00:00The Nottingham Hill t-shirt, honestly.
00:02You're the first and last person to ever call me social media savvy.
00:05I've got something for you.
00:07Maybe just on my second glass of wine, you're like,
00:09Hey, do you want to see this?
00:10No, I wouldn't do that to you.
00:12So many amazing movies and TV shows that have been adapted from books.
00:18And if actors, I think a lot of actors probably don't take the role sometimes
00:23because they're afraid of the back.
00:25A little bit higher lift of you, but I'm waiting.
00:28You have to be in the best room.
00:30You're ready to pound.
00:31Hello, hi, this is Bhavna and you're watching India Today.
00:33Firstly, a huge welcome, both of you. How are you?
00:36Good, how are you?
00:37I'm great and I'm honestly very happy, Tom,
00:39after seeing you wear the Nottingham Hill t-shirt.
00:42Honestly, the rom-com girlie in me is so happy.
00:45But Lily, you have been wrenching the street, the city, the globe
00:49and the color of romance through your promotional tour.
00:52I want to know, for that very reason,
00:54was just taking up this film a bit of a challenge
00:59or were you nervous about it because book adaptations can be difficult?
01:03Yeah, of course.
01:04I think, weirdly enough, I was thrust into that when I was 19 with Riverdale
01:10based off of Archie Comics, which is arguably an insanely large IP
01:16to play Betty, so in a weird way, I think if I hadn't done Riverdale,
01:23yes, it would be a lot more intimidating, but I was sort of almost used to the fact
01:28that you know that some people just aren't going to love your specific interpretation
01:32and that's okay and that's something that you have to be okay with.
01:35I think there's so many amazing movies and TV shows that have been adapted from books
01:42and if actors, you know, I think a lot of actors probably don't take the role sometimes
01:48because they're afraid of the backlash and I understand and I can empathize with the fear of that,
01:54but I think, to me, the excitement of playing Olive and the excitement around the book
01:59far outweighed the possibility of or the nerves and fear around if people don't like my version of Olive.
02:07I was like, hey, I want to do the movie, so I'm going to do it, so I'm going to
02:11do it.
02:11And can I tell you, I watched it and you have done justice to it.
02:14I've read the book as well, so I can tell you that. Thank you.
02:17Tom, I have to ask, I have been really enjoying all your Reels and TikTok with Lily.
02:24It's so good, but were you always this social media savvy or has Lily sort of like convinced and converted
02:30you into doing this?
02:31You are the first and last person to ever call me social media savvy.
02:37I know. Lily, I mean, if you're going to have anyone walking you through that world,
02:42there's no one better than Lily. She's amazing at it.
02:45And you're also very sweet and kind because she knows that I have a sort of whatever feelings about it,
02:50but you're so wonderful.
02:52She always asks my friend, she's like, do we want to do this?
02:55And she's like, you don't have to do anything.
02:56A lot of the time I just get to stand there like a grumpy person.
02:59I really try to make it as low lift as humanly possible.
03:02As low lift as possible.
03:03There are some that I would love to do with you that are a little bit higher lift of you,
03:07but I'm waiting. You have to be in the best frame of mind for me to be like,
03:14Hey, I've got something for you.
03:16Maybe just on my like second glass of wine.
03:17You're like, Hey, do you want to see this?
03:19No, I wouldn't do that to you.
03:21She makes them fun.
03:23Again, because I've read the book, there are so many scenes I know that I'm so excited for everyone to
03:27watch on screen.
03:28But were there scenes in particular which you perhaps found a bit challenging or you had to approach differently?
03:35Or perhaps you just enjoyed doing a lot?
03:38Well, I mean, I really like when they're having dinner at the end of the movie together and he's opening
03:43up and being vulnerable.
03:44And I think just from an actor standpoint, I liked that it was a longer scene.
03:49It was a couple pages long.
03:51So you really got to sort of just taking a couple minutes where no one is interrupting you and you
03:57kind of just get to act is nice.
04:00And a lot of times, you know, scenes are they're here.
04:03So then you have to move to a different location.
04:05And so there's you have to break things up often.
04:07But that scene was just us sitting across from each other at a table, which means we got to just
04:12sort of be left alone for a couple minutes at a time and just act.
04:16And I think I think that's why people love doing theater, because once you're out on the stage, it's yours.
04:23Yes.
04:23And so for longer form scenes, selfishly as an actor, you go, this belongs to us now.
04:29And we get to do this for a few minutes and play and let our emotions sort of just happen
04:35and flow.
04:37And that's just a really nice it's a really nice thing to do on a movie that is there's a
04:43lot happening.
04:43There's a lot of plot that you have to fit in.
04:45But this scene is so important emotionally for them and sort of sort of let the emotions hang in the
04:49air was nice.
04:50And I and I really enjoyed shooting that scene.
04:52Yeah, there's a great freedom to it when you're left alone with those.
04:54It's why I love wide shots, because you're not aware of the crew.
04:58There's not really any technical aspects for it.
04:59You can just literally look the other person in the eye and listen and play the scene.
05:04It's so beautiful.
05:05I was all I was a little I wasn't nervous about it.
05:07But what I really wanted to get right throughout this film was the this sort of fun tightrope walk of
05:12these two people deep down kind of a definitely supposed to be together.
05:17They don't understand one another.
05:18And it's the moments where we'd sort of be playfully like when you were like stabbing me with the toothpick
05:22or the sun lotion or just those little moments where you go there's a playfulness going on there.
05:29But slowly the characters are realizing, oh, my God, this person's kind of amazing.
05:33I've never looked at them in this way.
05:34So you're sort of falling in love with them at the same time as questioning who you are and who
05:38they are at the same time as having those fun moments.
05:40I wanted to be able to spin all those plates at the same time and they were the most fun
05:46scenes to play, I think, because there's so many things going on at once that it was fascinating as an
05:50actor to play those moments.
05:52Well, thank you so much for your time.
05:54And I hope to see you in India sometime soon.
05:56Oh, yeah.
05:57Love India.
