The 'Red, White and Royal Blue' director knows he made the 'right decisions' cutting elements from the book to focus on Alex and Henry's relationship

• "Red, White & Royal Blue" is a film adaptation of Casey McQuiston's queer romance novel of the same name.
• Director Matthew López spoke with Insider about bringing the story to the screen.

Casey McQuiston's "Red, White & Royal Blue" had already achieved queer romance cult status — and now, the magic that made their novel so compelling has moved onto the big screen.

Directed by playwright Matthew López ("The Inheritance") in his feature film debut, and starring Taylor Zakhar Perez and Nicholas Galitzine, the Prime Video-distributed film has the same bones of McQuiston's book: First Son Alex Claremont-Diaz (Perez) and Prince Henry of England (Galitzine) don't get along, but are forced to play nice after accidentally causing a cake-smashing international incident that threatens relations between their two countries.

The pair smooth things over through a series of public appearances, and in a classic enemies-to-lovers twist, end up falling in love. And if none of that sold you, "Red, White & Royal Blue" also features Uma Thurman doing a very enthusiastic Texas accent.

Obviously, there were some changes that had to be made when porting the book over to the screen — most notably, as fans clocked in trailers, the absence of Alex's sister June Claremont-Diaz in the film. López, who co-wrote the screenplay with Ted Malawer but spoke with Insider in his capacity as the film's director given the ongoing WGA strike, said that his focus when making the film was unequivocally on Alex and Henry's relationship. Because of that, anything that didn't directly fuel their characters didn't have a place in the film.

"I think at the end of the day, whether or not fans of the book are happy with any decision, I'm hoping that they will be grateful for my ruthlessness," López told Insider. "Because I do believe it's yielded a better movie as a result."

Insider spoke with the director about building chemistry between the film's two leads in weeks of pre-shooting rehearsals, the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, and why he watched every single submitted self-tape for the role of Alex Claremont-Diaz.

Insider: You spent two weeks in rehearsals before actually filming the movie. Obviously, you come from a theater background — why did you choose to approach the film in this way?

Matthew López: There were two big reasons for it. The technically reason was, I really wanted to shoot as much of this film in oners (ed. note: a "oner" is a long, singular take) so that I could allow not just Nick and Taylor, but all of the actors to be in frame together and just let them be free and loose and see how much of the film I can show without having to cut.

In order to do that, I needed to make sure that the actors all had a pretty good familiarity with the text before we went into production. We approached the rehearsals like we were doing a play. That's just my training in theater. A prepared actor is not necessarily a straight-jacketed actor. I think a prepared actor is actually a loose and free actor.

I needed Taylor and Nick to have a comfort level with each other on day one. I needed them to get to know each other, and I needed them to have a project together. We spent many, many days, just the three of us, working through every scene, talking about everything. I needed them to know exactly why they were doing it.

It was an opportunity for them to ask questions of me, of each other, of themselves. And I think that I just wanted to give them a project to tackle together before we got on set so that on that first day of filming, they knew each other very well. It's less about knowing the scene very well, and more about knowing each other and knowing each other's rhythms and trusting one another.

This film is pretty unique in the fact that Alex, one of its main characters, is a bisexual, biracial Mexican-American, amid a dearth of Latin representation in entertainment. You previously spoke about wanting to see as many people for that role — why was that so important to you?

I think that when we talk about representation, we're actually talking about two things, right? We're talking about representation in terms of characters that we see in film and television in theater, the kinds of characters that writers create for actors to play and audiences to see. Where it used to be lots of straight, white people, that is changing.

The other kind of representation is a representation of opportunity. The opportunity to be seen for roles, the opportunity to be known by casting directors, and directors, and producers, and studios. Everybody deserves a chance who is reasonably qualified for a role. Everyone deserves to be seen, especially for a role like Alex Claremont-Diaz, which is such a specific role.

The person who deserves the job is the person who the creator of the project — in this case, me, the director — decides, "This is who I want to work with. This is whose talents I want to utilize to bring this character to life."

So for me, all of the focus and attention was on just scouring the world for these young actors and finding out who they were. As a result, I know who so many of them are, because I watched every single one of their self-tapes that they probably didn't think that the director would ever be watching. I started my Christmas of 2021 watching self-tapes, and then I met with dozens and dozens of them for callbacks over Zoom, and I got to know them.

I put Taylor in the movie because he was the perfect actor for the role. But I also now have a really strong awareness of at least two dozen young, Latino actors who are working in this industry. And I remember them, and my casting director remembers them, and my producer remembers them. That, to me, is what's important.

When you're adapting a novel, there's obviously going to be some slimming down, and fans are going to disagree with some of the choices made. There's been a bit of backlash to the fact that Alex's sister June doesn't appear in the film, and I'm curious if you're able to speak to that choice.

It touches a little on my work as a screenwriter, and as a striking screenwriter, I'm not going to discuss that.

Absolutely.

I had two hours to tell my story. And I quickly realized when we were putting the production together, and most especially when I was editing the film, that if it wasn't about Alex and Henry as individuals or as a couple, if it didn't feed directly into our understanding of who they are as people, it didn't belong in the movie.

When you look at it from that perspective, while they weren't necessarily fun decisions to make — but because they were the right decisions to make — they were actually easy decisions. There's this great quote from Mike Nichols [director of "The Graduate" and "The Birdcage," among others], when he is talking about putting films together. He says, "If it can be cut, it must be cut."

You have to be ruthless. And I think at the end of the day, whether or not fans of the book are happy with any decision, I'm hoping — and certainly, our experiences at the fan screening last night bear out — that they will be grateful for my ruthlessness, because I do believe it's yielded a better movie as a result.

You're promoting this film in your capacity as its director, but as you said, you're also a striking writer. Is there anything else that you'd like to say regarding the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, with reference to the film or not?

The truth is that I am a striking writer, and my cast are striking actors. We are striking because Hollywood has stopped working for the people who make it work. It has stopped working creatively, financially. The proposals that SAG-AFTRA and the proposals that the WGA are making are a way to protect us, but it's also a way to protect the industry.

We care about this industry. We want it to be healthy. We want to tell stories. That's why we got into this business in the first place. But we're also aware that it is a business. And because it is a business, we need to be treated fairly. And we haven't been treated fairly for quite some time. And I think the AMPTP should let us help them save this industry.

"Red, White & Royal Blue" is currently available to stream on Prime Video.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.