“Emily Henry is finally making her way to the big screen, as her bestselling novel People We Meet on Vacation gets the film adaptation treatment courtesy of director Brett Haley and stars Emily Bader and Tom Blyth. The book, and now the movie, follows two unlikely best friends who live in different cities but have spent”, — write: www.hollywoodreporter.com
The book, and now the movie, follows two unlikely best friends who live in different cities but have spent every summer vacation together for a decade, as they begin to question if there’s more between them. Henry’s novels — and this book in particular — have a rabid fanbase, which meant there were plenty of opinions online about who should play the two leads Alex and Poppy.
“I pay attention to that stuff. And what I think I’d love fans to know is that we’re listening, but a lot of times the people they want in these movies don’t want to do them or they’re not available to do them or they’re too expensive or whatever the thing is,” Haley told The Hollywood Reporter at the movie’s LA premiere on Tuesday of navigating fan castings. “I think that people think like, ‘Oh, you’re making a movie. Well, just go out and get those two — go get Paul Mescal.’ And I’m like, Paul Mescal’s kind of busy, I think.”
“We hear them and we know, and it’s like what an actor is feeling like doing at the time — if they’re feeling like doing more serious stuff, more Oscar-type serious films,” he continued of not being able to land certain stars. “We listen, we do our best. What I love about the casting of Emily and Tom in this is that everyone loved this and no one thought of it. I was very happy about that.”
Brett Haley, Emily Bader, Tom Blyth and Emily Henry Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Netflix
Those online opinions also made their way to the stars, with Blyth saying he “very briefly went into the Google, Reddit rabbit hole, and then realized that was a crazy place to be and pulled myself out before I got too bad. But I saw some of it and I thought, OK, cool. They’re passionate, but that’s good. They care.” Bader added that she “absolutely” checked out the reaction to her casting: “I’m so nosy and it’s a terrible habit that I’m trying to break, but I like to see what people want,” while also noting that “Emily Henry fosters a very supportive and positive fan group. I think that the people that like her books are like emotionally intelligent people. So I’ve been very lucky in that regard.”
Henry, who also made an appearance at the premiere, said Haley came to her with the idea of Blyth and Bader from the start. “He basically was saying, ‘I know in my gut that this is who it is and I really hope you agree and I don’t even know what we’re going to do if you don’t agree,’ because he had been so, so considerate of what my reaction was. And I was like, ‘OK, I’m open to it. If you see it, I trust you.'”
The director sent her their chemistry read video and “I was so terrified for like 30 seconds and then they got going and it was the first time they were meeting and they were on Zoom and they were already just magical together,” the author continued. “When I think about either of them as actors separately, but especially together, I just think they’re both so irresistible. And yeah, so it was like I didn’t need a say [in the casting]. Brett saw, he had the vision and he was right.”
People We Meet on Vacation starts streaming Friday on Netflix.
Tiffany Taylor contributed to this report.