Nicholas Galitzine on Anne Hathaway: ‘Annie and I Have a Natural Simpatico’

“I remember walking up to that audition that day and thinking, ‘I just want to leave everything in that room. I’m not going to be intimidated. I’m not going to be overwhelmed,'” actor Nicholas Galitzine told Stars on SiriusXM (Ch. 109) host Jessica Shaw about landing the lead role in “The Idea of You” opposite Anne Hathaway.

“I think I just went in with a really positive energy, and I was very lucky that Annie and I have a natural simpatico,” he continued. “I left feeling amazing.”

Nicholas’ sense of validation, he explained, came from knowing there was nothing he would’ve done differently at his audition — and then the role was offered to him the very next day.

“The Idea of You” is a movie based on the novel of the same name by Robinne Lee in which Nicholas plays Hayes Campbell, 24-year-old lead singer of the boy band August Moon. Hayes meets 40-year-old single mom Solène Marchand, Anne Hathaway’s character, at Coachella, where their romance begins.

In the book, the Hayes character is based on Harry Styles, but Nicholas took his inspiration for the movie’s portrayal from somewhere else.

“The version of the boy band that I was channeling was the guy who is forced to dance who is not that good at dancing, which actually works really well for me, considering the rest of my band were — are — professional dancers, which is terrifying,” Nicholas said. “But I asked them very thoughtfully, I said, ‘Please just be as bad as you can be so I look very, very good.'”

According to Nicholas, the band’s chemistry that you see on-screen came from the sense of camaraderie that they fostered off-screen.

“You oftentimes see these boy bands together, and there’s such a closeness there,” he said. “We were all staying in the same hotel, and we’d come over for game night and just hang out all day with each other. I mean, I made four really close friends, which is such a gift.”

This isn’t the first movie role to feature Nicholas’ singing chops. Outside of his YouTube channel, which is filled with acoustic cover song performances, Nicholas also sang on the big screen in “Red, White & Royal Blue” (2023) and “Cinderella” (2021).

While exploring a career in music is something that he “flirted with for a while,” Nicholas also recognized the “immense amount of work that goes into being a musician” and that acting takes up a lot of his time. He also acknowledged the difference between being a recording artist and being a performer, recalling what it took to film the music festival performance portion of “The Idea of You.”

“We did these Coachella scenes in front of about 500 extras, which is a lot, but compared to these actual audiences of 60,000 or whatever is nothing,” Nicholas said. “And still, I mean, it was such a joy. Nerve-wracking. Fulfilled a lot of childhood dreams … But it’s such a different beast to being an actor.”

It took him at least three takes to start getting comfortable filming the on-stage performances, but the experience still made him want to explore music more.

“The first take, I was just completely bricking it,” Nicholas admitted. “And then the second take, I was still, a little bit. And then the third, we just started really getting into it and interacting with the audience. There was sort of a section where I kind of have to jump down, and I’m getting my shirt pulled at and everything, and it was very realistic. I had so much fun doing it, honestly. I think it very much solidified a want to do more of that in my own capacity, which is cool.”

“The Idea of You” comes to Prime Video on May 2, 2024.