Sometimes, it’s love at first sight. But, for People We Meet on Vacation protagonists Alex (Tom Blyth) and Poppy (Emily Bader), it’s more like mismatched BFFs at first burrito.
In this sneak-peek clip from the upcoming rom-com, premiering Friday Jan. 9, college students and new acquaintances Alex and Poppy get to know each other intimately on a long drive. And by intimately, we mean covered in hot sauce.
“The only way to really have true love and intimacy is to let people see that full, messy version of you,” says People We Meet on Vacation author Emily Henry. “That’s really scary, but I think it’s also the most rewarding, meaningful thing you can do in life.”
The scene above encapsulates the pair’s dynamic that we see unfold throughout the rest of the film, as the best friends go on annual summer trips together: Alex, the more cautious of the two, is visibly nervous while his riding companion, the effervescent Poppy, noshes on a loaded burrito, unbothered. “Can you be careful with that?” he begs. “I’ve got it,” she insists. But Alex isn’t necessarily convinced.
If the road trip sequence from 1989’s When Harry Met Sally… comes to mind when watching this playful scene, that’s intentional. The Nora Ephron and Rob Reiner classic was, in fact, a major touchpoint for Henry when writing the novel in the first place, and for Brett Haley, who directed the adaptation. “I knew that I wanted them to be polar opposites, because Harry and Sally were just so, so good in that way,” says Henry.
“I wanted to try to do sort of a gender-flipped version, in which the female lead would be the Harry character — she’s a bit much, you could say, and she’s a little bit flighty and a bit more cynical in the beginning,” the author continues. “Then our Sally character is the male lead, someone who’s a little bit more fastidious about how he likes things, but also a true romantic deep down who wants this lasting, stable, beautiful love.”
Bader was conscious of embodying a character that is perhaps against the stereotype for a rom-com heroine, where Poppy is the more free-spirited of the two. And that couldn’t be more evident than when she adds all the fixings to her burrito in this scene, blissfully confident it won’t slip through her fingers. “I love it. It’s a dynamic we don’t always see, but I feel like I do know people of all shapes, sizes, [and] genders like that,” she says. “I don’t know why it’s been sort of relegated to the guy role until now, because it felt very natural to get to play that.”
Blyth thinks that, at first, careful Alex isn’t exactly the biggest fan of carefree Poppy. “She just so quickly disassembles all these things he values,” says the actor. “But it’s a testament to just if you spend enough time with someone, and you get to know their humanity, you can't help but end up appreciating people’s humanity when you actually get to know it.”
Join Poppy and Alex on their journey — burritos optional — when People We Meet on Vacation takes off Jan. 9, only on Netflix.
Additional reporting by Ariana Romero.
