After People We Meet on Vacation lit up Netflix earlier this year, it’s felt like the Emily Henry cinematic universe is upon us. Henry’s collection of standalone, buzzy romance novels have already sold millions of copies and mesmerized BookTok for years, and nearly all of them have been in development as movies or shows. But now, the casting of the latest Henry adaptation has left many with a sour taste in their mouths.
This week, reports indicated that The White Lotus star Patrick Schwarzenegger is set to star alongside Bridgerton‘s Phoebe Dynevor in the film adaptation of Beach Read. The movie, which adapts Henry’s 2020 novel, is being brought to life by 20th Century Studios and is written and directed by People We Meet on Vacation movie co-writer Yulin Kuang. Its story centers around January Andrews and Gus Everett, two novelists and former college rivals who reunite in Michigan while struggling with writer’s block. Over the course of a summer, they decide to swap genres, with Gus writing a romance novel and January writing dark literary fiction… and a romance, naturally, ensues.
Beach Read has become a particular fan favorite among Henry’s books, which has made the news of Schwarzenegger’s casting hit to particularly mixed reviews. I, personally, found out the news through my TikTok feed, with multiple videos of fans voicing their dissatisfaction, to the point of joking that the movie is cancelled.
Hyperbole aside, some of the complaints are valid. Some have argued that the son of one of the most famous actors in the world and a part of the Kennedy family tree, does not fit the vision that Henry crafts of Gus, who is described as “not the universal kind of handsome.” It might not be as egregious of a casting choice as Jacob Elordi as Wuthering Heights‘ Heathcliff, but for a character who canonically has “olive skin” and “messy, dark curly hair,” it’s still a far cry from some of the fancasts people had previously envisioned in their heads.
And beyond that, some fans of the book just feel a disconnect between Gus and Schwarzenegger’s energy, both onscreen and off. It certainly doesn’t help that his most well-known role, of Saxton Ratliff on The White Lotus, was particularly controversial for both his frat boy antics and the incest he ultimately engaged in with his younger brother. The news of this Beach Read casting also led since-deleted tweets of Schwarzenegger’s to resurface, in which he complained that fellow actor Austin Butler is essentially hogging good roles in Hollywood.
Is there a chance that Schwarzenegger could completely defy expectations and wow everyone as Beach Read‘s Gus Everett? Absolutely. After all, we’ve already had an instance of one of Henry’s male protagonists being slightly reimagined for the screen, as Tom Blyth’s take on People We Meet on Vacation‘s Alex was different in some key ways from the source material. Plus, Blyth already proved that it’s more than possible for these romantic leads to play against type, as his most well-known role prior to the movie was… a young future dictator in the Hunger Games franchise.
Kuang did have high praise for Schwarzenegger when confirming the casting on Instagram, revealing that the search for Gus was “exhaustive,” but that the chemistry read between him and Dyvenor ultimately sealed the deal.
“We saw a lot of men for this role,” Kuang writes. “We reviewed a lot of tapes, sent a lot of avails checks and took a lot of meetings over a six month period. I have always maintained that we are not casting a character, but a relationship. Once we knew Phoebe would be our January, my efforts became more focused and specific – not on who would play the best Gus according to the text, but who would play the best Gus opposite our specific January.”
Beach Read does not currently have a release date.
(featured image: HBO)
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