“Love is what makes all the pain in life worth it”: the cast and crew of People We Meet On Vacation on their new film

“The point of a romcom is the joy, the love and the beauty.” Emily Henry’s novels are hugely popular for a reason. They’re beautifully written and relatable love stories, but it’s the characters that so many of us fall in love with. “The character work is really where it’s at. And for me, it felt like an opportunity to do the friends-to-lovers plot, which Emily has done so brilliantly. She pulled it off in a way that made me think of When Harry Met Sally and other 90s romcoms that I feel like have been missing from the world,” says People We Meet On Vacation director Brett Haley.

People We Meet On Vacation follows Poppy and Alex (played by Emily Bader and Tom Blyth), two people who have been best friends for a decade, but adventurous, free-spirited Poppy and introverted, routine-loving Alex are polar opposites. They live in different cities, but every year, they spend a week on holiday together – until one trip goes disastrously wrong. But when they decide to take one last holiday together to Palm Springs, they begin to question whether they might be more than just good friends.

This film is the first of Henry’s books to be adapted to film and the author is excited that her characters will now be on screen for audiences to fall in love with all over again. For both Henry and Haley, storytelling in the romance genre is especially important. “I love a good, sad film, but there’s something really special about a happy ending that is bursting with joy and hope. This isn’t to say that things will be perfect forever, but that two people have each other, and that’s not nothing. Love is universal, and what makes all the pain in life worth it.”

Below, Stylist’s Shahed Ezaydi also sat down with the two leads of People We Meet On Vacation – Tom Blyth and Emily Bader – to talk more about love, their characters and their off-screen friendship.

How did you find the thread of your character? Is there a scene that made you really understand each of them?

Tom: I think the thread between them is how yin and yang and how counterbalance they are as characters. If I ever felt lost, I looked at what Emily was doing and did the complete opposite. Poppy is so free, easy and loose whereas Alex is so stiff and pretty repressed at the beginning. So, it was fun to counterbalance that in the characters.

Emily: The road trip really sets the tone for the first time Poppy and Alex meet, but right from the bat, they both realise who each other are as people. It’s an instant connection, and it was the same for Tom and I. We did a lot of rehearsal for this film with our director, which also really added to the tone of the characters.

This story hinges on chemistry and history. How did the two of you build that sense of a deep, long-standing friendship before filming?

Emily: We got to travel so much together. It’s a very quick way to make fast friends. You know, we’d be in Spain and we’d go for dinners, walk around and we got to experience so many beautiful places for the first time, together. We just became fast friends, which is pretty much how Poppy and Alex’s relationship kicks off. So, that was a good place to start.

Tom: Agreed. Absolutely.

The film moves between years and vacation trips. Did you find it challenging to navigate timelines and emotional shifts? How did you approach this?

Tom: It was very much on the page. By the time we went to camera, Brett had really massaged the scenes with the writers to get to a place where the later scenes in Alex and Poppy’s relationship are emotionally different and more mature. So, if in doubt, you just go back to the script and lean on that. But also the costuming. This is one of those films where sometimes, if you’re wondering where your character is in their journey, you put the costume on and you’re straight back into the college years, for example. Or, you put on a linen suit, and Alex is in his later years; he’s more confident, suave. For me, costuming always informs the character, it’s the last step in properly embodying Alex.

Emily: Colin [Wilkes] was really clear about the changes in their aesthetics as Poppy and Alex got older. In the beginning, Poppy wears exactly what she wants: nothing matches, everything is from a vintage store. She just throws things on. And then, as she starts to lose herself a little throughout the years, she starts to dress in more work appropriate outfits. It was really easy to figure out Poppy’s mental state through her outfits and style, as well as to jump back to early Poppy too.

I just wanted to say the blue wig is amazing.

Emily: Thank you! It was actually my idea. And my inspiration for that was Natalie Portman in Closer and Ana De Armas in Blade Runner. I just love a wig. And when the team said that we’d be shooting in New Orleans, I knew we had to have a wig. I really pushed for it, and it took a little convincing but I wanted one for Poppy so badly.

Tom: I’m so glad you did. Because now, I want audiences to show up to screenings in a blue wig.

What’s one thing that you learned from your character, and from each other?

Emily: I learned from Poppy to just be 100% yourself. Don’t shy away from who you are. And from Tom? Oh, absolutely nothing. No, I’m joking. He’s a really big confidant to me. He gave me so much confidence to step into my power on set. I’m still at the beginning of my career and I feel like Tom had a lot of advice in regards to acting and navigating the industry. He’s so supportive of me, and he always makes room to support people. I can always talk to him if I’m feeling stressed about something or if I was having an insecure day on set.

Tom: From Alex, I learned that it’s OK to be settled. It’s OK to be happy with what you’ve got. It’s OK to want to build a home. And from Emily, I learned to have more fun! Sometimes, it’s easy to fall into being quite serious as an actor. And before this film, I was coming off the back of a few more serious projects, so I found myself still in that heavier headspace. But I looked at Emily, and how fun Poppy is, and realised it’s OK to have fun, it’s why I wanted to do a romcom in the first place. Emily is so good at finding the highs and lows in a character and has such a breadth of emotion, where she can play the levity in one scene and the gravity in another.

People We Meet On Vacation is now available to watch on Netflix.

Images: Netflix