‘THE IDEA OF YOU’ STAR NICHOLAS GALITZINE TAKES CUES FROM K-POP, '90S BOYBANDS
MANILA, Philippines — For Nicholas Galitzine, it was a “no-brainer” to take on the role of a boyband pop star who falls madly in love with a fan’s divorced mom, played by Anne Hathaway, in “The Idea of You.”
In the romance drama premiering on Prime Video on May 2, Nicholas portrays Hayes, a 24-year-old British musician and frontman of the fictional superstar boyband August Moon. He has a fateful encounter with Anne’s character, Solene, a 40-year-old art curator chaperoning her teen daughter at Coachella. Sparks fly, and they embark on a romance that’s both exciting and challenging.
For Nicholas, working with Anne was a major attraction of “The Idea of You.”
“Well, I mean, I think for me, obviously, there was a large draw. I’ve been a fan of Annie’s for a while. I mean, she’s just consistently put out incredible and I think really versatile pieces of work,” he said during a virtual roundtable interview attended by The STAR.
Another attraction was the story itself, adapted from the Robinne Lee novel widely speculated by fans to be inspired by One Direction’s leader, Harry Styles.
“I think I saw a really interesting story that could appeal in a sort of popular culture way, but also had a really beautiful message that kind of seemed to go through the whole story,” he said.
“And so, for me, at this point in my career, I’m searching for things that are both — they kind of have wide appeal and are really amazing character pieces. So it was kind of a no-brainer for me at this point in my career.”
In response to STAR question, Nicholas revealed that he had the most incredible audition experience for this film, thanks to his “intense” chemistry test with Anne, which also served as their “ice breaker.”
“Yeah, we had a really intense (chemistry test),” he shared.
“To be honest, I feel like the most incredible audition experience I’ve ever had, where I came in to meet Annie and I was such a massive fan already, but she was so giving.
“I really believe Annie is one of the best in the industry at being able to just access this deep well of emotion that she has. And you know, we had to do a very sort of emotional scene in the chemistry test.
“And we also got to dance with each other. We improvised the dance, which I’m not sure how that was for (her).
“But it’s crazy because you’d think that two people meeting each other for the first time — I mean, that is a potential sort of train wreck waiting to happen. But it was… It felt so natural and organic.
“And I think, that’s the thing you’re looking forward to as an actor, which is that spark, that sort of type of thing.”
As mentioned, his character Hayes falls head over heels with the older woman Solene. Despite such roadblocks as age gap, and the very different realities they live in, which as expected make their relationship prone to public judgment, they still find their way to each other.
“I think really Hayes might sort of seem outwardly very charismatic and in control of himself, but I think based on the life and the person he’s had to kind of become, being in the spotlight his entire life, I think Solene’s vulnerability is this sort of massive, calming and opening process for Hayes,” he said, giving an idea of why Solene and Hayes connected on an intimate level.
“I think he really just, like, kind of blossoms through this relationship because he feels like he’s able to be vulnerable for the first time.”
Nicholas further shared his thoughts on love: “I feel like, you know, love is something that continually evolves and grows, and you become partners with someone and it’s a collaboration…”
K-pop, ‘90s boybands as inspiration
Nicholas has proven himself as leading man material through the romantic films “Purple Hearts” and “Red, White & Royal Blue.” It turns out he’s also pop-star material. He has the pipes as seen in the covers he has been posting on his social media.
While he probably didn’t need much help in the singing parts in “The Idea of You,” The STAR learned that he still went through song and dance training.
He also studied mega successful bands like One Direction, as well as drawing inspiration from K-pop and ‘90s boy groups for his performance.
Though he didn’t dare venture into fan theories about his character being based on Styles. “I know what you’re heavily implying,” he quipped when directly asked if he watched a lot of One Direction videos as preparation.
“Look, I did watch a bunch of One Direction because I just feel like growing up within that sort of zeitgeist, the kind of the obvious comps, I guess.”
“But also, as I was also going through the dance training and singing training, we looked at bands like BTS, within the K-pop world and some of the boy bands from the ‘90s,” he further shared.
He particularly found the process of how these bands are formed fascinating.
“And I think just, like, trying to embody someone who, you know, they all share something, which is they’ve gone through a process,” he said.
“They’ve been built, essentially. They’ve been assembled by these kinds of teams of people. And I think that was very fascinating (to study).
“But, yeah, there were a couple of real-life references very particular to the story that we were portraying in the movie that were, yeah, quite useful to me.”
But he was quick to add, “I won’t mention, specifically one.”
Meanwhile, due to the very realistic music festival scene in the movie where the love story and all began, one press member asked if they really filmed at the actual Coachella.
“We didn’t go to the real Coachella,” Nicholas confirmed. “We fabricated Coachella in (a field in) Atlanta at 5 in the morning during the winter while I was wearing a sleeveless vest, abs and shorts, and pretending it was a really hot summer evening.”
Despite the “manufactured” concert scene, the experience still felt real with the audience and game supporting artists.
“I mean, it did feel extremely real at times. We had… I feel like it must have been about a 400, 500 person audience. So, you know, me as someone who’s never performed in that capacity before, I mean, it felt extremely real,” Nicholas admitted.
“And what was really special about it is the way our supporting artists were kind of prepared to sort of act and help support this scene. They’d been given posters of the band. They knew all of our names. They knew the song beforehand. So it really did feel like a real gig. We were kind of performing… We had so much fun.”
Nicholas pointed out that the concert scene was the final days of filming for himself with his August Moon bandmates.
“It was actually sort of the last portion of filming for all of my bandmates as well. Even though it was halfway through production, it did feel like all of our hard work had kind of culminated to those nights,” he said.
Nicholas related that they wanted very much to keep rocking, but they had to wrap up as dawn came. “
So by the end, they were like, ‘You’ve got one more run through’… And we were like, ‘Ah, can we just do, like, a couple more? Then a couple more?’ Like, we wanted it to kind of keep going on. But then, you know, the sun was starting to rise, and everyone wanted that. They were like, ‘We’ve got it.’”
At any rate, he was thrilled about pulling off such a realistic scene and grateful for the belief that they were actually at Coachella saying: “I’m really glad you were convinced we were actually at Coachella. That means a lot.”
2024-04-26T16:34:56Z dg43tfdfdgfd