If you want the Cliffs Notes of Anne Hathaway‘s new film, The Idea of You, they go something like this: Solène Marchand, a beautiful 40-year-old single mother, falls in love with Hayes Campbell (played by Nicholas Galitzine), the 24-year-old lead singer of a world famous boy band. While the sex is mind-blowing, Solène’s work and family lives are falling apart.
Within 48 hours of its release, the trailer – with its steamy footage of Hayes pulling Solène in for a kiss as she whispers, “I’m too old for you” – broke the record for the most-watched trailer for an original streaming movie.
Why so popular? Aside from Hathaway’s recent fashion renaissance drawing in fans, there’s also the fact The Idea of You is a film adaptation of the Harry Styles fan-fiction book of the same name, written by author and actor Robinne Lee. (Side note: Lee has fan-fiction cred, having played Ros Bailey in the Fifty Shades trilogy, which is based on Twilight fan-fiction.)
And while the story of a pop star dating an older woman is reminiscent of Styles’ relationship with actor-director Olivia Wilde, Lee wrote the book well before Styles and Wilde got together on the set of the film Don’t Worry Darling in 2021.
As for what drew Hathaway to the film? It was the idea that a mother in her forties can be more than she appears. “I’m really curious [about] where the instinct to diminish someone based on their gender and based on their age comes from,” she says. “I am really grateful and proud to be making a film that furthers Robinne Lee’s desire to create a new type of archetype: a mother who is not just there as a nurturer but as a whole person.”
As Solène gets swept up in Hayes’ celebrity world of tabloid gossip, invasive paparazzi and a fervent fanbase trying to bring her down, cracks begin to appear in their relationship.
As a seasoned celebrity who has been a tabloid target, Hathaway has experienced her share of a lack of privacy. But these days she says she wouldn’t even know what was written about her.
“I have no idea whether I’m in the gossip columns or not,” she insists. “I love my job so much and I work very hard at [it], and I love my family so much. So, when I’m with my family, I’m really with [them] and just living my life. I don’t really have a lot of time for what other people think of me. I don’t pay attention to any of that because I don’t see how it will enhance my life.
“I choose to be happy for people,” she adds. “And I feel fortunate to find myself – at 41 years old – with an incredibly fulfilling career.”
While she may not care what others think, Hathaway is eternally grateful for the support she has received from fans over the years.
“I’m sort of amazed that I find myself in the position of someone who people get excited to meet,” she says. “If you think about the things that are really rare for actors, becoming recognisable is one of them. For most people trying to break into the industry, it’s actually not usually the way that it goes. So if somebody’s excited to meet me, I’m really excited to meet them.”
And what will fans think of her new film? Aside from the fact it certainly strays from the source material (Solène resides in a much more modest home, and her daughter has been aged up – as has Hayes), perhaps the only disappointment some may feel is that the spicy scenes are few and far between, and are far less graphic than in Lee’s book. However, fans will be pleased to see the overarching message remains, which Hathaway explains is “that love is worth it. I think [the film is] really smart, and its biggest strength is that it takes you on a ride. But, at the end, it’s that love matters.”
The Idea of You is streaming on Amazon Prime from May 2.
