A fairy tale story comes to screen with Red, White & Royal Blue based on the novel by Casey McQuisto with the same title. Thanks to the filmmaker Matthew López who after reading it knew he had to make it a movie and was involved since the beginning of the making. 

The Synopsis 

Alex Claremont-Diaz (Taylor Zakhar Perez), the son of the President of the United States (Uma Thurman), and Britain’s Prince Henry (Nicholas Galitzine) have a lot in common: Stunning good looks, undeniable charisma, international popularity … and a total disdain for each other. Separated by an ocean, their long-running feud hasn’t really been an issue, until a disastrous—and very public—altercation at a royal event becomes tabloid fodder, driving a potential wedge in U.S./British relations at the worst possible time. Going into damage-control mode, their families and handlers force the two rivals into a staged “truce.” But as Alex and Henry’s icy relationship unexpectedly begins to thaw into a tentative friendship, the friction that existed between them sparks something deeper than they ever expected. 

I had the opportunity to connect with Matthew López to discuss the making of Red, White & Royal Blue. López shared what it was about the novel that he fell in love with after reading it and if the characters we see in the film are how he imagined them as he read it. Also how he knew it was going to be very challenging to cast the character to play “Alex” and then of course we had to discuss the cake scene! 

Nancy Tapia: Matthew, Red, White & Royal Blue, that was a really fun film to watch.

Matthew López: Thank you.

Nancy Tapia: I know it’s based on a novel, how did you get involved?

Matthew López: I read the book very early in 2020 after it had just been published, before it became a phenomenon. My agent sent it to me and he actually thought maybe I’d want to turn it into a stage musical. I read it and I just fell madly in love with it and I wanted to make the movie. I was like, “Maybe, well, I don’t know about a musical, but I know about a movie for this thing for sure,” and I just pursued the job. I was like, “I want to take this book and turn it into a movie.” I convinced Greg Berlanti and Sarah Schechter to give me the chance, and they helped me convince Amazon to do it, and everybody just put a lot of faith in me and gave me the resources to succeed.

Nancy Tapia: Wow! So you were in it from day one?

Matthew López: I was in it from day one.

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Nancy Tapia: So what was it that won you over about the story?

Matthew López: It was the characters, it was “Alex” and “Henry”. I really fell in love with them as people, as Casey McQuiston had written them in the book. They were so far vibrant, they were so unusual. Unusual in that I’d never encountered characters like this.

I really love that on the surface, they probably are very inaccessible to most readers because their lives are not like anything most of us will ever lead. But those people, those two people are very understandable and they’re very easy to relate to and to sympathize with and to root for, and it was just them. I really wanted to bring them into the world and bring them to life.

Nancy Tapia: So, when you finally had the main actors, were they how you envisioned them when you read the novel?

Matthew López: I didn’t envision anything, because once I knew I wanted to make the movie with characters as specific as this, and I knew especially with “Alex”, really, really challenging to cast. I knew that it would take a while to find someone, I just allowed myself to be surprised by whoever came along. I put very few parameters on who I’d see for the role with my casting director.

I just said, “Find people who are exciting to you and get them on tape and let’s watch them.” For “Alex” especially, I saw hundreds and hundreds of young Latin actors. Taylor (Taylor Zakhar Perez) and Nick (Nicholas Galitzine) both just, from the moment I first encountered their auditions, I started to really get the strong sense that it was going to be them. Once I put them in a chemistry read together, once I put them together for the first time, they got along so well together from the beginning. They really just liked each other so much and it made my job, if not easy, then certainly possible.

Nancy Tapia: I remember the first time seeing Taylor in Kissing Booth and thinking, this kid is going to be doing a lot more projects.

Matthew López: Of course!

Nancy Tapia: He caught my attention!

Matthew López: Well, I watched that when I was considering casting him, and so I went back and I watched it and he’s so electric on camera. He really just pops on screen. He’s got so much charisma, he is so intelligent, he’s so alive on screen. The movie is special in part, the movie is special because of all the actors in the film, but Taylor and Nick really just sort of have something. They would probably call it star quality, I guess. They both just are really special. Taylor just pops on camera, the camera loves him, and he really understood this character, and I loved working with him.

Nancy Tapia: Yeah, he’s got this dreamy charisma.

Matthew López: Yeah, he really does. He’s a movie star. He’s a proper movie star.

Nancy Tapia: Yeah, I remember thinking he’s hot. Then I was like, “Wait, I’m too old to even think that,” because Taylor’s so young haha…

Matthew López: Haha…My 75-year-old aunt who watched the movie, she was like, “I love him. He’s beautiful. What’s his number?” And I was like, “Okay, calm yourself, calm yourself.”

Nancy Tapia: So, he’s for all ages. Haha…

Matthew López: Mm-hmm.

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Nancy Tapia: Can you talk about the cake scene? Did you use real cakes? How much of the cake was real cake and how many cakes did it take?

Matthew López: Most of the cake that you see in that scene is styrofoam and latex cake. So we could drop it as many times as we needed to, it bounced. My production designer actually laid on the floor and had them drop it on her head, just to prove to everybody that it was safe.

So for the most part, the cake that you see, especially when it’s intact, was this styrofoam and latex thing. So, there was like in three stages, there’s the complete intact thing, which is styrofoam and latex, then there was after the disaster, which was a mix of real cake, styrofoam and latex and real icing that we carefully sort of staged around them for the aftermath, and then the actual kersplat was real cake, and we got it in one take.

We had the ability to reset if we needed to. We had duplicate costumes, we had a plan to get them showered and redo their hair and makeup and re-dress them as quickly as possible. It was probably going to take maybe upwards of 90 minutes to actually do the reset. So we got it on the first take, and I looked at it, it was actually me and my production designer throwing it in their faces, and I watched it and I said, “We’ve got it. Let’s move on.” We got lucky.

Nancy Tapia: The credit to the actors, but come on, the director has a lot to do with it.

Matthew López: I have a very good aim, haha….

Nancy Tapia: Haha…Let’s be careful with you and cake.

Matthew López: Yes.

Nancy Tapia: Well, thank you so much for your time. It was fun talking to you about the film, it was fun. Let’s include that there is also a learning lesson about how we question ourselves too.

Matthew López: Yeah. I think one of the things that I hope people take away from this, is what I’ve always felt this story was about. You don’t have to be the person that you’re told you’re supposed to be.

Nancy Tapia: Let’s be who we want to be.

Matthew López: Yeah, exactly. Thank you, Nancy.

Nancy Tapia: You’re welcome. Thank you, take care and congratulations.

Red, White & Royal Blue is now available on Prime Video 

Source: LRMExclusive, Prime Video