#elio's

When Alex (Taylor Zakhar Perez), the son of US President Ellen Claremont (Uma Thurman), is invited to a royal wedding in Britain, he's expected to be on his best behaviour and be as diplomatic as possible. Unfortunately, things don't quite turn out that way...

Alex has an ongoing feud with Prince Henry (Nicholas Galitzine), which comes to a head when a fight between the pair causes the destruction of the very expensive wedding cake. To avoid a PR disaster, they are instructed to stage a high-profile friendship until the gossip dies down - but the campaign proves to be far more effective than either of them anticipated.

"In doing their damage control, they discover that they actually like each other -and love each other, says Matthew López, who directed and co-wrote this adaptation of Casey McQuiston's bestselling novel. ‘This was absolutely a passion project for me - I read the book, and it zoomed straight to the top of my "must-do" list. The idea of anybody else making this movie would have thrown me into fits of jealousy.’

López was acutely aware that the key to the film's success would be in casting lead actors with credible chemistry, and he was delighted that Zakhar Perez and Galitzine sparked together instantly.

‘The nightmare scenario for me was finding two perfect actors who did not gel at all’, says López. ‘But what was innate from the moment Taylor and Nick first met was that they played so incredibly well together.’

The two leads were equally keen to make their characters relationship evolve believably.

‘Nick and I felt a responsiblity to bring to life these sexual moments that are in the book in a real, grounded way’, says Zakhar Perez. ‘The intimate scenes were choreographed and specific when it came to whether it was a moment of passion, or a tender experience. In a relationship you go through different stages, and we got to explore those throughout the film.’

For Galitzine, another part of the appeal of the project was the chance to portray a character who was experiencing such an intense internal conflict.

‘Henry feels a very strong sense of duty, but he's completely in denial of his own feelings’, he says. ‘There's something very selfless, if not really heartbreaking, about that. He's in this totally solitary position of this role he was born into’.

In addition to Thurman as the US President, the film also features Stephen Fry in the role of Henry's grandfather, the British King- and López was delighted to have Fry on board.