Alexander Skarsgård has found an unusual way to celebrate his co-star Olivia Colman: by arriving at a Hollywood premiere with her face displayed across his chest.

The Swedish actor attended the Los Angeles premiere of their new film Wicker on Tuesday, October 20, wearing a fitted black long-sleeved shirt featuring a framed image of Colman taken directly from the movie.

Rather than pairing it with conventional red-carpet tailoring, Skarsgård completed the look with a striking Chopova Lowena tartan skirt featuring contrasting pink, yellow and black panels, metallic detailing and punk-inspired fastenings. Black dress shoes provided the outfit's only relatively traditional element.

According to People's coverage of the premiere, Skarsgård posed for photographs alongside Colman and fellow cast member Elizabeth Debicki. His younger brother, actor Bill Skarsgård, also attended the event.

Alexander Skarsgård's Wicker outfits have become a story of their own

The Colman-inspired shirt was not an isolated fashion experiment. Skarsgård has spent much of the Wicker promotional tour appearing in outfits that reference the film or challenge traditional red-carpet expectations.

At a New York screening on October 13, he wore a custom T-shirt featuring the phrase "Lick My Worm", a line spoken by Colman's character in the movie. As documented by Cosmopolitan's roundup of his press-tour wardrobe, he also appeared at the London Film Festival in a metallic gold Saint Laurent suit with transparent shoes.

The latest outfit takes a different approach, putting his co-star at the centre of the spectacle rather than relying on a provocative slogan. It is also a fitting choice for a film in which Skarsgård plays a husband literally created for Colman's character.

What is Wicker actually about?

Directed by Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson, Wicker is an unconventional romantic fantasy about an ostracised fisherwoman, played by Colman, living in a deeply conservative medieval village.

Tired of being ridiculed by her neighbours, she commissions a local basket maker, played by Peter Dinklage, to construct her an ideal husband from wicker. Skarsgård plays the resulting creation, whose unexpected charm and kindness upset the village's established social order.

The story explores relationships, social expectations and the treatment of women through an absurdist fairy tale rather than a conventional romance.

Skarsgård's transformation into the wicker husband was considerably more complicated than his premiere wardrobe. In an interview published by Reuters on October 20, the actor explained that artists at New Zealand's Weta Workshop spent approximately 18 months developing his elaborate costume.

Crucially, the wicker appearance was achieved using a practical costume rather than computer-generated imagery. Skarsgård explained that its unusual construction required him to exaggerate certain movements while performing, with the costume and make-up application eventually reduced to less than two hours.

Colman, meanwhile, described the screenplay to Reuters as unlike anything she had previously encountered, praising its originality and its exploration of equality and relationships.

When is Wicker released?

Following its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 24, 2026, Wicker is scheduled to arrive in US cinemas on October 23, 2026, with UK screenings beginning on October 30.

The film also stars Elizabeth Debicki and is adapted from the short story The Wicker Husband by Ursula Wills-Jones. Further details and the trailer are available through the film's official website.

As for Skarsgård's latest outfit, the connection between his wardrobe and his unusual on-screen romance is hard to miss. In a film about a man created specifically for one woman, the actor has now taken to wearing that woman's face in public. Hollywood promotional campaigns rarely take their source material quite so literally.