For Halle Bailey, stepping into the lead role of Anna in “You, Me & Tuscany” meant tapping into the 2004 film “13 Going on 30,” which she described as her favorite rom-com.
“I just love the whimsicalness of Jennifer Garner, the way she’s so innocent and whimsical and powerful and brave,” Bailey said at a roundtable for college students Tuesday. “I just love the way she is in that movie. I would try to bring some of that magic into our movie.”
After meeting Matteo (Lorenzo de Moor), a handsome stranger at a hotel bar in New York City, Bailey’s character follows him to the bucolic Tuscany, where she poses as his fiancée to his estranged family. The revelation that he is engaged dramatically unites the family.
Despite her alleged courtship with Matteo being premised on a lie, Anna dives headfirst into his family’s charming dynamics, easing her way into the kitchen of their renowned restaurant. Early on, she meets Matteo’s arrogant brother Michael (Regé-Jean Page), and their relationship progressively shifts from adversarial to romantic.
Co-star Page, director Kat Coiro and producer Will Packer also participated in the roundtable.
Page said a core emphasis of the film was to turn typical tropes of a romantic comedy on their heads. He said a key component of the production process was to highlight whimsy and lightheartedness.
“We spoke a lot about very consciously making this an uncynical rom-com,” Page said. “This is a rom-com that is absolutely committed to joy, committed to aspiration and doesn’t need to undercut that.”
Bailey added that the film also attempts to bring stories of Black love into the limelight.
She said it is rare for romantic comedies to spotlight two Black love interests, and that she hopes “You, Me & Tuscany” will make strides in bridging that gap in representation.
“It shouldn’t be out of the ordinary: two Black leads in a rom-com and showing the world who we are in a joyful, loving space,” Bailey said. “I want everybody to bring everybody — their girlfriends, their boyfriends, their family — because that’s what it’s about.”
Page echoed Bailey’s sentiment. He said a highlight of filming the movie was spotlighting Black romance on screen.
“If it’s normal in real life, it should be normal on screen,” he said. “If you expect to fall in love someday, you should expect to see us fall in love on screen. That’s how it should work.”
Packer and Coiro said casting Bailey and Page in the lead roles was a no-brainer.
They said the duo shared both the creative synergy and romantic chemistry to make a film like “You, Me & Tuscany” work.
“A lot of movies have a big list, and you go through the list until you find the right match,” Packer said. “For us, it was ‘Halle has to say yes, or we don’t make the movie.’ And then once we had Halle, Regé had to say yes, or we wouldn’t make the movie.”
Coiro said one of the most important considerations was the film’s depiction of the Italian landscape. She said she hoped the film portrayed the Italian countryside as authentically as possible.
“The last thing we wanted to do was drop in and make an Italian movie that just used Italy as a backdrop,” she said. “When you hear the jokes and see the sandwiches that they eat, every single thing was questioned, interrogated and weighed in on by the cast and the crew.”
“You, Me & Tuscany” opens in theaters April 10.
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