and she knows that they should be together. And there’s nothing she can do.” Though Corrin’s character begins on the wrong side of history, Marion ends the film decades down the line by inviting an ailing Patrick into the couple’s home, and leaving her marriage behind in order to give the two men their deserved shot at a life together. “It’s devastating, but also so that he can be happy at last with Patrick, and that’s a testament to fondness for both of them,” Corrin says. “I just thought it was really touching and complex.” De- spite the violence against queer people and heartbreaking series of events that concern the plot, the actor looks at My Policeman holistically, and considers it a win for queer narratives. “To be part of such a beautiful queer story was really the most beautiful thing, especially one which ul- timately celebrates that love and interrogates it, and in- terrogates what was going on at that time,” they say. “So actually, it didn’t ever feel hugely conflicting, because the message of the film is love.” Though on the surface it seems there are light years between Marion and Corrin, the actor found a universal approach to slipping into Marion’s life. Instead of chan- neling the hurt and anger that Marion feels, Corrin began from a place of love: “Maybe when you experience—espe- cially in Marion’s case—that first time you love someone. It’s so all-consuming, and I don’t think any of us ever re- ally forget that feeling.” While Marion’s Judas-like betrayal of Patrick, and their older selves trying to correct past misdeeds, are tent
very existence. The actor concedes that playing someone with such backwards beliefs—even if just expressed out of hurt—felt strange. “The words coming out of your mouth are so the opposite of what you believe in, what you’re advocating for every day of your life,” they say. “But it’s so interesting because Marion is such a product of her time. I don’t think she’s had the exposure or this experience yet to come up against these beliefs, these ways of thinking that have been drummed into her.” It was Marion’s episode of rashness and, ultimately, her inability to deny Tom and Patrick’s love that drew Corrin to the character. “In that moment, I don’t think it’s got much to do with [homophobia] at all. I think it’s a fear of losing this person that she loves. And it’s an insane amount of hurt, and pride, and the heartbreak that comes with falling, being heartbroken, and it makes everyone say insane things.” In fact, they made the choice to play the moment as a swirl- ing internal conflict coming to a head, a realization that Marion’s innate knowledge that Tom and Patrick belong together overpowers her contrary upbringing. “I really hope this came across [onscreen], that she’s so convinced within herself, that she’s trying to persuade herself that this is wrong because she knows that it’s not what ter- rifies her that is real. That these two people are in love, that her husband loves someone else who is a man and she knows it’s true,
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