Finding Emily’s Angourie Rice & Spike Fearn Talk Love, Going Viral, & Fav Rom-Coms | Interview
Finding Emily stars Angourie Rice and Spike Fearn spoke with ComingSoon’s Tyler Treese about their delightful new romantic comedy. The duo discussed the film’s themes, their characters, and what rom-coms they love to revisit. Finding Emily is out in theaters starting today from Focus Features.
“When a lovesick musician is given the wrong number for his dream girl, he teams up with a driven psychology student to find her. Together, they spark a hilarious campus-wide frenzy that tests their own hearts and ambitions along the way,” says the official synopsis.
Tyler Treese: Congrats to you both on Finding Emily, I thought it was so charming. It’s one of my favorite rom-coms of the past couple of years, along with Rye Lane. It’s just so delightful.
Angourie, this film isn’t about the two coolest people finding love. Both of your characters are a bit awkward, yet very charming in their own way. How was it finding that middle ground in your performance where Emily feels very human and likable, flaws and all?
Angourie Rice: [Laughs] Sorry, I think we’re laughing because, for me, I’m just playing her from this really grounded place. She is awkward sometimes, but I’m awkward sometimes too.
That’s why I’m laughing, because it wasn’t a conscious decision of, “I’m going to make this character a little bit quirky and awkward.” It’s just what comes out. So I think the balance is just loving the character. You’ve got to love her. As an actor, you have to love who you’re playing without judgment in order to make it feel grounded.
Yeah, I think it speaks to the authenticity of the film because love in and of itself is very awkward, regardless of who is experiencing it.
Spike, one interesting aspect this film explores is how easy it is to build someone up into an instant fix for all your problems. Owen loves the idea of Emily, but he barely knows her. That’s something a lot of people go through, despite how silly it sounds when it’s spelled out. What did you like about getting to explore that idea in the film?
Spike Fearn: Yeah, it’s really interesting that he doesn’t actually know anything about her. What we spoke about was that when Owen first met her, he had so much going on in his life at the time that it was like the first new dopamine hit he’d had. Then he wanted to chase that.
It’s like he says to Emily in the movie, “Why not try?” It’s like, okay, yeah, I barely know her. Doesn’t matter. Why not? I felt good in that moment, and I want to keep that moment. I want to keep chasing it to see if it’s right.
It might not be. He might hang out with Emily again and again and realize that maybe they’re not meant to be, but at least go and try and do it. I really liked that was his main goal. “I liked the way that felt then, so I’m going to keep chasing it.”
Then as the film goes on, he realizes that he’s actually getting such a big dopamine hit from it.
Angourie, I like how the romance between your two characters is slow-moving. There’s not really an attraction at first. It all comes through them really learning who the other person is. There’s something really sweet about that because it feels so genuine. What about this romance in the film really resonated with you?
Rice: Yeah, I think it’s exactly that.
You can feel obsessed with somebody or infatuated with somebody, but what does it mean to love somebody? It’s to spend time with them and to enjoy spending time with them too.
For these characters, it does just feel so sincere. They enjoy each other’s company, and they’re friends before they fall in love, which I think is so nice as well. Everything on the page just felt very real and honest.
Spike, I really enjoyed the original song for this movie that you sang, “Catch You Up.” There’s a funny line in the film calling you a long-lost Gallagher brother. Did learning how to play guitar and singing that song make you interested in learning more music in the future? How was that experience?
Fearn: Yeah. My dad is a guitarist, and I always grew up listening to music and seeing my dad play guitar and stuff. He’d always try to teach me as a kid, but I never really had the perseverance for it, I guess. Then getting the opportunity to do this was like, “Okay, I get to go and learn it.” I kind of have to or I’ll fail.
So when I learned to do that singing, I loved it. I don’t know if it’ll start a music career or anything like that, but I really enjoyed it. That was one of the main excitements of the movie for me, getting the opportunity to play a musician. I think that’s super cool, especially the ones from Manchester.
It’s very pure, very real. So yeah, I enjoyed it a lot.
Angourie, one of my favorite elements about your character, and one of her biggest strengths and weaknesses, is that she’s very career-driven. You’ve been very successful from a young age, you’ve navigated this space so well, and you’re doing fun and interesting work. So I imagine you related a lot to having those career ambitions while also wanting to live a full life and not have it dictate every aspect of you. How did you connect with the character from that angle?
Angourie Rice: Yeah, definitely. That is a major element of Emily’s life and a major part of my life too.
I think what I also really connected with is that Emily is somebody who’s come from a faraway place and found a new community and friends overseas. I really related to that aspect as well because I’ve had to travel for work my whole life. I really do understand that it takes courage. It asks a lot of you to go somewhere, not know anybody, and try to make a happy and fulfilling life for yourself.
Whether that’s, in Emily’s case, at college for four years, or in my case, going to Manchester for three months to make a movie when I didn’t know anybody. So I really related to that feeling as well. She’s driven by her career, but she’s also driven by this desire to travel and be somewhere and find something special away from home.
I love my home, but I also connect with that.
Spike, your character in the film is compared to Ed Sheeran, but “if Ed Sheeran was on Watchdog,” which is a very funny line. What stood out to you about this film exploring going viral and then the human fallout of that? It’s so easy to forget these people have real lives. One clip that goes viral online can maybe not define them, but it definitely throws their month or so into disarray.
Spike Fearn: Yeah, for sure. I think everybody likes to have an opinion on everything, especially online.
I liked that the film showed that side of it and showed how that’s really probably what would happen. If it hadn’t shown that part, it wouldn’t have been real.
I like that. Everybody has a say nowadays, and you can’t escape it.
So I’m glad that the movie showed that part.
This question is for both of you, and Angourie, you can go first. Rom-coms have such a lovely history, especially in Britain. Notting Hill, Bridget Jones, Love Actually, and there are a bunch more. What’s a rom-com romance that you can watch repeatedly and always be charmed by?
Rice: I can watch Notting Hill over and over and over and over again. There’s a character called Spike in Notting Hill. I just love that movie. I love it beyond the fact that it’s a romance about an actor who’s finding love.
It’s also a portrait of a friendship group, which I love. Hugh Grant’s character has a great relationship with his sister and his best friend. It’s also about this woman, this actor, Julia Roberts, who comes in and not only falls in love, but is given this space to be herself away from the madness of her career.
I love that. So I could watch that over and over.
That’s wonderfully put. Spike, what’s yours?
Fearn: I don’t know if you would definitely say it’s a rom-com, but it’s definitely a romance film. The whole trilogy, really, but the Before trilogy. Especially the first one. I think about that movie a lot. So I would say them.
Thanks to Angourie Rice and Spike Fearn for taking the time to talk about Finding Emily.
Source: Comingsoon.net