Wicker Husband: Alexander Skarsgård's Romcom Beast Divides Basketweavers

Wētā Workshop spent 18 months building Alexander Skarsgård's Wicker Husband out of 50 interlocking 3D-printed body pieces — and the basketweaving community says the result isn't wicker at all.

Skarsgård's character in the romcom Wicker has sent the internet into a frenzy. "Never looking at my patio furniture the same again," reads one Instagram comment. Ikea captioned a photo of its wicker furniture with the term "husband material".

But makers have a technical quarrel with the fantasy love interest. He isn't made of willow, and he appears to be plaited rather than woven.

Deborah Needleman, former editor of the New York Times's T magazine turned basket maker, was one of the first to object. "I'm excited that the basketweaving community now has our own hot, woven leading man, but I've also got issues," she wrote on Instagram. "Why is a dude woven in an English fishing village not made of willow — or even rush?!" More than 100 fellow basket makers have since weighed in.

What actually counts as wicker?

The Oxford English Dictionary defines wicker as "thin sticks of wood twisted together to make baskets, furniture etc". Eleanor Morgan, trade adviser to the Worshipful Company of Basketmakers in London, says willow has commonly denoted wicker but is less popular today. "Historically wicker could have meant any pliant twig or osier," she says.

Lewis Prosser, a basket maker from Cardiff, describes wicker as "an object that is woven but one that is specifically not textile", while conceding that "some will disagree with me". Needleman is among those who argue wicker refers to a type of weave rather than a material.

Prosser, who makes wicker costumes using techniques traditional to Wales and the south-west of England, identifies three construction methods:

• Coiling — plant threads wound together in a spiral
• Braiding
• Stake and stand basketry — vertical rods woven through horizontal strands

"What we would traditionally call 'wicker items' would usually have that latter aspect," Prosser says. The Wicker Husband doesn't.

How Wētā built him

Joe Dunckley, a prosthetic designer at the New Zealand special effects studio Wētā Workshop, calls it a "big challenge" to costume a character who is sentient but made of wicker. "Most prosthetic materials are soft to mimic skin. But he's not flesh and bone," he says.

His team of 80 specialists created 50 interlocking body pieces in a rubber-like thermoplastic elastomer, 3D-printing a bespoke weave coded by the studio and attaching it to a spandex suit. They also made 10 facial appliances.

Dunckley defends the material choice. "It is a similar reason to why, in film, we don't make armour out of actual steel or use real swords. This is a fantasy film," he says.

The team worked from a 3D cast of Skarsgård so the "audience would be able to recognise Alexander in basket form" — complete with what Dunckley calls the "Skarsgård smoulder", achieved by making the weave furrow at the brow. The hair, beard and lashes use muka, fibres from New Zealand flax.

Does the setting excuse it?

Although Olivia Colman and her fellow villagers speak in British dialects, the film isn't set in England. Dunkckley suggests the basket maker played by Peter Dinklage has travelled the world learning from other makers. Prosser notes that a location-specific setting would call for local plants — willow in the UK, Esparto grass in Spain.

Dunckley calls the craft community's scrutiny "really cool": "I don't blame anyone. True artists of the craft have dedicated years to it. I would expect them to look at a fantasy version of their art form and see failings in it."

For willow purists, Morgan points out there is "no lack of osier-related eye candy" elsewhere in the film's basket scenes. Prosser is thrilled the film has drawn attention to endangered traditional skills — and TikTok is now rife with wicker costume guides, including nipple tutorials. Skarsgård called those the "best part" of his suit and gave his own pair to Graham Norton, praising "extraordinary craftsmanship".