It’s finally here … and has a few changes! Red, White & Royal Blue premiered via Prime Video on Friday, August 11. Based on the book of the same name by Casey McQuiston, the flick follows the story of Alex Claremont-Diaz (Taylor Zakhar Perez), the son of the first woman President of the United States, and Britain’s Prince Henry (Nicholas Galitzine) who kick off a secret love story.
Before it movie’s official premiere, it was actually over three hours long, and director Matthew López had to make some cuts.
“Why I say it wasn’t hard [to cut down] is that I quickly realized putting this movie together that, unlike the book, this movie was about Alex and Henry first,” he explained to Us Weekly. “And first, middle, and last, everything, every decision that I made as the director of this film had to flow into, is it right for Alex and is it right for Henry? And is it right for them as a couple?”
What hit the cutting room floor?
“Everything that wasn’t Alex and Henry had to go,” he explained. “I [felt], like, you’re taking me away from what I care most about, which is Alex and Henry in the movie. So my job as the filmmaker is to deliver Alex and Henry safely on to the end of the film. There’s about less than 20 seconds of the movie in which either one of them doesn’t appear.”
For stars Taylor and Nicholas, they become fast friends when the cameras stopped rolling — even with all their intimate scenes in the movie.
“There’s so much choreography to sex…ual scenes,” Taylor told GQ in June 2023. Nicholas added, “It’s a crazy thing to be intimate in that way with your friend. And we want people to fall in love with these characters, because their love has to be real.”
Taylor recalled that their “guards were down during the rehearsals” but once the scene came to an end, “One of us would say something stupid, like, ‘Get off me!’”
From the sound of it, there will be no love lost between Alex and Henry on screen!
Scroll through our gallery to see the biggest book to movie changes in Red, White & Royal Blue.
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