The Idea of You author addresses movie’s major changes to ending

Robinne Lee, the author of the The Idea of You, has revealed her true feelings about the movie adaptation’s ending.

The Idea of You shares a lot of similarities with its book source material, but where the two projects differ greatly is their endings.

Both stories follow art gallery owner Solène Marchand as she embarks on a whirlwind romance with boy band leader Hayes Campbell, and the effects both their age gap and lifestyles have on their relationship.

While Lee’s novel had a more realistic and tragic ending for the couple, director Michael Showalter decided to give the movie a more hopeful conclusion. And now the author has spoken out about how she felt about such a drastic change to her work.

“The book is a book, and the movie is a movie,” Lee told Entertainment Weekly. “You have to step away and let the filmmakers do what they’re going to do and not get too concerned with what it is you’ve created and when it stops because it’s a completely different medium. Adaptations are always a tricky thing because books are so much more cerebral, and you’re reading the character’s thoughts, and it’s hard to convey character’s thoughts in a film, so there’s going to be changes.

“It’s America — Hollywood’s going to do what they’re going to do, and they’re going to throw a happy ending on everything. You hope they’ll keep to what you’ve written because it meant something to you, but you also have to think about the box office and viewers and what their audience is going to want to see. Even though there’s obviously a huge overlap between readers and movie viewers, I think when you are gearing something towards a movie audience, it’s a slightly different fanbase, and maybe American viewers are not ready for [a sad ending].”

Lee went on to explain that, while most movie audiences want to “leave and feel happy,” her feelings fall on the exact opposite side of the spectrum. “Titanic was a huge success — I love crying and I cried for three days and then I went back and went back and went back,” Lee explains. “It is the only movie I’ve seen in the theater four times because I like to cry. And you’ll know I like to cry when you read my book. Crying makes me feel like I’m alive,” she added.

Lee ended the novel version of The Idea of You with Solène and Hayes permanently breaking up due to seeing her teenage daughter struggle with the fame and attention Hayes brought into their lives. The two end up never speaking again after Hayes gives up trying to contact her.

However, in the movie, the couple do break up for the same reason, but end up reconnecting five years later after Solène is out of school.

Showalter has been open about wanting to leave the viewers on a happy note as Lee’s original ending didn’t vibe with his vision for the movie, but Lee seems to disagree with how the couple’s future was portrayed.

“That’s not the story I wanted to tell,” Lee said. “I wanted to make a point about how, as women, we put others’ happiness before our own… I wanted it to feel like you were reading this woman’s diary. It’s something that had really happened to her, and she’d gotten caught up in this role and romance, and it almost destroyed her and everything around her, and she had to let it go.”

Though they had different visions for how Solène and Hayes’ story should end, Lee did confirm that she was “looking forward to meeting” Showalter to discuss the changes in-depth.

The Idea of You is now streaming on Prime Video. You can jam out to the movie’s soundtrack and find out if the movie was based on a true story.