“I’m a huge rom-com fan, but I’m also like, How can I do this differently?” Red, White & Royal Blue author Casey McQuiston told Glamour in 2019 about their debut novel. “I’m a queer person. So the first subversion was thinking, What if this is a queer kid and he has to deal with what that means for his position in the world?”
And so a charming romance about the first son of the United States falling for a British prince was born. It became the viral hit of the year, mostly through word of mouth, before landing on the New York Times bestseller list and sealing a film deal with Amazon Studios.
This summer that film adaptation will drop on Prime Video with Taylor Zakhar Perez and Nicholas Galitzine starring as Alex Claremont-Diaz and Prince Henry, respectively. Tony-winning playwright Matthew López cowrote the film with Ted Malawer and also makes his directorial debut with the project.
“I never imagined I’d read a book with a queer Latine character at the center—a character who is smart and passionate and flawed and hopeful,” López tells Glamour. “I think having this book in my life when I was younger might have made it a little easier. I knew immediately that I wanted to bring it to the screen.”
Says Galitzine, “We were all aware that we wanted to make one a classic rom-com but with a sort of new spin. Matthew's a very sensitive, very feeling person, and we obviously wanted to inject our movie with that kind of emotionality. He had a great balance in being able to facilitate both lightness and emotion within his work.”
Here's everything else you need to know about the Red, White & Royal Blue movie, including an exclusive first look.
What is Red, White & Royal Blue about—and how closely does it follow the book?
Here's the official description, per Prime Video, “Alex Claremont-Diaz (Taylor Zakhar Perez), the son of the president of the United States (Uma Thurman), and Britain’s Prince Henry (Nicholas Galitzine) have a lot in common: stunning good looks, undeniable charisma, international popularity…and a total disdain for each other. Separated by an ocean, their long-running feud hasn’t really been an issue, until a disastrous—and very public—altercation at a royal event becomes tabloid fodder, driving a potential wedge in US-British relations at the worst possible time. Going into damage-control mode, their families and handlers force the two rivals into a staged ‘truce.’ But as Alex and Henry’s icy relationship unexpectedly begins to thaw into a tentative friendship, the friction that existed between them sparks something deeper than they ever expected. Based on Casey McQuiston’s critically acclaimed New York Times bestseller, Red, White & Royal Blue marks the feature film writing and directing debut of Tony Award–winning playwright Matthew López (The Inheritance).”
Fans of McQuiston's novel will be pleased to know that, with a few exceptions, the movie largely follows the book's enemies-to-friends-to-lovers tale. And the tone and spirit that made everyone fall in love with the book are certainly still there. “Casey has been an incredible source of support for me throughout the making of this film,” López says. “I respect them for being appropriately protecting of the novel and am grateful to them for also giving me space to tell my own version of their story. Obviously, when translating a nearly 500-page book to the screen, there are things you have to lose and things you will need to change. It is an adaptation, not a recitation. I like to think that, as a fan of the novel, I was able to find the balance of serving Casey’s story while also serving the needs of the movie.”
For López, the most important element to maintain from the book was Alex and Henry’s individual personalities as well as their shared story together. “If there was one lesson I kept learning over and over while making this film, it’s that if it’s not about Alex or Henry, it doesn’t belong in the film,” he says.
What will the movie look like?
Glamour has the exclusive first photos from the film. If the chemistry between Zakhar Perez and Galitzine looks this good in a still image, just imagine how much it sizzles in the actual movie.
On July 5, Prime released the first-look teaser trailer, and the sexual tension was already palpable.
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In the first full trailer, released on July 6, the sexual tension was positively explosive. The two-minute clip shows Alex and Henry starting out as bitter rivals, before one passionate kiss on the beach changes everything. Without getting too graphic, the trailer includes several tantalizing glimpses of the steaminess and drama to come.
What else do I need to know?
The film—rated R, by the way—is López's directorial debut. And the screenplay was adapted from Casey McQuiston's novel by López and Ted Malawer (Halston), with López, Casey McQuiston, Michael Riley Mcgrath (My Policeman), and Michael S. Constable (Persuasian) serving as executive producers. Greg Berlanti (You; Love, Simon) and Sarah Schechter (Riverdale, The Flash) also produced.
While the movie is, as López describes, “an adaptation, not a recitation,” McQuiston was available to the actors. “I remember Casey coming in on a really fun day,” says Galitzine. “It was a scene where Taylor and I were bickering in that sort of Alex-Henry banter way that we do, and it gave us time to talk to Casey and understand the influences that went into the book. We obviously have a lot of fan service, and I hope they love my interpretation of Henry.”
Who’s in the cast?
As shared previously, the film's romantic leads are Taylor Zakhar Perez as Alex Claremont-Diaz, son of the US president, and Nicholas Galitzine as Britain's Prince Henry.
Also starring in the film is Uma Thurman as President Ellen Claremont, the first female POTUS. Rounding out the cast are Clifton Collins Jr., Sarah Shahi, Rachel Hilson, Stephen Fry, Ellie Bamber, Thomas Flynn, Malcolm Atobrah, Akshay Khanna, Sharon D. Clarke, Aneesh Sheth, and Juan Castano.
When does it come out?
Red, White & Royal Blue will be available for streaming on Prime Video on August 11.
Okay, but what about the romance?
Red, White & Royal Blue the book is—I'm not sure how to put this any other way—famously horny. For the movie adaptation, intimacy coordinator Robbie Taylor Hunt was enlisted to ensure that physical intimacy between Henry and Alex was told in the best and safest way possible.
“He was incredible,” Zakhar Perez says of working with Taylor Hunt. “In London there are these brand of mints called Smints, and we called him the Smint Lord because we would always come up to him and ask for a mint or Listerine strip. I didn't want my breath to be offensive to Nick as soon as we get on set and have to be intimate with each other….”
He continues, “A great thing about having rehearsals is that we'd have an hour a day set aside to be with Robbie. It was just like a dance. I grew up in theater, and Nick's done musicals. We're both very musical people. So Robbie found it easiest to talk to us in musical terms—there's a musicality to intimacy. There'd be lots of counting. Like, ‘1, 2, 3, 4, grab. 2, 3, 4, squeeze.’ That's what was going through my mind as we did it, to get it in your body. Once your body remembers it, you can let it go. The muscle memory is so strong. Then it's just about getting your mind in the game.”
Adds Galitzine, “It's a very vulnerable and trusting space. Taylor and I had to rely on each other because we really wanted to tell that story honestly and feel that we weren't hindered by any of our own boundaries that we were setting up. It becomes a sort of wonderful choreography that all serves to facilitate these two young men who fell in love with each other. Robbie was really helpful in educating me in the physical language of the character.”
What else are the cast and creators saying?
Zakhar Perez tells Glamour he knew the movie “could be something special” as he read the book—a feeling that only amplified after seeing the script. “The core of Alex [from the book] is still in the film,” he says. “He's just so ambitious, loyal, charismatic, and smart. That intelligence was one of my fears about playing Alex—he's not playing at it or trying to be smart. That's just how he was raised, how he was educated. I'm not saying I'm not smart, but whew. His brain never stops.”
He continues, “With Alex, there's such a growing-up process. He's like a man-child in a way. He's really impulsive and stubborn, and he's insecure with his parents. His dad's a congressman and his mom's the president. He feels the weight of the high expectations placed on him due to his position, and he struggles with feelings of inadequacy. You see how hard it is for him to balance his personal and professional life. He's had sexual experiences with guys in the past, but he doesn't lead with it. I think it's not even top of mind. He's kissing girls at a New Year's party. And then Henry comes and kind of forces him to grow up and go, ‘Oh, I'm really into this.’ It turns into love, and his identity and family and relationships become even more important. I love that about Alex. Because who knows? If there's an alternative universe, who knows what would have happened if he didn't meet Henry? What if he didn't find a purpose or a higher path for himself other than just being a powerful politician?”
For López, the most challenging scene was the wedding scene that opens the film. “We shot it over the course of three days,” the director says. “It was a huge scene with hundreds of extras in a grand ballroom and huge dresses and a seven-foot high wedding cake and stunts and lots and lots of frosting. It was also fairly early in the shooting schedule so I was still a fairly unpracticed director at the time. I wasn’t unpracticed at the end of it.”
Galitzine, meanwhile, says his most rewarding time on set came during the film's emotional climax, when Alex and Henry must decide if—and how—they're going to move forward in their relationship. “It's the emotional height of the movie in a lot of ways, and sometimes as an actor, you can very much get in your head about that,” he says. “But Taylor really was just so emotionally present that it helped me. We got to a vulnerable, beautiful space. Those kinds of moments are where you drift into a level of truth and sincerity that feels very real. That's what we're always aiming for.”
He continues, “It's a really heartwarming story. Not a lot of films like this are made, and I hope it's important for the LGBTQ+ community because there needs to be more films like this. I hope it resonates with everyone. I've been really touched to hear how widespread the book became and affected many people from many different backgrounds. I hope our movie can do the same because a lot of love went into it.”
Anna Moeslein is the deputy editor at Glamour. Follow her on Instagram @annamoeslein.
