EDGE Rewind: Harry Styles Talks Sexuality, Post-Show Showering in New Interview

EDGE is reaching into its archive and sharing some of our favorite stories from the past.

Harry Styles opened up a bit about his sexuality (and the world's fascination with it), as well as the conversations he's had to have in his dating life as a superstar, his post-concert shower ritual, and more, in a new interview with Rolling Stone.

Noting that Styles has been romantically linked with Olivia Wilde, who directed Styles in her upcoming sophomore feature, "Don't Worry, Darling," and that Styles has tried to cling to at least a modicum of privacy when it comes to his personal life, the article recounted that "rumors have filled the space" where the couple have chosen to be reserved.

Styles spoke to the tendency for this to happen. While he might work to keep his public and personal lives contained and separate, "other people blur the lines for you," he said.

While Styles is already getting awards buzz for "Don't Worry, Darling," even though it's still a month away from release, it's the film he shot directly afterward that has kept people talking about his sexuality, and whether he might fall on the LGBTQ+ spectrum.

In "My Policeman," a drama about a closeted London police officer, the woman he marries for cover, and the man he loves, Styles plays the gay role – at least, in the parts of the film that are set in the 1950s, when it was illegal to be gay in Britain (the film follows the same characters into the 1990s, where they are played by different actors). The film is set to release in October.

"It's obviously pretty unfathomable now to think, 'Oh, you couldn't be gay. That was illegal,'" Styles reflected on the film's storyline, before going on to suggest that the film isn't really about gay love – rather, it's a movie about love that happens to involve two men.

"It's not like 'This is a gay story about these guys being gay.' It's about love.... So much of gay sex in film is two guys going at it, and it kind of removes the tenderness from it," Styles said, adding that the film's director, Michael Grandage, "wanted to show that it's tender and loving and sensitive."

As for his own sexuality, "I think everyone, including myself, has your own journey with figuring out sexuality and getting more comfortable with it," Styles said.

That won't satisfy fans who wonder at his tendency toward androgynous fashion choices. Rolling Stone noted that Styles "has embraced gender fluidity in his fashion, like Mick Jagger and David Bowie before him, and has repeatedly pointed out how backward it feels to require labels and boxes for everyone's identity.

"Critics of his approach have accused him of 'queerbaiting,' or profiting off queer aesthetics without explicitly claiming the community," the article added.

Styles touched on this, saying that, "Sometimes people say, 'You've only publicly been with women,' and I don't think I've publicly been with anyone."

"If someone takes a picture of you with someone, it doesn't mean you're choosing to have a public relationship or something," he added.

Rolling Stone expressed skepticism about this argument with regard to Styles' current relationship, saying, "While he is everywhere, so is Olivia Wilde."

Done with movies for the moment, Styles is back to playing sold-out stadium shows, and that's where a cleansing ritual – the "post-show shower" – has come to play an essential role for the multi-talented artist.

The soothing douse is "a hygienic necessity, sure," Rolling Stone said of Styles' post-show ritual, "but also a crucial moment of clarity and reflection. He washes away the screams full of love and desire to just be in his presence."

Styles mulled this over, saying, "It's really unnatural to stand in front of that many people and have that experience." By contrast, he added, "Washing it off, you're just a naked person, in your most vulnerable, human form. Just like a naked baby, basically."