After months of casting for the film adaptation of Casey McQuiston’s rom-com Red, White & Royal Blue, it only took a few minutes in a chemistry read for producer Sarah Schechter and co-writer/director Matthew López to know they’d found the perfect leads in Taylor Zakhar Perez and Nicholas Galitzine.
“I think there was a period in which we despaired of ever finding the right — even, forget just individual — you had to cast a duo here,” López said during a panel for Deadline’s Contenders TV: The Nominees. “That chemistry read was, I think I was texting out of camera range on Zoom to Sarah, like, ‘This is them. We found them.’”
In addition to a great reading of the scene, López remembers the pair improvising and playing together in a way that, “I remember thinking like, ‘Man, if they can improvise successfully as a team on Zoom, I can’t wait to get in a room with them and start actually working on it.’”
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Red, White & Royal Blue follows Perez as Alex Claremont-Diaz, the first son of the United States, and Galitzine as British Prince Henry — who, as they fall in love, must keep their relationship a secret due to the public nature of their personas.
Schechter and Perez joined López for this conversation ahead of the 76th Emmy Awards, where Red, White & Royal Blue is competing for Outstanding Television Movie. After premiering one year ago, the film saw a level of success that nearly matched that of the bestselling novel on which its based, becoming one of Prime Video‘s three most-watched romantic comedies of all time.
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“I think the book is so beloved, and the fans of the book are so adamant that it be respected and loved and appreciated,” Schechter said, explaining the level of care that went into crafting the film adaptation.
“When we were in prep, when Nick dyed his hair, he was looking at fan art to make sure it was the right color,” she continued. “The best possible outcome is that people love the thing that you worked really hard on, but I think we really were conscientious from the beginning of trying to approach it as fans. And I think when you approach something as a fan, when you approach it as something that you love, it’s contagious, that love.”
In May, it was announced that Perez and Galitizine will be returning for a sequel, which López is penning with McQuiston. It’s a new collaborative process and a different challenge for López, but he says the overall approach to the sequel will be quite similar to the first.
“When we were starting this process, I kept saying that we’ll have succeeded at this adaptation…if you feel the same way at the end of the film, as you felt finishing the book,” López said. “There’s no book to guide us, but what we have is Casey’s original thoughts and original ideas.”
Of revisiting the First Son of the United States, Perez added: “He just has an endless waterfall of optimism rushing over him at all times, and he has just nonstop positivity. So I think I’m excited to bring that back to the screen. And I think [with the] state of the world right now, we could use a little bit more of that.”
Check back Monday for the panel video.
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