June 26, 2025 • 44 mins
Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club is the podcast where great stories, bold women, and irresistible conversations collide! Hosted by former Bright Side co-host, Danielle Robay, new weekly episodes balance thoughtful literary insight with the fervor of buzzy book trends, pop culture and more. Bookmarked brings together celebrities, tastemakers, influencers and authors from Reese's Book Club and beyond to share stories that transcend the page.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, it's Simone Boys from the bright Side, and I've
got something very exciting to share with you today. So
a few weeks ago, I told you Danielle was moving
on from co hosting The bright Side with Me to
host a brand new show, and the time has finally come, y'all.
Danielle's new podcast, Bookmarked by Reese's book Club, is out
now on Bookmarked. Danielle is going to be speaking with celebrities, influencers,
(00:22):
authors from Reese's book Club and beyond to share the
stories that truly transcend the page. So tune in every
Tuesday for your once a week book Club. And here's
the best part. I am so thrilled that I get
to share the first episode with you all Today. Danielle
is sitting down with two best selling fan favorite Reese's
book Club authors, Emily Henry and Juleen Kwang. They talk
(00:44):
all about collaborating to bring Emily's novels to the screen
and the secret sauce to writing the perfect romance.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
But enough for me.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Here's the episode and congrats Danielle.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Hey, Hey, I'm Danielle robe to the very first episode
of Bookmarked by Reese's book Club. We're going to get
to know each other well, but I want you to
know a little bit about me. I'm a shoe girl,
and I know it may seem odd to open a
book club podcast talking about.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
Shoes, but I have a point.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
I promise great books and great shoes they both take
you places, sometimes across continents, sometimes into steamy love stories.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
I've been in a few of those.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Sometimes into a full blown identity crisis. I've also open
in a few of those, and sometimes straight into conversations
that stick with you forever. We're definitely getting into those.
So if you're already a part of Reese's book Club,
then you know it's not just a reading list.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
It's a lifestyle and a movement.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
It's a place where brilliant women and brilliant books get
the attention they really deserve. And if you're new here,
welcome you have found your people on behalf of the
Reese's book Club team are so happy you're here. We
accept you, we embrace you, and we'll probably recommend fourteen
books to you by the end of this episode.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
So here's how it's going to work.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Every Tuesday, we're diving into the stories behind the stories.
We're talking to authors, actors, musicians, comedians, directors, anyone who's
ever made us feel something with their words.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
You know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Page to screen journeys, book talk of sessions, plot twists
not just on the page, but also in life. Bookmarked
is our once a week hangout, our meeting place.
Speaker 4 (02:37):
So whether you're out on.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
A walk, driving to work, or hiding from your inbox,
or just pretending to clean while you're actually laying on
the floor staring at the ceiling like I usually do.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
I am so glad you're here.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
This space is for you. Welcome to the club. Let's
go somewhere together. Today's guests are two of the biggest
names in the world of romance, Emily Henry and Yuleen Kwang.
Both of them hold so much weight separately, but they
are doing an interview for the first time together. That's
(03:11):
what's so fun about this. They're friends and creative collaborators,
and they're both Ese's Book Club alums.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
Emily Henry is one of the.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Most prolific romance novelists in the game. She published six
incredible books.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
In five years. I don't even know how that's possible.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Her most recent book was Great, Big Beautiful Life, and
it was the Reese's book Club pick in May. Now,
Yulein Kwang is a screenwriter, director, and author whose novel
How to End a Love Story was last May's Reese's
book Club pick.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
They're Maye Sisters Now.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
You've also seen her work on screen, including on Hulu's
Dollphace and Now. Eulena is at the helm of two
movie adaptations based on Emily's books, The People We Meet
on Vacation and Beatreet. Emily Leen, Welcome to the first
episode of Bookmarked. We're so excited to have you here, Emily.
(04:02):
All of your fans call you m Hen, which is
such a fun nickname.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
So Uleen, I was.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Thinking maybe we could give you a moniker today.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
Are you cool with that?
Speaker 5 (04:10):
Oh? Ooh, okay, you'll be the first tell me.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
I'm thinking Youku.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
I think it's cool, Youku.
Speaker 6 (04:18):
Oh god, I think it's very close to Yoko. I'm
a big fan of Yoko. Oh no, I'm like her
her artwork and you know what you know? Yeah, sure,
let's lean in.
Speaker 4 (04:27):
Okay, thank you.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
I'd love to give you guys a chance to introduce
yourselves to the book club. And I felt like, what
better way than to share all of our favorite nineties
rom coms.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
We're all love story girlies.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
I'll go first, just to set the stage, I'm pretty
woman anything Julia Roberts.
Speaker 5 (04:46):
I think it would have to be Nodding Hill.
Speaker 6 (04:49):
You know, I'm just a girl standing in front of
a boy asking him to love her. That's it doesn't
get better than that. Plus there's that sequence where he
walks through. I think it's Nodding Hill. And the season
change a cinema.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
I agree, love that. I will say surprising, probably no one.
You've got mail anything all that, I agree like any
of the Julia Roberts, any of the Meg Ryan Sandra
Bullock had some really good ones, truly.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
A golden era.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
I also I'm split on the Jennifer Aniston one. Some
of them totally plagued my dating life later on, Like
Picture Perfect was such a great movie. And also I'm like,
I think that's why I went for all the bad boys.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Yeah, we did not necessarily always get the right guidance
from these movies. Unless Tom Hanks was playing the lead.
Speaker 5 (05:38):
He was always a good guy.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Yeah he was a good guy, but he was like
you know, running the little indies out of business.
Speaker 6 (05:45):
Is he a bad boy? I feel like he's got
like real cinnamon roll.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Yeah, he's not a bad boy at all.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
No, what's a cinnamon roll quality?
Speaker 5 (05:54):
Ooh, what a question. He will be a stand up guy.
He's the guy that you kind of do want to
He's Tom Hanks.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 5 (06:02):
His foil would be the Hugh Grant.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
I'm sort of obsessed with you Leen's dessert analogy. So
if the cinnamon roll is the good guy, what are
we naming this curmudgeon sort of charmingly sarcastic.
Speaker 5 (06:18):
Guy crumb cake?
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Now crumb cake, Crumberley, even Cumberlay is kind of splitting
the difference. Yeah, there's that little thin crystallized layer on
top and then a soft, gooey center. That's probably actually
my perfect kind of like the romantic lead.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
Okay, you guys are so fun.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
So I talked to a book agent one time, and
she said to me that you can't write a book
unless you can't write any other book, meaning you have
to get it out of your body and into the world.
And you've both written such great love stories. What pulls
you both to love? Like, what is it about these
(06:57):
love stories that you have to put out into the
world to get out of your bodies.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
Youku, can I start with you?
Speaker 6 (07:06):
I was always drawn to romance, like that was always
my genre of choice as a reader and as a
viewer because it was also you know, movies and TV
shows and all of those things. Even when I was
watching something that wasn't very romance forward, I would find
a way to become obsessed with the romance, Like I
(07:28):
think the example would be like in the Office, I
was very obsessed with Jim and Ham And I think
that's because in a lot of comedies, the romance is
where they kind of hide the heart and it's where
the seriousness is. And I think any good romance it
gives me this feeling of like almost like butterflies. It's
like I'm so in love with their love that I
am feeling what I would feel falling in love for
(07:49):
the first time all over again.
Speaker 5 (07:50):
It's kind of like microdosing life.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Yeah, you know that's I feel like my answer wouldn't
be too different. I think a lot about the weird
overlap between horror romance.
Speaker 5 (08:01):
Yes, I was just thinking that.
Speaker 6 (08:03):
Yeah, because horror gives you the chills, right, it's you
also feel it in your body.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Right, and also like it's just there's so many weird
similarities too, where it's like both are frequently used to
kind of comment on the times falling in love and
being terrified both are very human, and there's also like
tons of overlap. And I feel similarly like I was
not like a romance reader growing up, but same as
(08:28):
you lean, I would always be most interested in the
romantic subplot of anything. I loved having crushes. I think
I was ultimately very boy crazy. Loved having crushes, loved
daydreaming about falling in love. And now I think the
reason I stick with it is because I don't think
(08:49):
that there's anything more human or more powerful than love.
I think love is a really strange, evolutionary like habit
of ours. I also think that there's just something really
magical and strange about how frequently we as humans put
other people before us, not just in a survival means,
(09:11):
but just on like a day to day basis, like
putting someone someone else's desires and needs before our own,
because we have this kind of indescribable feeling for them
that just makes us want to like elevate them and
give them everything. I don't know, I just think it's
I think it's like the most powerful feeling and the
most powerful force in the world.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
I have a question about what you just said, Emily,
because that idea of putting somebody else's needs ahead of
our own is so human. I think it's also so female.
I know I've felt it my whole life. And I
see this sort of renaissance in the romance genre, both
in books and in film, and the types of women
(09:55):
that you guys are writing that are on screen are
very different. What do you attribute the renaissance of romance to?
Speaker 2 (10:04):
So many things? First, I feel like to your point
Danielle about like it being like kind of different. I
think there is in all the romance that I'm reading
and loving, including you Lean's book, there is this female
leader who isn't just trying to put a man before her, like,
that's not the situation. The situation is two people who
(10:26):
are broken, who are imperfect, choosing each other and trying
really hard to give the other what they need and
give them space to be who they are. I'm sure
there have always been love stories like that, but I
think that's becoming more normalized in media, hopefully.
Speaker 7 (10:42):
Yea.
Speaker 5 (10:43):
The romance thread that I feel like is always.
Speaker 6 (10:48):
Present, is that feeling of what is what is it
going to take to get the happily ever after? What
am I willing to sacrifice? What's the thing I'm willing
to give up to get the thing that I want?
Speaker 5 (10:59):
And in a romance, it's worth it.
Speaker 6 (11:01):
It's always worth it, but it has to I think
feel like they're choosing each other now rather than just
like one person sacrificing all. And I think there is
a lot more of an appetite for heroines who are
a little bit prickly, a little bit complicated, who have
the whole spectrum of human emotion and complexity to them.
(11:22):
And I don't want to put down who she has
been in the past, Like I don't think it's as
simple as saying, oh God, they were all manic pixie
dream girls and they were all trash.
Speaker 5 (11:31):
Because I don't think that's true.
Speaker 6 (11:32):
You know, I still love Summer from five Hundred Days
of Summer. I think she's still one of my favorite
characters that I've seen on screen. And so I think
what the heroine often does in these pieces is she
reflects something of who we are and who we crave
to see in the moment and that tells us something
(11:52):
about ourselves. And so right now it seems like we're
craving women who need therapy.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
And men who are willing to.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Go yes, and men who are willing to go and
and yeah, I mean we have a lot of conversations
in this biz about like, you know, is romance realistic?
Is it aspirational? And it's like to me, I'm like, no,
it is. It is absolutely realistic. It's just you're writing
about the exception, not the rule. Like, mostly dating is horrible,
(12:22):
but if you're watching, like your friends go through that
dating experience when they meet someone who's clearly so right
for them and so good to them and who they're
so like wild about, you're not like, oh, this is impossible.
There's not just a nice person out there that you
could be with, Like, it's not unrealistic to write two
characters who are capable of getting past these obstacles, who
(12:44):
are willing to do these hard things, willing to heal
and grow if it means that they can be together
and be the best versions of themselves, Like that's not
it's it's only unrealistic until it happens, you.
Speaker 4 (12:56):
Know, Like there's until it's not till it's not.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
And yeah, most of the time that's not how dating
is going to go. But when you're writing a romance novel,
you're not typically writing about like someone meeting their shitty
college boyfriend. You're writing about that person who's like worth
writing about.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
I went on a date the other night with a
guy who used a French fry as a knife to
get salad onto his fork.
Speaker 5 (13:21):
Oh, and I'm like.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
I don't want to read about that.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
I want to read about the happily ever after.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
But you know what, that's actually like a great romance novel.
Speaker 5 (13:30):
Detail, fascinating behavior.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
It only works when it's the right person. It doesn't
work when it's like and also he was wearing SpongeBob
pajama pants and crocs and like, this was our first date.
You know. I mean, maybe it does maybe it does work.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
You both write different romance. I want to hear from
each of you what the secret sauce of your love
story is, if you can kind of take me behind
the scenes into your writing something that maybe I wouldn't
know as a reader, even what is the secret sauce
for you?
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Honestly, there's there are two components that are kind of
tied together. For me, one of them is that they
do have to be flawed. I again, like, I think
there's this misconception that when people are reading romance, it
is because they're reaching for an aspirational story about two
perfect people. It's like something that would never happen. But
I really specifically feel like I write flawed female and
(14:29):
male characters, and you know, my books are pretty popular,
so clearly people like that. People want that. I think
people feel more drawn to characters when they have a
flaw that's recognizable and relatable, because it feels like someone
real that they could know. And like, I think that
we're all just craving connection, even just you know, talking
more about what might have caused this romance renaissance, I
(14:52):
think part of it is that need for human connection
in a time where we're all so disconnected. We want
real characters. So them having a flaw that is a
central and significant part of the book, a flaw that's
something they actually do have to overcome and work through
in order to be together, I think is something that
is always going to be what I reach for when
I'm pairing characters together. And then the second part of
(15:15):
that is I specifically really love pairing two characters together
who have, you know, history and flaws and issues that
kind of chafe against each other. Like I want their
specific issues to kind of exacerbate each other's, like, you know,
to trigger. I want them to trigger each other a
little bit.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
Emily, you're a little toxic. I love it.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
But no, But like the thing is, that's like why
else would they ever work through those things? Like when
you fall in love, you find out really fast what
your toxic traits are. You find out what you're most
afraid of when you're falling in love. Like, I love
using a romance to take two characters with flaws, put
them together, have those flaws chafe against each other, and
(15:57):
then the only way those two people can be together
is if they kind of work through their own individual issues.
Speaker 7 (16:04):
Hmm.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
I love it so much. It's very real. Yeah, that
is what romance is in real life. Elean, what's it
for you?
Speaker 6 (16:11):
I think a lot about the Susan Elizabeth Phillips quote.
I think where she says something like, if your hero
is a firefighter, then your heroin better be an arsenalistic. Yes,
And I think that's such a great kind of distillation
of a dynamic where it's these two people they should be.
Speaker 5 (16:26):
Something to each other.
Speaker 6 (16:27):
And what I'm most drawn to is people that like
they something's combustible there. So that's kind of what I'm
drawn to in a dynamic. And then similar to Emily's
like flaw theory, I like to look for a wound
like I like to find a character wound, because I
think we all kind of you know, you go through
life and things hurt you, things bump against you, You
(16:48):
develop some scars, and it kind of does become this
moment of like, do you want to know how I.
Speaker 5 (16:53):
Got these scars?
Speaker 6 (16:54):
I think when it's it's falling in love with somebody
else and you're finding those things.
Speaker 5 (16:59):
So it makes sense we're drawn to similar things.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
I was thinking that just hearing you talk about it,
like I really feel like there's just even though obviously
our writing styles are different, whatever, there is like a
similar baseline DNA there. And I think it makes sense
that our readership has such overlap too, because I think
our readers do tend.
Speaker 5 (17:18):
To be people who have great taste.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
So great taste first of all, really pretty.
Speaker 5 (17:22):
Not that it matters, so smart, really smart.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
And then like just yeah, Wan want real people who
they can see as mirrors, Like Danielle said, they can
see as a mirror and see their own stuff that
they need to like figure out work through.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
It's cool to hear that a lot of your readers overlap.
Is that part of the reason that you guys became collaborators? Emily,
do you remember the first time you read something of Euleen's.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
The first time I read something of Euleen's actually was
just a draft of the People we Meet on Vacation
scripts like weirdly, like so we got hooked up before
your book and published.
Speaker 6 (18:02):
So I was sent the People we Meet on Vacation
manuscript before it was published as this kind of like
a four year consideration to adapt I knew it was
being sent to multiple people around town, and I read
it in one sitting, and I remember thinking one, yes, yes, yes,
a thousand times yes, Like this has all the thousand
(18:25):
thread count pining that I need from a romance.
Speaker 5 (18:29):
But also it had like a titanic number of locations.
Speaker 6 (18:32):
Yeah, and go to there yeah, And I was like, well,
I was like, this is such a fascinating kind of
Rubik's cube of adaptation. It was a really interesting puzzle,
and that intrigued me rather than other things i'd been
sent before, where you could kind of see it was
like almost like written to be adapted, and that was
less compelling somehow. And so that was how Emily's writing
(18:54):
was first sent to me. I kind of describe it
as like a marriage of convenience. It was like an
arranged marriage through through like the publishing industry and Hollywood.
They were kind of like, you two seem like you
have a certain vibe maybe like.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Kind of sad girl romance. Sad girl romance. Yeah, girl
was making jokes in romance hot girls, yeah, And so
I think we were set up just kind of on
a zoom meeting. I remember you using this phrase that
I've heard you used since then about being drawn to
the blue shades in romance, and that was really appealing
to me because I knew that going into adaptation, there
(19:30):
was every chance in the world that it was going
to just go this route where it could become really
broad and uh just just tonally very different from the
book in a way that I thought would be disappointing
to the readers, because I think that they, like we've
already discussed, they want that depth. They want to feel
like emotionally engaged on like a deeper level. And yeah,
(19:52):
it was just like, I feel like you the way
you talked about, first of all what you like in romance,
but also adapting, because I remember you talking about being
like such a huge reader and then being really disappointed.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
Shady, I'm just kidding, but she was just.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Talking about being kind of like as a reader, being
disappointed with how adaptations went. And that was a huge
green flag to me because I knew that while she
has talent and vision and voice, she doesn't have ego
in the way that I think a lot of people do.
Like you're confident in your work. You know your value,
(20:26):
I think, but you don't have ego insomuch as you're like,
I'm going to make this mine and I don't care
if that makes it good or bad.
Speaker 6 (20:32):
Yeah, it's kind of a fascinating process adaptation. And I
will say we met, I want to say back in
twenty twenty one, and so it's been a four year journey.
I do think in the process of doing the work,
I would watch these other things get made, and I
would I would read the books and then I would
watch the movies and I would always wonder like, well, why.
Speaker 5 (20:55):
Did they cut this, why did they cut that? Why
didn't that?
Speaker 6 (20:57):
And things do change, And so seeing kind of people
we meet on vacation through the process, that has been
very interesting and informed more of my thoughts on adaptation. Now.
So I was the first writer on people we meet
on vacation, I was not the last writer, but.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
You were also like you were the writer multiple times.
I was the writer multiple times, second to last writer,
I think too.
Speaker 6 (21:24):
So when when there are this many writers, this is
going to get very inside baseball. But they take every
draft and they read through them all and they determine
who gets credit, who's done enough work that shows up
on the screen that they'll get credit. And so part
of that process meant that I got to read every
draft as well, and so I found that to be
very fascinating to change from my drafts to the next
(21:47):
writer's draft, to the next writer's draft to the next
writer's draft, and I could see things that I had
struggled with early on structurally that then became an issue
for somebody else later and then got removed completely by
another And I was like, that's brilliant.
Speaker 5 (22:01):
Why didn't I think to this.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
Yeah, that's interesting.
Speaker 5 (22:05):
I came at it more as a reader.
Speaker 6 (22:07):
That was mostly my experience of watching these adaptations of
my favorite books and just being fucking disappointed because they
did not match the movie in my head. And I
think now on this side of it, that part of
me still is very much alive and well. But I
think there is also another part of me that, having
gone through the process, I can kind of see how
we get there, Because I think in order for a
(22:30):
movie to stand on its own, it needs to be
a work of art that stands apart from the book.
And I truly do believe the purpose of adaptation is
not to provide one hundred percent faithful thing. Oh yeah,
it's to bring new readers to the source material, and
so for it to do that, it has to stand
as a work of art on its own.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
Well, there's that phrase, the book is better, And it
came from the idea that people like the adaptations didn't
live up to people's ideas of what these characters were.
That you know, when you read something, you just think
your teeth in so deeply and you have your own imagination,
you lean, you're now you're writing people we meet on
(23:06):
vacation but you're also writing and directing be t read.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
Can you take me into the writer's room?
Speaker 3 (23:12):
Like Emily, I heard you talk about how your involvement
in all of these adaptations is really different.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
It sounds like.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
You're maybe is it fair to say you're closer with
Uleen than some of the other.
Speaker 6 (23:23):
Yeah, well yeah, I mean you Lean rank us. Yeah, yeah,
so your favorite screenwriter?
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Yeah, you Leen, and Brett Haley, our director from People
We Meet on Vacation. Both of them we have now
I have been friends with them now for years because
of this process, and we've had a lot of back
and forth. But you Leen, it's nice because we've been
through this already once before, and I really trust her,
and I have read a lot of her work at
this point because I've read her novel, I've read multiple
(23:49):
drafts of her People Meet on Vacation script. I read
other writers scripts in between those, which was really, like
you said, it was really illuminating. And I think, while
there are things from all of them that I appreciate,
it also deep in my appreciation for your work because
I think what you do is really special. So I
don't Yeah, it's like you Lean, she basically it's just
like when there's a new draft, she sends it to me.
(24:11):
If she has a question, she'll send it to me.
Like there was a point where she was like, does
Poppy have a middle name? And I was like, oh, no,
does she I don't remember? And I was like, well,
I do think it would be this, So I like
gave Poppy a middle.
Speaker 6 (24:24):
Name, and it made it into a draft that I remember,
and it turned it into a joke, and then that
joke got rewritten and it's no longer.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
But I know Poppy, yeah exactly, And like we're the
only two people in the world possibly who know it.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
Well now you just shared it with us, Thank you?
Not the actual name?
Speaker 4 (24:42):
Do you want to care?
Speaker 2 (24:42):
Can we tell them?
Speaker 6 (24:43):
Sure?
Speaker 4 (24:44):
You tell us?
Speaker 6 (24:45):
Sure?
Speaker 5 (24:45):
Do you remember it?
Speaker 2 (24:46):
On three one two three? Diana?
Speaker 5 (24:49):
Diane?
Speaker 2 (24:51):
I feel like you waited and we did. We decide
that it was after Princess die. I feel yeah, her
mom totally named her Poppy Diana.
Speaker 4 (24:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Okay, So you guys both talked about adaptations gone wrong.
Is there any adaptation in your mind that has gone right?
Like when you think, what's like the north star for
each of you for an adaptation, Oh.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
My gosh, Okay, these are so different, but the Hunger
Games adaptations are phenomenal.
Speaker 4 (25:16):
Ooh that's a great are great?
Speaker 6 (25:18):
Oh man, this is such a hard question. Two thousand
and five North and South miniseries on the BBC. It's
probably one of my favorite at the two thousand stars.
Richard Armitage, it's base and Daniella Denby ash I believe.
And it is an adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's Like eighteen
(25:40):
hundred's novel on the Industrial Revolution.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
That also reminds me of another phenomenal adaptation, Gone Girl.
Speaker 6 (25:47):
Oh yes, we talked about Gone Girls in our initial meetings.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
I remember, right.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
It's so good. It's really faithful. It's like, I think
what we should call it is faithful. Plus it's like
faithful in that the heart of the story is the same,
the heart of the characters is the same. You understand
that it's the same story. But plus is that they
took the fact that they have living, breathing actors and
are performing this and they use that to make it
(26:13):
feel in some ways bigger like and I think people
does that really well. But Gone Girl like the whole
thing with ben Affleck having the butt chin and she's
like I just you just like don't look trustworthy because
of your like butt, little like crease into your chin.
And so whenever he's like saying I'm telling the truth,
like he covers his chin with his thumb and he's like,
I'm not lying whatever, that little detail is not in
(26:34):
the book. That little detail was written because ben Affleck
was cast.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
Okay, so this is actually my next question, because Emily,
I can imagine when you're writing this character is fully
baked out, and then you lean when you're writing the adaptation.
Do you have a cast in mind? Like?
Speaker 4 (26:50):
Do you have an actor in mind for people?
Speaker 5 (26:52):
I did?
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Not?
Speaker 5 (26:53):
For beatreed I did?
Speaker 4 (26:56):
Are you able to share who for be?
Speaker 5 (26:59):
Treat?
Speaker 6 (26:59):
No? Do I know?
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Text me later?
Speaker 4 (27:03):
Yeah, okay, you're gonna have to come back on.
Speaker 5 (27:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
Well, here's the thing.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
Emily is known for her easter eggs. Are there any
that you can drop with us about the adaptation?
Speaker 5 (27:17):
Oh, equal eyed viewers may already know. So I am
going to share maybe one easter egg, which is that
in the very first draft of People we Meet on Vacation,
I knew what I would want as a reader was
a recreation of the cover, and so I wrote something
that was like a.
Speaker 6 (27:38):
Recreation of the cover that I think book lovers will identify.
I think I even wrote into the text it was
like book clevers will recognize us. That was like a
nod also to book Lovers, which was out at the time.
But I was like, this is a cover recreation, and
that is one thing that you know, as much as
things change from the first draft to the last and
(27:58):
what actually gets produced.
Speaker 5 (27:59):
I'm so proud to know that that book cover recreation
did make it into the final.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
And this is something that's okay to share because you
literally will not be able to tell. I don't think
in this but in that scene, we do have a
little easter egg, which is that Alex is reading an
Augustus Everett book in that scene, a book that does
not exist. Funnily enough, I mean none of them exists,
but it doesn't exist in print. Like I have not
(28:25):
named this novel in an existing book. Because Hollywood is weird,
and because there are different studios making the Beach Read
movie than the People Meet on Vacation movie, I could
use the Augustus Everett name because he gets name checked
in People who Meet on Vacation. This is so probably
boring to other people. I think this is fascinating. And
so we weren't allowed to use any of the book
(28:47):
titles that are included in Beachread, so we had to
come up with a new book. So I came up
with a new book title, and I got to choose
from like a couple of different covers. And Alex is
reading this book, which you will not be able to
see whatsoever, I don't think, but in the cover recreation,
So that's an easter egg on an easter egg, a
hat on a hat.
Speaker 6 (29:06):
Okay, so for me to know as the director of
the next film, Like, where does that fit into Gus's bibliography?
Speaker 5 (29:12):
I feel like this is a plater.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
But did you know that there is another unnamed happy place? Yes?
Speaker 6 (29:19):
Yes, Okay, Emily, I am an Emily Henry scholar.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
Okay, oh my god, you mentioned book lovers. I'm wondering
how much influence book talk and fans actually have over
both your book, Emily, all of your writing. And then
(29:44):
you lean on the adaptation, like do you try to
put fans' wishes in there?
Speaker 2 (29:49):
I can tell you if you see the diplomacy wheels
turning in your head.
Speaker 4 (29:54):
Like give me a percentage if you can't answer.
Speaker 6 (29:56):
So I'll tell you this last summer, I had a
wonderful summer intern and I was like traw the depths
of book Talk, book Twitter, all of the places that
I cannot look and just kind of come back to
me with like a PowerPoint of what these people want.
Speaker 5 (30:14):
I had my list, and then I.
Speaker 6 (30:15):
Also had my intern create this this other list for
me as well, and there was some overlap, which is
fun to see, but it was just a little piece
I wanted to add to my research process just to
kind of honor my former fangirl self.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Yeah, I mean, and I remember the very first conversation
that I had with Brett about people was him saying,
can you make me a list of the things that
the readers will riot if they don't make it into
the final cut? And so I did that. But I
will say for books, I'm not doing that because I
feel like for books, my attitude is like everything we
(30:53):
write will hopefully be someone's favorite book. But for the adaptations,
because there is already this readership to like honor, Like,
I was very grateful that I knew you would be
factoring that in on some level.
Speaker 6 (31:04):
Yeah, I remember in our very first meeting I did
ask you if you could only save one scene from
this book, what scene would it be?
Speaker 5 (31:11):
I do remember? Do you want me to find?
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Tell me because I have no memory.
Speaker 5 (31:14):
It's the condom scene.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Oh you know what didn't make it clearly? Did it obviously?
Just make it obviously?
Speaker 3 (31:21):
No?
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Oh wait, no, no, no, you're right, you're right. Oh I
thought you were talking about Oh my god, I thought
you were talking about a different condom scene. There are two.
There are two different condemn scenes in that book. One
is funny and one is sweet.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
And also, you leen you love a sex scene. Yeah,
I've gotten to interview you before you love a sex scene?
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Well, this condom scene is a comedic comic. The sexy
condom scene did not make it in sadly?
Speaker 3 (31:46):
Do you guys feel like book talk has changed romance
because I remember growing up I would read my favorite books.
I didn't even think about what the author looked like,
and now not at all. There are I mean, you
both are famous authors.
Speaker 4 (31:59):
People know what you look like.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
They care, they're they're following you on TikTok and Instagram.
Speaker 4 (32:05):
It's really changed.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
Do you think book talk has changed romance as a genre?
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (32:10):
I think it's certainly left like a mark on it.
Speaker 6 (32:13):
From what I've studied of book talk, a lot of
it also comes from kind of fandom, and specifically this
fan fiction archive archive of our own. I think the
distillation of tropes that we know and love in fan
fiction was not actually as prevalent in romance before a
(32:34):
certain point in time, Like they weren't as codified as
like there's only one bed once. That language of fandom
infiltrated romance like BookTalk, which I think makes so much
sense because fandom people are extremely online people. Extremely online
people are more likely to make content on BookTalk, and
then they're more likely to talk about it, and why
not use this vocabulary that we are all already kind
(32:55):
of conversant in to describe it. But then I think
that's when publishing starts to see as a marketing tool. Yeah,
and then they're like, it becomes this shorthand for us all.
And so I do feel like I've seen the fanficification
a little bit of romance, would you say, Emily completely?
Speaker 2 (33:12):
I agree, And that's not like just a good or
bad thing. I think it's like kind of a neutral thing.
But I will say tropes literally only matter if you
care about the characters, like it really only matters if
I get to see how these two very specific characters
operate in this situation and what happens when they are
in this situation.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
Yeah, okay, Well, speaking of book talk, we have a
fan question for you.
Speaker 7 (33:38):
Hi. My name is Michelle from Texas. I love how
you described Little Crescent Island in Great, Big, beautiful Life,
So I want to ask Emily if you could live
in any place you've written about, where would it be
and why?
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Oh my gosh, I want to live in all of them.
I feel like I'm torn Wayneing Bay, Michigan fictional place
Northern Michigan from Funny Story, but in the winter, I
would like to live in Palm Springs, where Alex and
Poppy go. I would take either of those happily.
Speaker 6 (34:11):
Oh.
Speaker 7 (34:11):
My name is Nna. I live in New York and
I'm huge fans of both of you. I'd love to know,
as writers, how do you come up with those swoony
moments that make readers like me go wild? For example,
you mean I still think about that scene and how
to end a love story where he writes on her thigh?
And then I'd love to know, how do you work
on translating those moments to the screen and showing the
(34:32):
chemistry between the two romantic leads.
Speaker 5 (34:34):
Oh so good moment.
Speaker 6 (34:37):
As I was writing it, I was just like watching
the movie in my mind, and I was like, what
do I want to happen next? And I was like, well,
that would be compelling, And so I think that was
what happened there, and I think I'm always chasing that feeling,
and so when it comes to translating that to the screen,
I think it's it's kind of different if I'm directing
(34:58):
versus when I'm writing. When I'm writing, I'm I'm creating
a blueprint that's for production. And so I knew that
I really wanted Emily's books are sexy. I wanted it
to be a sexy movie, and I didn't want that
to get lost somewhere along the game of telephone that
is production. And so I remember writing into the script
for one of the sex scenes it was, this is
(35:18):
a sex scene that makes you wishy, we're having sex
right now. And that line, that line made it into
the final.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Such a good line.
Speaker 4 (35:29):
It's a great one. Emily.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
I heard you say, I'm saying yes to things for
my future self. I'm wondering for each of you, what
is something that you are terrified of saying yes too,
but you're going to do anyway. Oh gosh, you're doing
it for future.
Speaker 4 (35:46):
Yeah, Emily, can I start with you know.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
Juleen, do you already have an answer that can buy
me time?
Speaker 7 (35:52):
Sure?
Speaker 5 (35:53):
Yeah, right now? I would say. It's dance class.
Speaker 6 (35:58):
So I figure skate and I was talking my coach
about how do I get more graceful, and she said,
we'll take a dance class. And She's been saying this
for the last seven years that I've been skating, and
finally I decided, Okay, I'll take a dance class. I
think right now for future me. That's the thing is
I'm committing to do. I'm committing to the suck a
little bit, yeah, in the hopes that it will get better.
Speaker 5 (36:17):
And it has gotten better.
Speaker 6 (36:18):
Actually, when I look at the videos, I'm like, oh wow,
there's like a marked difference, but it's hard.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
Yeah. I love that answer. Like something I respect and
admire about you so much, Euleen is that you, I
feel like, consistently push yourself to try new things, like
as we get older, especially when we find something that
we're good at. It's really really, really hard and scary
to try something new, and I hate being bad at things,
(36:46):
and so I guess my answer if I'm just going
to piggyback off of yours, which I am, is I
have been playing tennis and the same thing. I am
so on athletic, and I don't know, like, I think
that is kind of a huge deal for me, as
like a perfectionist, to be like, yeah, I'm bad at
this thing and I keep doing it like I can't
(37:07):
ever be I'm not going to be a professional tennis player.
Speaker 5 (37:10):
You're never going to make your money doing yes, I.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
Will never No one wants to pay to see that.
Speaker 4 (37:17):
But you'll eventually be good totally.
Speaker 3 (37:21):
Okay, I'm giving you guys Internet class.
Speaker 4 (37:23):
Oh those were great answers. You great great answers.
Speaker 3 (37:27):
Okay, we're coming up on the end of our conversation,
which means it's time for speed read.
Speaker 4 (37:33):
Here's how it works.
Speaker 3 (37:34):
We put sixty seconds on the clock and we're going
to see just how many rapid fire questions I should
say rapid fire literary questions that you can get through.
We're going to go popcorn style, so you lean you'll
get a question, and then Emily, you get a question.
Speaker 4 (37:48):
After you Ready, let's do it. You're locked in? Okay? Three? Two, one? Okay?
One literary trope you would ban forever.
Speaker 5 (37:58):
Emily Billionaire, Romance, secret pregnancy.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
Oh.
Speaker 4 (38:04):
One that you'll defend with your life.
Speaker 5 (38:07):
Oh, Friends to Lovers, Forced Proximity.
Speaker 7 (38:12):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
Favorite book to recommend to people?
Speaker 2 (38:16):
Anything by Varry McFarlane or Kennedy Ryan.
Speaker 5 (38:20):
Luck of the Draw by Kate Claiborne writing it down?
Speaker 3 (38:24):
What book do you wish you could read again for
the first time?
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Gone Girl?
Speaker 6 (38:29):
Probably Pride and Prejudiced by Jane Austen. Honestly, you know, like,
take it back. I just watched a Yeah, man, I
just watched a movie recently.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
If you could live vicariously through one fictional character, who
would that be?
Speaker 2 (38:42):
This is so messed up, But I want to say Amy.
Speaker 3 (38:45):
From Gone Okay, Uleen, how about you Eluise at the Plaza?
Speaker 6 (38:50):
I just want to be Mitch with a drunk nanny
and a plug a turtle.
Speaker 3 (38:56):
You have ten minutes in a bookstore. Which area are
you going to?
Speaker 5 (39:00):
Romance on the day?
Speaker 2 (39:03):
Romance or sci fi? Weirdly?
Speaker 4 (39:05):
Oh really, Emily, that was a left turn. I know, Okay,
what's your red flag reading happened?
Speaker 2 (39:13):
Oh this is a new one. People are skimming books.
Some people only read the dialogue.
Speaker 6 (39:18):
People who leave restar. Goodreads reviews give it a one
or a five.
Speaker 3 (39:22):
Commit Yes, okay, a book that's shaped the way you
see the world.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
I'm gonna say the Giver, but mostly because it taught
me about like what writing could do.
Speaker 5 (39:34):
I think it's Sanford Meisner's book on acting.
Speaker 4 (39:37):
Do you ever read the last page first?
Speaker 5 (39:40):
I used to, really, but not anymore.
Speaker 6 (39:43):
No.
Speaker 5 (39:43):
I did it consistently through high school and then I stopped.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
Danielle, do you do that?
Speaker 6 (39:48):
No?
Speaker 7 (39:48):
Never?
Speaker 2 (39:49):
Never?
Speaker 4 (39:53):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (39:53):
My last question to you both is what have you
bookmarked this week? It doesn't have to be about reading.
It could be anything that you've you know, like kind
of like saved on your Instagram or anything.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
I know, I'm going into my screen shots because it's
like I do that thing of screen chatting an article
I want to read later.
Speaker 6 (40:13):
Yeah, I feel like mine is going to be like
embarrassing because even better you, Leen.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
I just screenshotted to Google and read this later. From
BBC Science Focus magazine. Scientists say are chances of finding
alien life just skyrocketed. I don't know why because I
haven't googled it yet.
Speaker 3 (40:30):
Very sci fi. This makes sense now, okay, eleen.
Speaker 6 (40:34):
So the last thing I saved was the New York
Times article dancing to the Beating Heart of the New
York Public Library. The mission behind the Monica, Bill Barnes
and Company is to bring dance where it doesn't belong.
And it's an experiential art company that it does dance
in places where dance doesn't belong. And I was like, oh,
how interesting. Clearly dance is on my mind.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
So yeah, and if you know what dance belongs everywhere,
first of all, that's true. Oh, I do have another one.
I don't know anything about where this is going. So
the Dad O'Brien posted a thing about I think I
knew podcast she has maybe called Murder on the Toepath. Okay,
so that's something I wanted to look into. Can I
(41:13):
tell you?
Speaker 6 (41:13):
My second thing I've book marked is how to Rewax
your barber Jacket, which is a YouTube video on YouTube
and I need to rewax my jacket and I watch it.
Speaker 5 (41:24):
It's the most sexual thing I've seen real to me.
Speaker 6 (41:27):
Yes, it's this very handsome man, and he like and
just like works it into.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
The jacket book mark that you're like, I'm coming back
to this and we're going to circle back.
Speaker 4 (41:37):
This has gotten so weird. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
The perfect way to end any podcasts.
Speaker 4 (41:41):
The absolutely perfect way. No, Emily, you Leen.
Speaker 3 (41:46):
It's so fun to listen to you because you're so
descriptive even in your speech, Like I I if I
had to like close my eyes and I hadn't read
any of your books, I would know both of you
were writers.
Speaker 4 (41:57):
So thank you so much for taking the time so fun.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
Thank you so much. This was a joy.
Speaker 5 (42:03):
This was great.
Speaker 3 (42:08):
And that's a wrap for our very first episode of
Bookmarked by Reese's book Club. We are so excited you
tuned in. Thank you and a huge shout out to
Emily and Euline.
Speaker 4 (42:18):
For setting the stage. This is just the beginning.
Speaker 3 (42:21):
And if you want a little bit more from us,
come hang with us on socials. We're at Reese's book
Club on Instagram serving up books, vibes and behind the
scenes magic. And I'm at Danielle Robe Roba y come
say hi and df me And if you want to
go nineties on us, call us okay, our phone line
is open, so call now at one five zero one
(42:43):
two nine one three three seven nine. That's one five
oh one two nine, one three three seven nine.
Speaker 4 (42:52):
Share your literary.
Speaker 3 (42:53):
Hot takes, book recommendations, questions about the monthly pick, or
let us know what you think about the episode you
just heard, and who knows, you might just hear yourself
in our next episode, So don't be shy, give us
a ring, and of course, make sure to follow Bookmarked
by Reese's book Club on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast,
or wherever you get your shows until then via in
(43:17):
the next chapter. Bookmarked is a production of Hello Sunshine
and iHeart Podcast. It's executive produced by Reese Witherspoon and
me Danielle Robe. Production is by ACAST Creative Studios. Our
producers are Matty Foley, Aliah Yates, Britney Martinez and Darby Masters.
Our production assistant is Avery Loftus. Jenny Kaplan and Emily
(43:40):
Rutterer are the executive producers for A Cast Creative Studios.
Maureene Polo and Reese Witherspoon are the executive producers for
Hello Sunshine. Ogakminwa, Kristin Perla Kelly Turner and Ashley Rappacord
are associate producers for Reese's book Club. Ali Perry and
Christina Everett are the executive producers for iHeart Podcasts, and
(44:00):
Tim Palazzola is our showrunner,
Hey, it's Simone Boys from the bright Side, and I've
got something very exciting to share with you today. So
a few weeks ago, I told you Danielle was moving
on from co hosting The bright Side with Me to
host a brand new show, and the time has finally come, y'all.
Danielle's new podcast, Bookmarked by Reese's book Club, is out
now on Bookmarked. Danielle is going to be speaking with celebrities, influencers,
(00:22):
authors from Reese's book Club and beyond to share the
stories that truly transcend the page. So tune in every
Tuesday for your once a week book Club. And here's
the best part. I am so thrilled that I get
to share the first episode with you all Today. Danielle
is sitting down with two best selling fan favorite Reese's
book Club authors, Emily Henry and Juleen Kwang. They talk
(00:44):
all about collaborating to bring Emily's novels to the screen
and the secret sauce to writing the perfect romance.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
But enough for me.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Here's the episode and congrats Danielle.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Hey, Hey, I'm Danielle robe to the very first episode
of Bookmarked by Reese's book Club. We're going to get
to know each other well, but I want you to
know a little bit about me. I'm a shoe girl,
and I know it may seem odd to open a
book club podcast talking about.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
Shoes, but I have a point.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
I promise great books and great shoes they both take
you places, sometimes across continents, sometimes into steamy love stories.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
I've been in a few of those.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Sometimes into a full blown identity crisis. I've also open
in a few of those, and sometimes straight into conversations
that stick with you forever. We're definitely getting into those.
So if you're already a part of Reese's book Club,
then you know it's not just a reading list.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
It's a lifestyle and a movement.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
It's a place where brilliant women and brilliant books get
the attention they really deserve. And if you're new here,
welcome you have found your people on behalf of the
Reese's book Club team are so happy you're here. We
accept you, we embrace you, and we'll probably recommend fourteen
books to you by the end of this episode.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
So here's how it's going to work.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Every Tuesday, we're diving into the stories behind the stories.
We're talking to authors, actors, musicians, comedians, directors, anyone who's
ever made us feel something with their words.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
You know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Page to screen journeys, book talk of sessions, plot twists
not just on the page, but also in life. Bookmarked
is our once a week hangout, our meeting place.
Speaker 4 (02:37):
So whether you're out on.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
A walk, driving to work, or hiding from your inbox,
or just pretending to clean while you're actually laying on
the floor staring at the ceiling like I usually do.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
I am so glad you're here.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
This space is for you. Welcome to the club. Let's
go somewhere together. Today's guests are two of the biggest
names in the world of romance, Emily Henry and Yuleen Kwang.
Both of them hold so much weight separately, but they
are doing an interview for the first time together. That's
(03:11):
what's so fun about this. They're friends and creative collaborators,
and they're both Ese's Book Club alums.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
Emily Henry is one of the.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Most prolific romance novelists in the game. She published six
incredible books.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
In five years. I don't even know how that's possible.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Her most recent book was Great, Big Beautiful Life, and
it was the Reese's book Club pick in May. Now,
Yulein Kwang is a screenwriter, director, and author whose novel
How to End a Love Story was last May's Reese's
book Club pick.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
They're Maye Sisters Now.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
You've also seen her work on screen, including on Hulu's
Dollphace and Now. Eulena is at the helm of two
movie adaptations based on Emily's books, The People We Meet
on Vacation and Beatreet. Emily Leen, Welcome to the first
episode of Bookmarked. We're so excited to have you here, Emily.
(04:02):
All of your fans call you m Hen, which is
such a fun nickname.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
So Uleen, I was.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Thinking maybe we could give you a moniker today.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
Are you cool with that?
Speaker 5 (04:10):
Oh? Ooh, okay, you'll be the first tell me.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
I'm thinking Youku.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
I think it's cool, Youku.
Speaker 6 (04:18):
Oh god, I think it's very close to Yoko. I'm
a big fan of Yoko. Oh no, I'm like her
her artwork and you know what you know? Yeah, sure,
let's lean in.
Speaker 4 (04:27):
Okay, thank you.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
I'd love to give you guys a chance to introduce
yourselves to the book club. And I felt like, what
better way than to share all of our favorite nineties
rom coms.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
We're all love story girlies.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
I'll go first, just to set the stage, I'm pretty
woman anything Julia Roberts.
Speaker 5 (04:46):
I think it would have to be Nodding Hill.
Speaker 6 (04:49):
You know, I'm just a girl standing in front of
a boy asking him to love her. That's it doesn't
get better than that. Plus there's that sequence where he
walks through. I think it's Nodding Hill. And the season
change a cinema.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
I agree, love that. I will say surprising, probably no one.
You've got mail anything all that, I agree like any
of the Julia Roberts, any of the Meg Ryan Sandra
Bullock had some really good ones, truly.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
A golden era.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
I also I'm split on the Jennifer Aniston one. Some
of them totally plagued my dating life later on, Like
Picture Perfect was such a great movie. And also I'm like,
I think that's why I went for all the bad boys.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Yeah, we did not necessarily always get the right guidance
from these movies. Unless Tom Hanks was playing the lead.
Speaker 5 (05:38):
He was always a good guy.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Yeah he was a good guy, but he was like
you know, running the little indies out of business.
Speaker 6 (05:45):
Is he a bad boy? I feel like he's got
like real cinnamon roll.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Yeah, he's not a bad boy at all.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
No, what's a cinnamon roll quality?
Speaker 5 (05:54):
Ooh, what a question. He will be a stand up guy.
He's the guy that you kind of do want to
He's Tom Hanks.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 5 (06:02):
His foil would be the Hugh Grant.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
I'm sort of obsessed with you Leen's dessert analogy. So
if the cinnamon roll is the good guy, what are
we naming this curmudgeon sort of charmingly sarcastic.
Speaker 5 (06:18):
Guy crumb cake?
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Now crumb cake, Crumberley, even Cumberlay is kind of splitting
the difference. Yeah, there's that little thin crystallized layer on
top and then a soft, gooey center. That's probably actually
my perfect kind of like the romantic lead.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
Okay, you guys are so fun.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
So I talked to a book agent one time, and
she said to me that you can't write a book
unless you can't write any other book, meaning you have
to get it out of your body and into the world.
And you've both written such great love stories. What pulls
you both to love? Like, what is it about these
(06:57):
love stories that you have to put out into the
world to get out of your bodies.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
Youku, can I start with you?
Speaker 6 (07:06):
I was always drawn to romance, like that was always
my genre of choice as a reader and as a
viewer because it was also you know, movies and TV
shows and all of those things. Even when I was
watching something that wasn't very romance forward, I would find
a way to become obsessed with the romance, Like I
(07:28):
think the example would be like in the Office, I
was very obsessed with Jim and Ham And I think
that's because in a lot of comedies, the romance is
where they kind of hide the heart and it's where
the seriousness is. And I think any good romance it
gives me this feeling of like almost like butterflies. It's
like I'm so in love with their love that I
am feeling what I would feel falling in love for
(07:49):
the first time all over again.
Speaker 5 (07:50):
It's kind of like microdosing life.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Yeah, you know that's I feel like my answer wouldn't
be too different. I think a lot about the weird
overlap between horror romance.
Speaker 5 (08:01):
Yes, I was just thinking that.
Speaker 6 (08:03):
Yeah, because horror gives you the chills, right, it's you
also feel it in your body.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Right, and also like it's just there's so many weird
similarities too, where it's like both are frequently used to
kind of comment on the times falling in love and
being terrified both are very human, and there's also like
tons of overlap. And I feel similarly like I was
not like a romance reader growing up, but same as
(08:28):
you lean, I would always be most interested in the
romantic subplot of anything. I loved having crushes. I think
I was ultimately very boy crazy. Loved having crushes, loved
daydreaming about falling in love. And now I think the
reason I stick with it is because I don't think
(08:49):
that there's anything more human or more powerful than love.
I think love is a really strange, evolutionary like habit
of ours. I also think that there's just something really
magical and strange about how frequently we as humans put
other people before us, not just in a survival means,
(09:11):
but just on like a day to day basis, like
putting someone someone else's desires and needs before our own,
because we have this kind of indescribable feeling for them
that just makes us want to like elevate them and
give them everything. I don't know, I just think it's
I think it's like the most powerful feeling and the
most powerful force in the world.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
I have a question about what you just said, Emily,
because that idea of putting somebody else's needs ahead of
our own is so human. I think it's also so female.
I know I've felt it my whole life. And I
see this sort of renaissance in the romance genre, both
in books and in film, and the types of women
(09:55):
that you guys are writing that are on screen are
very different. What do you attribute the renaissance of romance to?
Speaker 2 (10:04):
So many things? First, I feel like to your point
Danielle about like it being like kind of different. I
think there is in all the romance that I'm reading
and loving, including you Lean's book, there is this female
leader who isn't just trying to put a man before her, like,
that's not the situation. The situation is two people who
(10:26):
are broken, who are imperfect, choosing each other and trying
really hard to give the other what they need and
give them space to be who they are. I'm sure
there have always been love stories like that, but I
think that's becoming more normalized in media, hopefully.
Speaker 7 (10:42):
Yea.
Speaker 5 (10:43):
The romance thread that I feel like is always.
Speaker 6 (10:48):
Present, is that feeling of what is what is it
going to take to get the happily ever after? What
am I willing to sacrifice? What's the thing I'm willing
to give up to get the thing that I want?
Speaker 5 (10:59):
And in a romance, it's worth it.
Speaker 6 (11:01):
It's always worth it, but it has to I think
feel like they're choosing each other now rather than just
like one person sacrificing all. And I think there is
a lot more of an appetite for heroines who are
a little bit prickly, a little bit complicated, who have
the whole spectrum of human emotion and complexity to them.
(11:22):
And I don't want to put down who she has
been in the past, Like I don't think it's as
simple as saying, oh God, they were all manic pixie
dream girls and they were all trash.
Speaker 5 (11:31):
Because I don't think that's true.
Speaker 6 (11:32):
You know, I still love Summer from five Hundred Days
of Summer. I think she's still one of my favorite
characters that I've seen on screen. And so I think
what the heroine often does in these pieces is she
reflects something of who we are and who we crave
to see in the moment and that tells us something
(11:52):
about ourselves. And so right now it seems like we're
craving women who need therapy.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
And men who are willing to.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Go yes, and men who are willing to go and
and yeah, I mean we have a lot of conversations
in this biz about like, you know, is romance realistic?
Is it aspirational? And it's like to me, I'm like, no,
it is. It is absolutely realistic. It's just you're writing
about the exception, not the rule. Like, mostly dating is horrible,
(12:22):
but if you're watching, like your friends go through that
dating experience when they meet someone who's clearly so right
for them and so good to them and who they're
so like wild about, you're not like, oh, this is impossible.
There's not just a nice person out there that you
could be with, Like, it's not unrealistic to write two
characters who are capable of getting past these obstacles, who
(12:44):
are willing to do these hard things, willing to heal
and grow if it means that they can be together
and be the best versions of themselves, Like that's not
it's it's only unrealistic until it happens, you.
Speaker 4 (12:56):
Know, Like there's until it's not till it's not.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
And yeah, most of the time that's not how dating
is going to go. But when you're writing a romance novel,
you're not typically writing about like someone meeting their shitty
college boyfriend. You're writing about that person who's like worth
writing about.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
I went on a date the other night with a
guy who used a French fry as a knife to
get salad onto his fork.
Speaker 5 (13:21):
Oh, and I'm like.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
I don't want to read about that.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
I want to read about the happily ever after.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
But you know what, that's actually like a great romance novel.
Speaker 5 (13:30):
Detail, fascinating behavior.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
It only works when it's the right person. It doesn't
work when it's like and also he was wearing SpongeBob
pajama pants and crocs and like, this was our first date.
You know. I mean, maybe it does maybe it does work.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
You both write different romance. I want to hear from
each of you what the secret sauce of your love
story is, if you can kind of take me behind
the scenes into your writing something that maybe I wouldn't
know as a reader, even what is the secret sauce
for you?
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Honestly, there's there are two components that are kind of
tied together. For me, one of them is that they
do have to be flawed. I again, like, I think
there's this misconception that when people are reading romance, it
is because they're reaching for an aspirational story about two
perfect people. It's like something that would never happen. But
I really specifically feel like I write flawed female and
(14:29):
male characters, and you know, my books are pretty popular,
so clearly people like that. People want that. I think
people feel more drawn to characters when they have a
flaw that's recognizable and relatable, because it feels like someone
real that they could know. And like, I think that
we're all just craving connection, even just you know, talking
more about what might have caused this romance renaissance, I
(14:52):
think part of it is that need for human connection
in a time where we're all so disconnected. We want
real characters. So them having a flaw that is a
central and significant part of the book, a flaw that's
something they actually do have to overcome and work through
in order to be together, I think is something that
is always going to be what I reach for when
I'm pairing characters together. And then the second part of
(15:15):
that is I specifically really love pairing two characters together
who have, you know, history and flaws and issues that
kind of chafe against each other. Like I want their
specific issues to kind of exacerbate each other's, like, you know,
to trigger. I want them to trigger each other a
little bit.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
Emily, you're a little toxic. I love it.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
But no, But like the thing is, that's like why
else would they ever work through those things? Like when
you fall in love, you find out really fast what
your toxic traits are. You find out what you're most
afraid of when you're falling in love. Like, I love
using a romance to take two characters with flaws, put
them together, have those flaws chafe against each other, and
(15:57):
then the only way those two people can be together
is if they kind of work through their own individual issues.
Speaker 7 (16:04):
Hmm.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
I love it so much. It's very real. Yeah, that
is what romance is in real life. Elean, what's it
for you?
Speaker 6 (16:11):
I think a lot about the Susan Elizabeth Phillips quote.
I think where she says something like, if your hero
is a firefighter, then your heroin better be an arsenalistic. Yes,
And I think that's such a great kind of distillation
of a dynamic where it's these two people they should be.
Speaker 5 (16:26):
Something to each other.
Speaker 6 (16:27):
And what I'm most drawn to is people that like
they something's combustible there. So that's kind of what I'm
drawn to in a dynamic. And then similar to Emily's
like flaw theory, I like to look for a wound
like I like to find a character wound, because I
think we all kind of you know, you go through
life and things hurt you, things bump against you, You
(16:48):
develop some scars, and it kind of does become this
moment of like, do you want to know how I.
Speaker 5 (16:53):
Got these scars?
Speaker 6 (16:54):
I think when it's it's falling in love with somebody
else and you're finding those things.
Speaker 5 (16:59):
So it makes sense we're drawn to similar things.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
I was thinking that just hearing you talk about it,
like I really feel like there's just even though obviously
our writing styles are different, whatever, there is like a
similar baseline DNA there. And I think it makes sense
that our readership has such overlap too, because I think
our readers do tend.
Speaker 5 (17:18):
To be people who have great taste.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
So great taste first of all, really pretty.
Speaker 5 (17:22):
Not that it matters, so smart, really smart.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
And then like just yeah, Wan want real people who
they can see as mirrors, Like Danielle said, they can
see as a mirror and see their own stuff that
they need to like figure out work through.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
It's cool to hear that a lot of your readers overlap.
Is that part of the reason that you guys became collaborators? Emily,
do you remember the first time you read something of Euleen's.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
The first time I read something of Euleen's actually was
just a draft of the People we Meet on Vacation
scripts like weirdly, like so we got hooked up before
your book and published.
Speaker 6 (18:02):
So I was sent the People we Meet on Vacation
manuscript before it was published as this kind of like
a four year consideration to adapt I knew it was
being sent to multiple people around town, and I read
it in one sitting, and I remember thinking one, yes, yes, yes,
a thousand times yes, Like this has all the thousand
(18:25):
thread count pining that I need from a romance.
Speaker 5 (18:29):
But also it had like a titanic number of locations.
Speaker 6 (18:32):
Yeah, and go to there yeah, And I was like, well,
I was like, this is such a fascinating kind of
Rubik's cube of adaptation. It was a really interesting puzzle,
and that intrigued me rather than other things i'd been
sent before, where you could kind of see it was
like almost like written to be adapted, and that was
less compelling somehow. And so that was how Emily's writing
(18:54):
was first sent to me. I kind of describe it
as like a marriage of convenience. It was like an
arranged marriage through through like the publishing industry and Hollywood.
They were kind of like, you two seem like you
have a certain vibe maybe like.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Kind of sad girl romance. Sad girl romance. Yeah, girl
was making jokes in romance hot girls, yeah, And so
I think we were set up just kind of on
a zoom meeting. I remember you using this phrase that
I've heard you used since then about being drawn to
the blue shades in romance, and that was really appealing
to me because I knew that going into adaptation, there
(19:30):
was every chance in the world that it was going
to just go this route where it could become really
broad and uh just just tonally very different from the
book in a way that I thought would be disappointing
to the readers, because I think that they, like we've
already discussed, they want that depth. They want to feel
like emotionally engaged on like a deeper level. And yeah,
(19:52):
it was just like, I feel like you the way
you talked about, first of all what you like in romance,
but also adapting, because I remember you talking about being
like such a huge reader and then being really disappointed.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
Shady, I'm just kidding, but she was just.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Talking about being kind of like as a reader, being
disappointed with how adaptations went. And that was a huge
green flag to me because I knew that while she
has talent and vision and voice, she doesn't have ego
in the way that I think a lot of people do.
Like you're confident in your work. You know your value,
(20:26):
I think, but you don't have ego insomuch as you're like,
I'm going to make this mine and I don't care
if that makes it good or bad.
Speaker 6 (20:32):
Yeah, it's kind of a fascinating process adaptation. And I
will say we met, I want to say back in
twenty twenty one, and so it's been a four year journey.
I do think in the process of doing the work,
I would watch these other things get made, and I
would I would read the books and then I would
watch the movies and I would always wonder like, well, why.
Speaker 5 (20:55):
Did they cut this, why did they cut that? Why
didn't that?
Speaker 6 (20:57):
And things do change, And so seeing kind of people
we meet on vacation through the process, that has been
very interesting and informed more of my thoughts on adaptation. Now.
So I was the first writer on people we meet
on vacation, I was not the last writer, but.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
You were also like you were the writer multiple times.
I was the writer multiple times, second to last writer,
I think too.
Speaker 6 (21:24):
So when when there are this many writers, this is
going to get very inside baseball. But they take every
draft and they read through them all and they determine
who gets credit, who's done enough work that shows up
on the screen that they'll get credit. And so part
of that process meant that I got to read every
draft as well, and so I found that to be
very fascinating to change from my drafts to the next
(21:47):
writer's draft, to the next writer's draft to the next
writer's draft, and I could see things that I had
struggled with early on structurally that then became an issue
for somebody else later and then got removed completely by
another And I was like, that's brilliant.
Speaker 5 (22:01):
Why didn't I think to this.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
Yeah, that's interesting.
Speaker 5 (22:05):
I came at it more as a reader.
Speaker 6 (22:07):
That was mostly my experience of watching these adaptations of
my favorite books and just being fucking disappointed because they
did not match the movie in my head. And I
think now on this side of it, that part of
me still is very much alive and well. But I
think there is also another part of me that, having
gone through the process, I can kind of see how
we get there, Because I think in order for a
(22:30):
movie to stand on its own, it needs to be
a work of art that stands apart from the book.
And I truly do believe the purpose of adaptation is
not to provide one hundred percent faithful thing. Oh yeah,
it's to bring new readers to the source material, and
so for it to do that, it has to stand
as a work of art on its own.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
Well, there's that phrase, the book is better, And it
came from the idea that people like the adaptations didn't
live up to people's ideas of what these characters were.
That you know, when you read something, you just think
your teeth in so deeply and you have your own imagination,
you lean, you're now you're writing people we meet on
(23:06):
vacation but you're also writing and directing be t read.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
Can you take me into the writer's room?
Speaker 3 (23:12):
Like Emily, I heard you talk about how your involvement
in all of these adaptations is really different.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
It sounds like.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
You're maybe is it fair to say you're closer with
Uleen than some of the other.
Speaker 6 (23:23):
Yeah, well yeah, I mean you Lean rank us. Yeah, yeah,
so your favorite screenwriter?
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Yeah, you Leen, and Brett Haley, our director from People
We Meet on Vacation. Both of them we have now
I have been friends with them now for years because
of this process, and we've had a lot of back
and forth. But you Leen, it's nice because we've been
through this already once before, and I really trust her,
and I have read a lot of her work at
this point because I've read her novel, I've read multiple
(23:49):
drafts of her People Meet on Vacation script. I read
other writers scripts in between those, which was really, like
you said, it was really illuminating. And I think, while
there are things from all of them that I appreciate,
it also deep in my appreciation for your work because
I think what you do is really special. So I
don't Yeah, it's like you Lean, she basically it's just
like when there's a new draft, she sends it to me.
(24:11):
If she has a question, she'll send it to me.
Like there was a point where she was like, does
Poppy have a middle name? And I was like, oh, no,
does she I don't remember? And I was like, well,
I do think it would be this, So I like
gave Poppy a middle.
Speaker 6 (24:24):
Name, and it made it into a draft that I remember,
and it turned it into a joke, and then that
joke got rewritten and it's no longer.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
But I know Poppy, yeah exactly, And like we're the
only two people in the world possibly who know it.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
Well now you just shared it with us, Thank you?
Not the actual name?
Speaker 4 (24:42):
Do you want to care?
Speaker 2 (24:42):
Can we tell them?
Speaker 6 (24:43):
Sure?
Speaker 4 (24:44):
You tell us?
Speaker 6 (24:45):
Sure?
Speaker 5 (24:45):
Do you remember it?
Speaker 2 (24:46):
On three one two three? Diana?
Speaker 5 (24:49):
Diane?
Speaker 2 (24:51):
I feel like you waited and we did. We decide
that it was after Princess die. I feel yeah, her
mom totally named her Poppy Diana.
Speaker 4 (24:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Okay, So you guys both talked about adaptations gone wrong.
Is there any adaptation in your mind that has gone right?
Like when you think, what's like the north star for
each of you for an adaptation, Oh.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
My gosh, Okay, these are so different, but the Hunger
Games adaptations are phenomenal.
Speaker 4 (25:16):
Ooh that's a great are great?
Speaker 6 (25:18):
Oh man, this is such a hard question. Two thousand
and five North and South miniseries on the BBC. It's
probably one of my favorite at the two thousand stars.
Richard Armitage, it's base and Daniella Denby ash I believe.
And it is an adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's Like eighteen
(25:40):
hundred's novel on the Industrial Revolution.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
That also reminds me of another phenomenal adaptation, Gone Girl.
Speaker 6 (25:47):
Oh yes, we talked about Gone Girls in our initial meetings.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
I remember, right.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
It's so good. It's really faithful. It's like, I think
what we should call it is faithful. Plus it's like
faithful in that the heart of the story is the same,
the heart of the characters is the same. You understand
that it's the same story. But plus is that they
took the fact that they have living, breathing actors and
are performing this and they use that to make it
(26:13):
feel in some ways bigger like and I think people
does that really well. But Gone Girl like the whole
thing with ben Affleck having the butt chin and she's
like I just you just like don't look trustworthy because
of your like butt, little like crease into your chin.
And so whenever he's like saying I'm telling the truth,
like he covers his chin with his thumb and he's like,
I'm not lying whatever, that little detail is not in
(26:34):
the book. That little detail was written because ben Affleck
was cast.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
Okay, so this is actually my next question, because Emily,
I can imagine when you're writing this character is fully
baked out, and then you lean when you're writing the adaptation.
Do you have a cast in mind? Like?
Speaker 4 (26:50):
Do you have an actor in mind for people?
Speaker 5 (26:52):
I did?
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Not?
Speaker 5 (26:53):
For beatreed I did?
Speaker 4 (26:56):
Are you able to share who for be?
Speaker 5 (26:59):
Treat?
Speaker 6 (26:59):
No? Do I know?
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Text me later?
Speaker 4 (27:03):
Yeah, okay, you're gonna have to come back on.
Speaker 5 (27:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
Well, here's the thing.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
Emily is known for her easter eggs. Are there any
that you can drop with us about the adaptation?
Speaker 5 (27:17):
Oh, equal eyed viewers may already know. So I am
going to share maybe one easter egg, which is that
in the very first draft of People we Meet on Vacation,
I knew what I would want as a reader was
a recreation of the cover, and so I wrote something
that was like a.
Speaker 6 (27:38):
Recreation of the cover that I think book lovers will identify.
I think I even wrote into the text it was
like book clevers will recognize us. That was like a
nod also to book Lovers, which was out at the time.
But I was like, this is a cover recreation, and
that is one thing that you know, as much as
things change from the first draft to the last and
(27:58):
what actually gets produced.
Speaker 5 (27:59):
I'm so proud to know that that book cover recreation
did make it into the final.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
And this is something that's okay to share because you
literally will not be able to tell. I don't think
in this but in that scene, we do have a
little easter egg, which is that Alex is reading an
Augustus Everett book in that scene, a book that does
not exist. Funnily enough, I mean none of them exists,
but it doesn't exist in print. Like I have not
(28:25):
named this novel in an existing book. Because Hollywood is weird,
and because there are different studios making the Beach Read
movie than the People Meet on Vacation movie, I could
use the Augustus Everett name because he gets name checked
in People who Meet on Vacation. This is so probably
boring to other people. I think this is fascinating. And
so we weren't allowed to use any of the book
(28:47):
titles that are included in Beachread, so we had to
come up with a new book. So I came up
with a new book title, and I got to choose
from like a couple of different covers. And Alex is
reading this book, which you will not be able to
see whatsoever, I don't think, but in the cover recreation,
So that's an easter egg on an easter egg, a
hat on a hat.
Speaker 6 (29:06):
Okay, so for me to know as the director of
the next film, Like, where does that fit into Gus's bibliography?
Speaker 5 (29:12):
I feel like this is a plater.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
But did you know that there is another unnamed happy place? Yes?
Speaker 6 (29:19):
Yes, Okay, Emily, I am an Emily Henry scholar.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
Okay, oh my god, you mentioned book lovers. I'm wondering
how much influence book talk and fans actually have over
both your book, Emily, all of your writing. And then
(29:44):
you lean on the adaptation, like do you try to
put fans' wishes in there?
Speaker 2 (29:49):
I can tell you if you see the diplomacy wheels
turning in your head.
Speaker 4 (29:54):
Like give me a percentage if you can't answer.
Speaker 6 (29:56):
So I'll tell you this last summer, I had a
wonderful summer intern and I was like traw the depths
of book Talk, book Twitter, all of the places that
I cannot look and just kind of come back to
me with like a PowerPoint of what these people want.
Speaker 5 (30:14):
I had my list, and then I.
Speaker 6 (30:15):
Also had my intern create this this other list for
me as well, and there was some overlap, which is
fun to see, but it was just a little piece
I wanted to add to my research process just to
kind of honor my former fangirl self.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Yeah, I mean, and I remember the very first conversation
that I had with Brett about people was him saying,
can you make me a list of the things that
the readers will riot if they don't make it into
the final cut? And so I did that. But I
will say for books, I'm not doing that because I
feel like for books, my attitude is like everything we
(30:53):
write will hopefully be someone's favorite book. But for the adaptations,
because there is already this readership to like honor, Like,
I was very grateful that I knew you would be
factoring that in on some level.
Speaker 6 (31:04):
Yeah, I remember in our very first meeting I did
ask you if you could only save one scene from
this book, what scene would it be?
Speaker 5 (31:11):
I do remember? Do you want me to find?
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Tell me because I have no memory.
Speaker 5 (31:14):
It's the condom scene.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Oh you know what didn't make it clearly? Did it obviously?
Just make it obviously?
Speaker 3 (31:21):
No?
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Oh wait, no, no, no, you're right, you're right. Oh I
thought you were talking about Oh my god, I thought
you were talking about a different condom scene. There are two.
There are two different condemn scenes in that book. One
is funny and one is sweet.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
And also, you leen you love a sex scene. Yeah,
I've gotten to interview you before you love a sex scene?
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Well, this condom scene is a comedic comic. The sexy
condom scene did not make it in sadly?
Speaker 3 (31:46):
Do you guys feel like book talk has changed romance
because I remember growing up I would read my favorite books.
I didn't even think about what the author looked like,
and now not at all. There are I mean, you
both are famous authors.
Speaker 4 (31:59):
People know what you look like.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
They care, they're they're following you on TikTok and Instagram.
Speaker 4 (32:05):
It's really changed.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
Do you think book talk has changed romance as a genre?
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (32:10):
I think it's certainly left like a mark on it.
Speaker 6 (32:13):
From what I've studied of book talk, a lot of
it also comes from kind of fandom, and specifically this
fan fiction archive archive of our own. I think the
distillation of tropes that we know and love in fan
fiction was not actually as prevalent in romance before a
(32:34):
certain point in time, Like they weren't as codified as
like there's only one bed once. That language of fandom
infiltrated romance like BookTalk, which I think makes so much
sense because fandom people are extremely online people. Extremely online
people are more likely to make content on BookTalk, and
then they're more likely to talk about it, and why
not use this vocabulary that we are all already kind
(32:55):
of conversant in to describe it. But then I think
that's when publishing starts to see as a marketing tool. Yeah,
and then they're like, it becomes this shorthand for us all.
And so I do feel like I've seen the fanficification
a little bit of romance, would you say, Emily completely?
Speaker 2 (33:12):
I agree, And that's not like just a good or
bad thing. I think it's like kind of a neutral thing.
But I will say tropes literally only matter if you
care about the characters, like it really only matters if
I get to see how these two very specific characters
operate in this situation and what happens when they are
in this situation.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
Yeah, okay, Well, speaking of book talk, we have a
fan question for you.
Speaker 7 (33:38):
Hi. My name is Michelle from Texas. I love how
you described Little Crescent Island in Great, Big, beautiful Life,
So I want to ask Emily if you could live
in any place you've written about, where would it be
and why?
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Oh my gosh, I want to live in all of them.
I feel like I'm torn Wayneing Bay, Michigan fictional place
Northern Michigan from Funny Story, but in the winter, I
would like to live in Palm Springs, where Alex and
Poppy go. I would take either of those happily.
Speaker 6 (34:11):
Oh.
Speaker 7 (34:11):
My name is Nna. I live in New York and
I'm huge fans of both of you. I'd love to know,
as writers, how do you come up with those swoony
moments that make readers like me go wild? For example,
you mean I still think about that scene and how
to end a love story where he writes on her thigh?
And then I'd love to know, how do you work
on translating those moments to the screen and showing the
(34:32):
chemistry between the two romantic leads.
Speaker 5 (34:34):
Oh so good moment.
Speaker 6 (34:37):
As I was writing it, I was just like watching
the movie in my mind, and I was like, what
do I want to happen next? And I was like, well,
that would be compelling, And so I think that was
what happened there, and I think I'm always chasing that feeling,
and so when it comes to translating that to the screen,
I think it's it's kind of different if I'm directing
(34:58):
versus when I'm writing. When I'm writing, I'm I'm creating
a blueprint that's for production. And so I knew that
I really wanted Emily's books are sexy. I wanted it
to be a sexy movie, and I didn't want that
to get lost somewhere along the game of telephone that
is production. And so I remember writing into the script
for one of the sex scenes it was, this is
(35:18):
a sex scene that makes you wishy, we're having sex
right now. And that line, that line made it into
the final.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Such a good line.
Speaker 4 (35:29):
It's a great one. Emily.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
I heard you say, I'm saying yes to things for
my future self. I'm wondering for each of you, what
is something that you are terrified of saying yes too,
but you're going to do anyway. Oh gosh, you're doing
it for future.
Speaker 4 (35:46):
Yeah, Emily, can I start with you know.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
Juleen, do you already have an answer that can buy
me time?
Speaker 7 (35:52):
Sure?
Speaker 5 (35:53):
Yeah, right now? I would say. It's dance class.
Speaker 6 (35:58):
So I figure skate and I was talking my coach
about how do I get more graceful, and she said,
we'll take a dance class. And She's been saying this
for the last seven years that I've been skating, and
finally I decided, Okay, I'll take a dance class. I
think right now for future me. That's the thing is
I'm committing to do. I'm committing to the suck a
little bit, yeah, in the hopes that it will get better.
Speaker 5 (36:17):
And it has gotten better.
Speaker 6 (36:18):
Actually, when I look at the videos, I'm like, oh wow,
there's like a marked difference, but it's hard.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
Yeah. I love that answer. Like something I respect and
admire about you so much, Euleen is that you, I
feel like, consistently push yourself to try new things, like
as we get older, especially when we find something that
we're good at. It's really really, really hard and scary
to try something new, and I hate being bad at things,
(36:46):
and so I guess my answer if I'm just going
to piggyback off of yours, which I am, is I
have been playing tennis and the same thing. I am
so on athletic, and I don't know, like, I think
that is kind of a huge deal for me, as
like a perfectionist, to be like, yeah, I'm bad at
this thing and I keep doing it like I can't
(37:07):
ever be I'm not going to be a professional tennis player.
Speaker 5 (37:10):
You're never going to make your money doing yes, I.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
Will never No one wants to pay to see that.
Speaker 4 (37:17):
But you'll eventually be good totally.
Speaker 3 (37:21):
Okay, I'm giving you guys Internet class.
Speaker 4 (37:23):
Oh those were great answers. You great great answers.
Speaker 3 (37:27):
Okay, we're coming up on the end of our conversation,
which means it's time for speed read.
Speaker 4 (37:33):
Here's how it works.
Speaker 3 (37:34):
We put sixty seconds on the clock and we're going
to see just how many rapid fire questions I should
say rapid fire literary questions that you can get through.
We're going to go popcorn style, so you lean you'll
get a question, and then Emily, you get a question.
Speaker 4 (37:48):
After you Ready, let's do it. You're locked in? Okay? Three? Two, one? Okay?
One literary trope you would ban forever.
Speaker 5 (37:58):
Emily Billionaire, Romance, secret pregnancy.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
Oh.
Speaker 4 (38:04):
One that you'll defend with your life.
Speaker 5 (38:07):
Oh, Friends to Lovers, Forced Proximity.
Speaker 7 (38:12):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
Favorite book to recommend to people?
Speaker 2 (38:16):
Anything by Varry McFarlane or Kennedy Ryan.
Speaker 5 (38:20):
Luck of the Draw by Kate Claiborne writing it down?
Speaker 3 (38:24):
What book do you wish you could read again for
the first time?
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Gone Girl?
Speaker 6 (38:29):
Probably Pride and Prejudiced by Jane Austen. Honestly, you know, like,
take it back. I just watched a Yeah, man, I
just watched a movie recently.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
If you could live vicariously through one fictional character, who
would that be?
Speaker 2 (38:42):
This is so messed up, But I want to say Amy.
Speaker 3 (38:45):
From Gone Okay, Uleen, how about you Eluise at the Plaza?
Speaker 6 (38:50):
I just want to be Mitch with a drunk nanny
and a plug a turtle.
Speaker 3 (38:56):
You have ten minutes in a bookstore. Which area are
you going to?
Speaker 5 (39:00):
Romance on the day?
Speaker 2 (39:03):
Romance or sci fi? Weirdly?
Speaker 4 (39:05):
Oh really, Emily, that was a left turn. I know, Okay,
what's your red flag reading happened?
Speaker 2 (39:13):
Oh this is a new one. People are skimming books.
Some people only read the dialogue.
Speaker 6 (39:18):
People who leave restar. Goodreads reviews give it a one
or a five.
Speaker 3 (39:22):
Commit Yes, okay, a book that's shaped the way you
see the world.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
I'm gonna say the Giver, but mostly because it taught
me about like what writing could do.
Speaker 5 (39:34):
I think it's Sanford Meisner's book on acting.
Speaker 4 (39:37):
Do you ever read the last page first?
Speaker 5 (39:40):
I used to, really, but not anymore.
Speaker 6 (39:43):
No.
Speaker 5 (39:43):
I did it consistently through high school and then I stopped.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
Danielle, do you do that?
Speaker 6 (39:48):
No?
Speaker 7 (39:48):
Never?
Speaker 2 (39:49):
Never?
Speaker 4 (39:53):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (39:53):
My last question to you both is what have you
bookmarked this week? It doesn't have to be about reading.
It could be anything that you've you know, like kind
of like saved on your Instagram or anything.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
I know, I'm going into my screen shots because it's
like I do that thing of screen chatting an article
I want to read later.
Speaker 6 (40:13):
Yeah, I feel like mine is going to be like
embarrassing because even better you, Leen.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
I just screenshotted to Google and read this later. From
BBC Science Focus magazine. Scientists say are chances of finding
alien life just skyrocketed. I don't know why because I
haven't googled it yet.
Speaker 3 (40:30):
Very sci fi. This makes sense now, okay, eleen.
Speaker 6 (40:34):
So the last thing I saved was the New York
Times article dancing to the Beating Heart of the New
York Public Library. The mission behind the Monica, Bill Barnes
and Company is to bring dance where it doesn't belong.
And it's an experiential art company that it does dance
in places where dance doesn't belong. And I was like, oh,
how interesting. Clearly dance is on my mind.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
So yeah, and if you know what dance belongs everywhere,
first of all, that's true. Oh, I do have another one.
I don't know anything about where this is going. So
the Dad O'Brien posted a thing about I think I
knew podcast she has maybe called Murder on the Toepath. Okay,
so that's something I wanted to look into. Can I
(41:13):
tell you?
Speaker 6 (41:13):
My second thing I've book marked is how to Rewax
your barber Jacket, which is a YouTube video on YouTube
and I need to rewax my jacket and I watch it.
Speaker 5 (41:24):
It's the most sexual thing I've seen real to me.
Speaker 6 (41:27):
Yes, it's this very handsome man, and he like and
just like works it into.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
The jacket book mark that you're like, I'm coming back
to this and we're going to circle back.
Speaker 4 (41:37):
This has gotten so weird. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
The perfect way to end any podcasts.
Speaker 4 (41:41):
The absolutely perfect way. No, Emily, you Leen.
Speaker 3 (41:46):
It's so fun to listen to you because you're so
descriptive even in your speech, Like I I if I
had to like close my eyes and I hadn't read
any of your books, I would know both of you
were writers.
Speaker 4 (41:57):
So thank you so much for taking the time so fun.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
Thank you so much. This was a joy.
Speaker 5 (42:03):
This was great.
Speaker 3 (42:08):
And that's a wrap for our very first episode of
Bookmarked by Reese's book Club. We are so excited you
tuned in. Thank you and a huge shout out to
Emily and Euline.
Speaker 4 (42:18):
For setting the stage. This is just the beginning.
Speaker 3 (42:21):
And if you want a little bit more from us,
come hang with us on socials. We're at Reese's book
Club on Instagram serving up books, vibes and behind the
scenes magic. And I'm at Danielle Robe Roba y come
say hi and df me And if you want to
go nineties on us, call us okay, our phone line
is open, so call now at one five zero one
(42:43):
two nine one three three seven nine. That's one five
oh one two nine, one three three seven nine.
Speaker 4 (42:52):
Share your literary.
Speaker 3 (42:53):
Hot takes, book recommendations, questions about the monthly pick, or
let us know what you think about the episode you
just heard, and who knows, you might just hear yourself
in our next episode, So don't be shy, give us
a ring, and of course, make sure to follow Bookmarked
by Reese's book Club on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast,
or wherever you get your shows until then via in
(43:17):
the next chapter. Bookmarked is a production of Hello Sunshine
and iHeart Podcast. It's executive produced by Reese Witherspoon and
me Danielle Robe. Production is by ACAST Creative Studios. Our
producers are Matty Foley, Aliah Yates, Britney Martinez and Darby Masters.
Our production assistant is Avery Loftus. Jenny Kaplan and Emily
(43:40):
Rutterer are the executive producers for A Cast Creative Studios.
Maureene Polo and Reese Witherspoon are the executive producers for
Hello Sunshine. Ogakminwa, Kristin Perla Kelly Turner and Ashley Rappacord
are associate producers for Reese's book Club. Ali Perry and
Christina Everett are the executive producers for iHeart Podcasts, and
(44:00):
Tim Palazzola is our showrunner,
Host
Simone Boyce
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