In a chat with Hindustan Times, Matthew López shared how he cannot imagine the film without its two leading actors Taylor Zakhar Perez and Nicholas Galitzine.
The much-awaited adaptation of Red, White and Royal Blue, Casey McQuiston's bestselling LGBTQ+ romance, is all set to premiere on Prime Video on August 11. Taylor Zakhar Perez and Nicholas Galitzine play Alex Claremont-Diaz, the son of the president of the United States, and Prince Henry of Wales respectively, who end up tripping over a giant cake together first and then come around to fall in love with each other. (Also read: Heartstopper season 2 review: Queer teen love story has a lot to love, but lacks bite)
Ahead of the release, Tony-winning playwright Matthew López, who also makes his directorial debut with the project, spoke exclusively with Hindustan Times and shared the joy and ambition of adapting the bestselling book, directing the two leads, and shooting a key ‘coming out’ scene in the film.
With a book as intimidating as Red, White and Royal Blue, was it intimidating for you to try its adaptation?
Yes, very much so. It was, but then I think there was a point in which I just had to ignore that and get on with the making of the movie, you know. I think you'd be a fool not to take very seriously the passionate fans of this book, but then again, also I happen to be one of them! So, I think that it is like being on a high wire and it is best not to look down at how high up you are and I learned very quickly that this is what I needed to do with this project. Because I know very well how important this book is to so many people. But at the end of the day I also knew that I needed to get on with my job of making the film.
I loved the performances of the two leads- they are so subtle and refreshing to watch together. How was it like collaborating with Taylor Zakhar Perez and Nicholas Galitzine?
A dream! I love those two so much. You are lucky if you get one of them working at that level, and to get both of them working at such a high level, and so astonishingly well together is just a great, great hit of luck. The thing is that they are both so perfectly cast individually but the most important thing is that we cast two people who worked well together as a team. The moment from which they first met on Zoom, they had such tremendous chemistry. We rehearsed several weeks before we started filming and then over the course of rehearsals and then the film, there became a real shorthand between them. They trusted them and I was able to then, in many instances, direct them less as individuals and direct them as a team. They worked as a team and that is exactly what you need from a film like this. I genuinely cannot imagine this film with two other actors in it. In many ways, they made this film possible for me to make. The evidence of that is on-screen every time they are together even when they are not together, it is there.
One of my favourite scenes from the film is the one where Alex comes out to his mom Ellen (played by Uma Thurman). How was it important for you to show that scene.
It was one of my favourite scenes of the novel. I am 46, and I did not get that scene when I came out at 21. And I say that with love and gratitude to my parents who have been on a journey since that day alongside me. The world has changed since I came out to my parents and I always thought that in the novel there is something really that is just of perfectly matter of fact about the way he (Alex) does it, which doesn't make it in any way less special or even less scary for him. Honestly I think in some ways that scene might be more for the parents watching the movie than for queer kids. Of course I hope that queer kids respond to the scene but for me that scene without question Uma's greatest scene in the film and I think she brought to it her own experiences as a mother of three children, as an actor with so many different friends who probably came out to her over the years. She's remarkable in that scene and I can watch Taylor relax into it because of the way she decided to perform it. Again, I promise you I did a lot of work in this movie but when you have a cast like this in your movie so much of your work is done for you. That scene works because of Uma and Taylor. They knew how to play it, they did it beautifully.
Red White And Royal Blue also features a sex scene that was so empowering in terms of how it chooses to focus not on the body but on the gradual understanding between what two people in love want from each other. Did you always have a specific direction in how you wanted the scene to be shot?
My answer to your question is your question! That is precisely how I wanted to shoot it. It is undeniable that these are two beautiful men but what was more important to me was this be a scene of true intimacy between these two characters. I always knew I wanted to shoot those scenes primarily on their faces. I knew that what we would read in their eyes and their faces was much more powerful a storytelling tool than what I could have shown in a wider shot using their bodies, and it allowed them to thoroughly act that scene rather than simply perform that scene. I love that question because the way you phrased that question is exactly the way we talked about the scene- as we planned it with my intimacy coordinator, and as Taylor, Nick and I rehearsed it. Yeah, so you could just your question and turn it into my answer, because that's precisely it.
What do you think a story like this stands in terms of how it will represent the queer communities in such a global scale?
I am always hesitant to sort of try and guess or hope what the impact of any of my work has... because it is already so out of my hands. I mean the movie's finished... I am done. I can't make any more changes if I wanted to. So its really out of my hands. It may sound small but first thing I hope this movie does is entertain. I hope people are delighted by it the way I was delighted by the book. I hope people find in it joy and hope. Those are not two small things in this world these days- joy and hope. Shockingly, we don't get a lot of it from entertainment and so those are my greatest ambitions for the film. That it brings joy and hope to people. That for two hours at a stretch it makes people happy. But if I was going to dig deeper on that question, I would also say that I think it inspires people to continue to tell stories like the one that Casey told in the book. I hope we get to see more movies and read more novels about queer characters in which joy and hope are the primary emotions.
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