Does Harry Styles Know He Has a Movie Out Tomorrow?

My Policeman, Harry Styles’s tear-jerker gay period piece, hits theaters tomorrow. Can someone let Mr. Styles know? It might be news to him. While his co-stars Emma Corrin and David Dawson have done their duty on the promo circuit, the singer-turned-actor has been nowhere to be seen.

Earlier this year, My Policeman director Michael Grandage told Vanity Fair: “[Styles] had read the script so many times that he knew every single beat of it at that meeting. He knew why he wanted to talk about it, why one scene worked this way and another worked another way.” Well, it would be great if any of the rest of us could get that information out of him, like on a promotional tour or interview circuit. Maybe he could stop by his old friend James Corden’s show and tidy up both their reputations.

To his credit, Styles did speak about My Policeman in his now two-month-old Rolling Stone profile in which he provided a much-dunked upon sound bite about the film not being, “a gay story about these guys being gay,” and also that “gay sex in film is two guys going at it, and it kind of removes the tenderness from it.” Now would be a great time to walk that back and say something more thoughtful? But alas, Styles has been strangely absent from the film’s promotion since its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.

He didn’t show up much for Don’t Worry Darling, either, which was probably the right choice, given the film’s tumultuous Venice premiere and ensuing drama. It’s possible that the tabloid-rich nature of that movie’s press tour has burned him out on the obligations of Hollywood stardom. In his stead, co-stars Corrin and Dawson have stepped in to share anecdotes about their missing colleague in promotional Zooms left and right. Even Wilde has picked up the slack, speaking about Styles’s role in My Policeman — a film that she has nothing to do with — for her Elle cover. Ah, the things one does for love.

Of course, Harry Styles isn’t actually missing. He can be found where he is perhaps most comfortable: on stage, selling out arenas, in front of his adoring fans. As part of his Harry’s House tour — which conveniently coincides with his fall film schedule — Styles just played a six-night residency in the greatest American city: Chicago. It’s possible that the Chicago river architecture boat tour was enough to distract him from contractual promo obligations. Or maybe he’s just having too much fun at a place like Lula Cafe before hitting up a living room comedy show.