Inside the Making of ‘Red, White & Royal Blue’: From Why ‘The Prince Absolutely Uses Condoms’ to Finding Uma Thurman’s Texas Accent
15.08.2023 - 17:39
/ variety.com
Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer SPOILER ALERT: This story discusses several major plot developments in the feature film “Red, White & Royal Blue,” currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video, as well as the novel it’s based on. Over this past weekend, certain corners of the internet were hyperventilating with excitement over the release of “Red, White & Royal Blue,” the romantic comedy about how Alex Claremont-Diaz (Taylor Zakhar Perez), the First Son of the United States, and Prince Henry (Nicholas Galitzine), third in line to the British throne, transform from enemies to friends to lovers.
As the film shot to the top of Prime Video’s Top 10 movie list, fans flooded TikTok, Twitter and Instagram with memes and reactions to the production and how it measures up to its source material, the best-selling 2019 novel by Casey McQuiston. For director Matthew López — the Tony award-winning playwright (for “The Inheritance”), who also adapted McQuiston’s novel with Ted Malawer — the enthusiastic reception for his feature filmmaking debut has been enormously gratifying. At least, what he’s seen of it.
“I’ve been dipping a toe in,” he says via Zoom from his home in London. “I have some friends who have been sending me memes.” He smiles, a bit sheepishly. “The sad little secret about my life is that I’m the most sensitive person in the world,” he says.
“If one person in Iowa doesn’t like the curtains in one scene, I’ve failed. I feel everything very personally. I don’t have a very hard candy coating.” Despite that, López gamely talked with Variety about how he approached making the film, including why he cut out major characters and storylines from McQuiston’s novel, how he worked with Uma Thurman on her portrayal of the
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