months and took a complete break.”
Styles went on to discuss what it was like working on the set of a film starring such seasoned actors as Kenneth Branagh, Cillian Murphy, Mark Rylance, and Tom Hardy. The singer said he’s a huge fan of Nolan and he felt lucky to be working with the cast on his debut film.
“Honestly, they made the world around you, so it was so intense, ” he said. “The filming was very much reacting to stuff, it required very little acting in the way of imagining there were planes and all this stuff. You just wanted to do your bit towards the project, I didn’ t have too much time to be worrying about any personal discomfort.”
Duran also asked Styles about the difference between performing and acting. Styles referred to his character as “a little bit of an a–hole, ” and said he enjoyed bringing out that part of himself.
“But to me they very much feel like opposite things, totally opposite. I feel like with music you put so much of yourself into it and the whole point of (acting) is not being yourself at all, you’ re trying to play someone else, ” he said.
The pair reminisced on the time Duran accidentally revealed Styles was working on new music, much to the chagrin of Styles’ label reps. Styles, who will be performing at the iHeartRadio Music Festival, also confessed his admiration of fellow iHeart performer Chris Stapleton, and said if he had to collaborate with anyone from the fest, it would be him. The singer said he was excited to get back to performing in his upcoming tour to support his album and expressed appreciation for his bandmates, two of whom recorded the album with him.
Watch the full interview here.
“Dunkirk” hits theaters July 21, and Styles’ world tour kicks off Sept. 19 at the Masonic in San Francisco.
