Exclusive

Is The Idea of You About Harry Styles? Anne Hathaway Says…

Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine are setting the record straight on whether their upcoming movie The Idea of You is inspired by Harry Styles. Watch what they have to say.

By Elyse Dupre Mar 19, 2024 8:18 PMTags
Watch: Is Anne Hathaway’s New Movie ‘The Idea Of You’ About Harry Styles? Find Out!

Anne Hathaway is steering fans in a different direction when it comes to the inspiration behind The Idea of You.

While there's been speculation the film is a nod to Harry Styles, the Oscar winner recently insisted this isn't the case. 

"No!" Anne told E! News during a joint conversation with costar Nicholas Galitzine at SXSW. "Everyone needs to chill. Sorry, I probably shouldn't be that reactive about it. I just think no." (For more from her interview, tune in to E! News March 19 at 11 p.m.). 

In The Idea of You, based on Robinne Lee's book of the same name, Anne plays a 40-year-old art gallery owner named Solène who forms a romance with Nicholas' character Hayes Campbell—the 24-year-old lead singer of the boy band August Moon.

And if you think the plot still sounds like a reference to Harry, Nicholas also shut down this theory.

"It's funny," he noted, later adding, "just because it's become this thing in of itself. We have tried to distance ourselves from that, and I think Hayes is such a wonderful character in of himself. There were so many amazing references we used: BTS for a lot of the choreography, which was really great. There's so many references out there."

photos
Anne Hathaway's Best Roles

When it comes to Solène, Anne said she had to give the role her all.

"I needed to bring everything to this one," the actress shared. "I really, really did. Things I don't like thinking about—you know, certain states that you're left in at the end of a disastrous relationship. You have to kind of go back there. And so certain things I usually just, ‘OK, I'm just going to pick up and carry on.' So, I just used everything, and it was great."

Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images for Amazon MGM Studios

And ultimately, she has a lot of love for her character.

"The thing I kept focusing on is how lucky am I to have a character that can take this perspective," Anne said, "because she's not lost. She's not in a tailspin about, 'Where's my life going and how am I going to figure this out?' She's nurtured a lot of things in her life. She's raising a daughter, she's built a business. She made a great real estate call in the early aughts, and it was a good one. She's living in a really great neighborhood that she's connected to and has community with."

"So yeah, she doesn't have love, but she figures, ‘You know, I've got this beautiful life otherwise,'" Anne added. "And then, bam, in walks love. It's a little more complicated than that, but it's actually really not." 

The Idea of You premieres on Prime Video May 2. To see more books that have recently inspired movies or TV series, keep reading.

1. Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

Ten years, three brooks and one hit Netflix series later, the first release in Bardugo's fantasy trilogy that blends magic and romance is still BookTok's most beloved subject with more than 15 billion hashtag views. 

2. It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover

Released in 2016, Hoover's love-story-gone-wrong has dominated TikTok for years. And with Blake Lively set to star in the movie adaptation, it's safe to say It Ends With Us is sitting pretty on this list for the foreseeable future. 

3. The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

The first book in a series about a mortal girl who finds herself caught in a web of royal faerie intrigue, Black's 2018 release is still ruling the BookTok chart.

4. Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover

Hoover puts her unique spin on the popular friends-with-benefits trope in this 2014 novel about the messy relationship between an airline pilot and an E.R. nurse.

5. Verity by Colleen Hoover

Hoover's third and final novel to make the BookTok list is arguably her biggest creative swing, delivering a twist-filled thriller with an ending people are still debating more than five years after its release. 

6. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

PSA: Clear your schedule for an entire week if you choose to pick up the first book in Maas' beloved ACOTR series because the YA fantasy series that puts a fairy twist on the classic Beauty and the Beast tale will take over your life. Plus, it's being adapted for Hulu by the team that brought Outlander to the small screen, so you'll want to read ASAP. 

7. The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

One of the buzziest books of summer 2021, readers had all the feels for this rom-com about two scientists faking a relationship, only to have their chemistry cause chaos in the lab.

8. Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

Even before the film adaptation of the best-selling 2019 novel of the same name premieres on Amazon on Aug. 11, TikTok has long been swooning over the unexpected love story between Alex, the son of the president of the United States, and the fictional Prince Henry. International relations have never been so steamy.

9. Twisted Love by Ana Huang

"He has a heart of ice. But for her, he'd burn the world." And readers are definitely still burning for Huang's adult novel that spawned three sizzling followups. 

10. Haunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton

As dark as it is spicy, readers are hooked and spooked by Carlton's paranormal romance that involves a stalker, a secret society and a whole lot of suspense. 

11. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Six years after its release, TikTokers are still swooning over the love stories of a fictional reclusive Hollywood legend. And, after the success of Amazon Prime Video's take on Reid's Daisy Jones and the Six, Netflix is set to introduce audiences to Evelyn Hugo by adapting the bestseller into a movie. 

12. The Secret History by Donna Tartt

The oldest book on the list, this 1992 release from the Pulitzer Prize winner centers on a group of clever, eccentric misfits at a New England college who find themselves transfixed by their classics professor, leading to deadly consequences. 

13. The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas

Armas's debut novel was independently published in February 2021 and became such a TikTok sensation that the publishing world couldn't help but take notice. And readers couldn't help but swoon over the rom-com about a Spanish writer who agrees to fake-date a colleague and brings him to her sister's wedding.

14. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Quick, find the nearest Gen-Z reader near you and chances are they're obsessed with Yarros' sexy and sizzling story about a college for dragon riders. The first in a new series with the followup, Iron Flame, set to drop this fall, prepare to be fully spellbound by this epic fantasy. 

15. Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

This art-filled retelling of the legend of Achilles and the Trojan War from the author of Circe is still enchanting readers more than a decade after its 2011 release. 

Watch E! News weeknights Monday through Thursday at 11 p.m., only on E!.