Skip to playerSkip to main content
  • 10 hours ago
In this exclusive interview, People We Meet on Vacation stars Emily Bader and Tom Blyth dive into the emotional heart of the film and what it was like to play Poppy and Alex. From its slow-burn friends-to-lovers romance to why men need to yearn more, the film's stars open up to Refinery29's Dawnie Jefferson about bringing Emily Henry’s beloved novel to life, learning to dance for the movie, and why expectations can be the death of relationships.

ABOUT REFINERY29
Refinery29 is a modern woman's destination for how to live a stylish, well-rounded life. http://refinery29.com/

SUBSCRIBE TO REFINERY29
Subscribe to the Refinery29 channel: http://bit.ly/subscribe-to-r29
Follow Refinery29 on Instagram: https://instagram.com/refinery29/
Follow Somos on Instagram: https://instagram.com/r29somos/
Follow Unbothered on Instagram: https://instagram.com/r29unbothered/
Transcript
00:00prayed for help and we said help us help us please learn how to dance give me your rhythm
00:07your outfit is so poppy right now oh yeah thanks that's a compliment i love that your offers were
00:13great oh thank you poppy and alex have the friends to lovers trope that is very popular in rom-coms
00:18why do you think the friends to lover works is it the best trope you feel the best trope i
00:22think
00:23everyone's gonna have a different opinion about that i like i think i do like the sort of enemies
00:30to lovers as well i don't know if i could pick one but i think people love it because
00:38it's like yearning it's a very yeah it's a lot of yearning is very in style at the moment i
00:45think
00:45has yearning ever gone out of style but it's a whole thing right now everyone's loving yearning
00:50apparently i've loved i've loved yearning since i saw pride and prejudice that is all yearning
00:56that's a great segue because there is quite a lot of yearning in the book and in the movie
01:01mainly by alex tom why do you think that it's important to see men yearning on screen
01:07it's an amazing question why is it important to see men yearning on screen you know why
01:11because men like to pretend that we're all tough and uh don't have a soft inside but we have a
01:18big
01:18soft inside and i think the yearning allows that to come out and and you know like we men should
01:26yearn it puts you in a vulnerable place and it's good to be vulnerable yeah it is it is but
01:29like
01:33would you consider yourself a yearner are you a yearner yeah at times yeah yeah i can be quite
01:39romantic so i think i think it uh yeah yes definitely when i was a lot younger i definitely yearned
01:46painfully yearned and that's all i'm gonna say on that all right we won't push it but i want to
01:51know
01:51more i could see i could see you wanted to push that line of questioning i was like you know
01:55what
01:58would you in real life consider yourselves an alex or a poppy i'm a poppy for sure i think we're
02:04both
02:04both are oh yeah well it depends there are moments you have alex tendencies you've changed your tune
02:12on that because you didn't think that before today when you were doing the thing it kind of made me
02:16open my mind figured out i'm a grouchy traveler oh and so that is like i'm quite i get quite
02:21stoic
02:21when i'm traveling yeah so i just want to get it done um just a little bit out but you're
02:26definitely a
02:26more poppy okay yeah yeah and same for you yeah definitely so you when you were doing this you
02:31were like this is me yeah i mean it was kind of like the not not the running joke but
02:38brett would
02:38it's just like just it's just you so just lean into that there are so many moments in the movie
02:43you
02:43just want these two characters to just get over themselves and make out just so bad you're watching
02:49it you're like please just kiss kiss what ultimately do you think is the biggest reason they're too scared
02:53to be together i think it's because if it in their minds if it goes wrong the greatest friendship
03:01they've ever had goes away yeah and i think there's a very real possibility of that with them i think
03:07that if it really like blew up in their faces at the end of the day and they weren't compatible
03:14in
03:14that way or something i think it would be hard to go back because they would have taken such a
03:20leap
03:23and yeah the friendship is so i mean best friends best friends yeah something is expectation
03:30they both have like they've built up this expectation in their own mind of what their
03:34life is supposed to be like poppy's like i'm supposed to be free i'm supposed to not have any
03:39things that hold me back or tie me down and alex is the opposite he thinks he's got to have
03:44stability and he wants to live in linfield where he grew up and he wants to be near his family
03:48and all
03:48this and i think sometimes expect putting expectation on yourself and other people
03:54is the death of change yeah and it holds you back and it stops you from being changeable and malleable
04:00and that's what you need to be able to fall in love with someone and be vulnerable with someone so
04:03yeah i think the at the end when they let go of their expectation of themselves and each other
04:07they're able to realize how close they were all along yeah yeah 100 that's so true
04:13thank you that's very good philosophizing a lot today yeah yeah i felt it go back and star in any
04:19rom-com that you've ever seen which one would you pick just to star in yes i'm trying not to
04:25say the
04:26one that i always say i'm trying to say something else when harry met sally i know i keep saying
04:30the
04:30same thing to him it's hard because i mean if i'm thinking pure romance it's one billion percent pride and
04:37prejudice and that ship has sailed which version 2005. okay is that controversial to you no not to
04:44me i just know i just know it's controversial it's not a it's not a con i think it's a
04:48funny movie
04:50are you kidding me mrs bennett all the sisters that's peak comedy i'm gonna say uh
04:59four weddings and a funeral okay that's a good one or notting hill
05:03i just saw notting hill for the first time yeah those old hugh grant rom-coms are so good
05:08also the holiday but i want to be like kate winslet and and jack black section dancing was very cute
05:17love it what um prep went into it and how did it come together you want me to say we
05:22can both say
05:22it we had an awesome awesome choreographer we went to this like church i think building in nor when we
05:30landed in new orleans prayed for help and we said help us please learn how to dance give me rhythm
05:38um
05:40but we um we basically kind of came up with ideas like things we'd seen in movies before
05:47moves we wanted to incorporate um strung them together with her help she was really amazing yeah
05:53and rehearsed it for a little bit so that we had we knew what we were doing enough yeah and
05:59the
05:59choreographer filmed us rehearsing it and doing it and then she would show us how bad it was and say
06:05this could be better this could be better she was really supportive and so we we then but it was
06:09actually really helpful because we kind of we we we worked hard on that well and you can't improvise
06:14it because you need to shoot it from so many different angles it has to be the same but it
06:18had
06:18to have an improvised feel because they're not dancers they're two people just like letting loose yes and kind
06:22of falling in love while they're letting loose and so i have to have that loose quality to it if
06:26you
06:26could pick any of the vacations that alex and poppy went on which one would it be i'm so sorry
06:32can you
06:32say that again of course my ears tuned into the music outside the karaoke that's happening
06:42if you could pick any of the vacations that alex and poppy went on he's really getting it right now
06:48which one would it be any of the vacations that poppy lock in look i'm in i'm back in the
06:53room uh
06:54this is the problem in new orleans it's such a distracting place because it's so it's like
06:58disneyland for adults so it's like why why um vacation no i remember which which vacation you answer
07:06the damn question i would love to go to tuscany i think i haven't been i've been to uh parts
07:12of
07:12southern italy and i love italy it's the only place where i feel like i'm not the loudest person
07:20at the dinner table and that made me feel really good like i felt like i fit in there culturally
07:28tuscany felt it yeah i want to go to squamish where they go in uh in canada i really like
07:37canada
07:37i feel like it's got everything to offer yeah um it's good not been it's good what is your rom
07:43-com
07:43inspiration when harry met sally is i say it so much i'm tired of my own voice but it is
07:50uh yeah
07:50it's my favorite rom-com and one of the reasons i wanted to do this was because it reminded me
07:55of it
07:56yeah and i think just to continue with the sort of meg ryan effect you know you got mail is
08:02an
08:03amazing movie i love tom hanks in his rom-com era as well i think that there was some things
08:11that
08:11i like tried to like learn from watching those movies just how i don't know he's just so charming
08:17in those so yeah basically meg ryan everything
Comments

Recommended