The cast and producers of Red, White & Royal Blue — Prime Video‘s breakout movie based on the bestselling novel by Casey McQuiston — acknowledge there is a fantastical element to their hit rom-com that stars Uma Thurman, Nicholas Galitzine and Taylor Zakhar Perez: A female U.S. president. A gay prince from across the pond who falls head over heals with her bisexual Mexican-American son. A delicious wrestling match between the two men in a mound of wedding cake.
But such a fantasy — besides charming the heck out of Gen Z viewers who love a good romance — could stand to make a difference in this otherwise contentious election year.
“Sometimes you don’t get the fantasy of Uma Thurman as president, but the reality of the choice that you’re facing is enormous and will affect your life and the life of a lot of disenfranchised and disadvantaged people, including anyone with a uterus and anyone who doesn’t identify as heterosexual,” says executive producer Sarah Schechter, who sat down for a chat this week at Deadline Studio at Prime Experience, where she was joined by Perez, Galitzine and Thurman, along with co-writer/director/EP Matthew López, McQuiston and co-star Rachel Hilson. “And so I think the thing that I would hope is that people realize that maybe a slightly more loving administration is possible if you get out and vote.”
Watch the interview here and check out photos from the event below.
“I think also there’s a beautiful sequence of Alex campaigning in his home state of Texas, which turns blue at the end of the movie,” added McQuiston, who received multiple offers to license the novel — their first — before it was published in 2019. “Hopefully people will take from that, that there are a lot of disenfranchised voters out there in red states who really need our support and really need our help, our money and our attention, and that they’re not to be written off. Red states are full of progressive, marginalized people who have just historically been left out of these conversations.”
That said, the movie had to be rooted in reality if the producers were going to spin a tale about the president’s son (Perez), who falls in love with British Prince Henry (Galitzine). In between campaigning for his Democratic mom — in Texas, no less — Alex confesses his love to Henry after walking in the rain to get to his castle.
Nicholas Galitzine
Michael Buckner for Deadline
Taylor Zakhar Perez
Michael Buckner for Deadline
Uma Thurman
Michael Buckner for Deadline
Nicholas Galitzine and Taylor Zakhar Perez
Michael Buckner for Deadline
Sarah Schechter, Casey McQuiston and Matthew López
Michael Buckner for Deadline
Greg Berlanti and Rachel Hilson
Michael Buckner for Deadline
“When we were making the film, we knew we were making a fairytale. But we also wanted to make sure that the movie made logical sense, that we were not cheating on a reality,” explains López. “We were working in a realm of fantasy in a way, but the stakes had to be real. Everything for those two and for the other characters had to feel like real stakes. We had to really understand what was going on inside their minds.”
“I think the 92% of people who aren’t queer need to see this movie, and the 8% of people who do identify as queer need to see this movie and see themselves on screen,” adds Perez. “I think it’s important for everybody to see it and to have empathy for people who they don’t understand. That’s the biggest thing about this film for all of us, that it has a message. It has something on its mind, and I think you leave more optimistic that the world can be a better place.”
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