Five months passed between the audition and callback for “Red, White & Royal Blue” star Taylor Zakhar Perez, but it only took a few days to secure his role as Alex Claremont-Diaz once he spoke to producer Sarah Schechter and co-writer, director, and executive producer Matthew Lopez.
“I’m at my cousin’s wedding and David Rapaport calls me and said, ‘Hey, Sarah Schechter wants to chat with you about this project.’ And I said, ‘Oh, I auditioned for that so long ago.’ He said, ‘Yeah, they’re trying to find their Alex. They want to talk to you,’” Perez recalled. “I had a great chat with Sarah. I had a great chat with Matthew. Then I flew back two days later and had the camera read with Nick [Galitzine] on Zoom.. .they said the next day, ‘Can you get to London in four days?’”
As part of the Variety Streaming Room presented by Prime Video, Perez, Schechter and Lopez joined senior TV features editor Emily Longeretta to discuss how they adapted Casey McQuiston’s 2019 novel for the big screen.
“Red, White & Royal Blue” follows the first son of the United States (Perez) and the Duke of Cambridge (Galitzine), who are forced to pose as friends after an argument between them makes international headlines. Resentful at first, the pair builds a genuine connection, which eventually evolves into romance.
Director Lopez first discovered the novel after his agent recommended he adapt it into a musical. But after reading it, Lopez knew it had to be made into a feature film and proceeded to aggressively pursue the job as director.
“I basically made a nuisance of myself with Sarah Schechter, which really set the tone of our entire relationship, I think. I basically shamelessly lobbied for the job,” Lopez joked. “I loved the book from the moment I started reading it. I loved the characters. I loved Casey’s writing. I loved everything about it. I just knew I couldn’t sleep until I got to make the film.”
Schechter heard about “Red, White & Royal Blue” “long before” it was published in 2019. One of her execs, Mike McGrath, was the first to tell her about the book, but he was weary about sending the synopsis over email due to its R-rated content.
“He came into my office and he says, ‘I read this book. I’m a little nervous to email you about it because it’s kind of dirty,’” Schechter said. “Then I read it, Greg [Berlanti] read it. We all fell in love with it. There were several parties chasing Casey for the rights because it was so clearly going to be a fantastic film if done well. We were very lucky. We teamed up with Amazon and Casey ended up trusting us, which was incredible. We’re grateful to them forever for that. Amazon was also just so supportive and really understood immediately what it could be.”
Although thousands of fans had high expectations for the movie, Perez knew he had the script and the novel, which he called the “Bible” and “the second Bible,” to lead him to success. He also took preparation for “Red, White, & Royal Blue” very seriously and diligently studied the source material to discover how he would play Alex.
“I did reread the book and try so hard to find those little specific things that Alex would do, that personally as an actor, is so much fun because it gives you all those extra little details to think about and focus only,” Perez explained. “But it also gives the fans that [satisfaction]. It’s tantalizing because you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, I see. I knew Alex would do that. I knew Henry would do that. That’s so Alex.’”
Watch the full conversation above.
Source Agencies
