‘The Idea of You’ Director Slams ‘Derogatory’ Backlash of the Age-Gap Romance
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The Idea of You, based on Robinne Lee’s novel of the same name, isn’t just about a woman falling in love with a pop star. Solène (Anne Hathaway), a 40-year-old single mom, gets involved in a passionate romance with Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitzine), the 24-year-old lead singer of the boy band August Moon.
Since the book’s release in 2017, there’s been criticism of the age-gap romance at the center of the story. (For context: Hayes is 20 in the book, compared to 24 in the movie). To some, Solène and Hayes’ relationship is problematic because of their age difference. The backlash resurfaced online ahead of the film adaptation’s release.
“I think it’s so derogatory,” director Michael Showalter told TV Insider during SXSW about the age-gap criticism surrounding the movie. “As a director, I feel like I get to know every character in my movies, so I get to experience the emotions of everybody I get to direct. I get to feel like Hayes, I get to feel like Solène, I get to feel like everybody in this movie. To be called a cougar is so derogatory and hurtful.”
He continued: “In the films that I make, I like to, hopefully, tell a story that’s entertaining and commercial but also has something to say about our culture. I hope that people see this movie and think twice about how they judge other people’s behavior because there really is a double standard. It should either be wrong for everybody or okay for everybody. I think that, in this case, these are two characters who are adults and who have a very sophisticated understanding of the choices that they’re making. And that’s all that should matter.”
The film doesn’t shy away from addressing the age gap. Solène is concerned about it from the jump because of what society will think, but Hayes doesn’t view her age as a hindrance. Their ages are the last thing he’s concerned about. Their relationship builds on an equal foundation.
Producer Cathy Schulman told TV Insider that her “whole purpose” in making this movie was to “challenge social norms.” She felt that the “world really needed to see a movie where we could encourage women to feel free in love, to encourage the notion that there’s life after divorce, to highlight the fact that love comes in all sorts of unusual ways. Sometimes it may come with someone younger.”
She added, “And, of course, it’s a total double standard in terms of men and women, where nobody in a million years would be worried about such a thing [if the roles were reversed]. It’s the whole reason I wanted to make the movie. What I have to say to those people is that I hope that they would open up their hearts and their minds because there’s so much possibility in life that they’d be shutting themselves down, too, because you just never know what people might mean to you in your life.”
The Idea of You, Movie Premiere, May 2, Prime Video
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