'I spoke to Nicholas Galitzine about his new movie The Idea Of You, and the experience was better than any fan fiction.'

It's around 6am on a Thursday morning and I open up my laptop.

It's not unusual for me to be up this early but it is out of character for me to be in a full face of makeup at this hour (or any hour of the day to be quite honest). But I'm not ashamed to say that I've gone the extra mile today because I'm waiting to be dialled in to one of Hollywood's hottest new heartthrobs: Nicholas Galitzine.

It might be a bit naff for me, a mother in her mid-30s, to admit I've gotten all dolled up to speak to the star of Amazon Prime's latest romantic drama The Idea Of You, but as soon as he appears on my Zoom screen I'm glad I popped on some lippy and blush.

The 29-year-old is every bit the dashing leading man. He is sat across from me in a very sleek apartment and I immediately default to some self-deprecating humour to quell the embarrassment I'm feeling over sitting inside a rather homely (read: messy) room.

“I’m trying to hide the fact that I’m in my parents' office, so it’s very Hollywood, very chic you know how it is,” I quip pulling out a cheap joke.

But he doesn't take the bait and instead offers up a charming aside to put me at ease.

"You’re kind of like sitting in the middle of an abstract painting is what it feels like," he says in a warm way that doesn't feel like he's poking fun despite us living in two different stratospheres. "My eyes have just been drawn to your wonderfully red sweater."

I blush, the same red as my sweater.

Interviewing Nicholas Galitzine. Image: Supplied.

And there it is. That disarming British charm that makes me realise exactly why he was cast as the uber-famous boy band member Hayes Campbell who falls in love with an older woman while out on tour in The Idea Of You. 

Galitzine is humble as all get out and I guess it took me by surprise. By all accounts, given his meteoric rise in popularity over the past few years, I was expecting some airs and graces. But here he was sitting across from me as if we were two friends catching up.

Now that, is charm offensive 101.

In The Idea Of You much of the premise (if not all) hinges on the chemistry between Hayes (Galitzine) and Solène (Anne Hathaway), a 40-year-old single mother. And Galitzine brings this spark in spades alongside his colleague with the pair bringing to life an other-wordly romance that offers up a different kind of love story.

Their meet-cute happens when Solène accidentally stumbles into Hayes' private trailer before he is about to head on stage to perform at Coachella with his band August Moon. She's found herself there chaperoning her daughter after her ex-husband dipped out last minute.

Sure it's teensy bit far-fetched but movies don't always need to be grounded in a whole lot of reality in order for us to be hooked in.

"Clearly in our movie the security measures are a little lax," jokes Galitzine. "But it serves our story in a really brilliant way. I actually think it’s one of the most original, authentic, meet-cutes."

Nicholas Galitzine and Anne Hathaway. Image: Supplied Amazon Prime.

The plot for The Idea Of You has long been shrouded in theories that the original source material (a novel written by Robinne Lee) teetered on the edge of a Harry Styles/One Direction fan-fiction of sorts. While those claims have been largely squashed (although Lee admits she borrowed similarities from Styles when writing the character for Hayes) the rumours have certainly propelled this movie with plenty of online conversations drawing comparisons to One Direction.

August Moon (The Idea Of You) x One Direction. 💖 pic.twitter.com/MZeFCOpaMR

— Nicholas Galitzine Brasil 🎤 Fã-clube (@NGBRSite) March 5, 2024

With that kind of conjecture and build-up going into this project it may have been an easy conclusion to imagine Galitzine sitting at his computer pouring over hours of One Direction videos to develop his character. When I asked if he studied Styles meticulously he assured me that when he was stepping into the shoes of Hayes, he wanted this character to be as unique as possible.

“I really saw the potential on the page to create something that felt very authentic," he says. "I think with any band, if you reference too much you start to see elements of things that have been done before in your own performance. Which I think you never really want to do. You want to you want to do something that feels authentic and original."

Nicholas Galitzine starring as Hayes Campbell in The Idea Of You. Image: Amazon Prime.

As a singer in his own right, Galitzine was able to bring his incredible talent for performing to this role. But when it came to getting the 'boy band' choreography down pat, he asked his fellow cast mates to go easy on him.

"I have to be honest, the other lads as professional dancers, it came to them a lot easier than it came to me," he says when asked about practicing their Coachella scene. "They were very, very patient with me. I kept reminding them, ‘just don’t make me look bad, ok? Whatever you’re doing dumb it down like ten times and then we’ll kind of be round about the same level.'"

It's this humble attitude that makes you forget that Galitzine in his own right has reached epic levels of fame over the past few years thanks to some big successful projects. He won hearts around the world starring as Prince Henry in the hit film Red, White & Royal Blue and he showed off his prowess for period acting alongside Julianne Moore in the mini-series, Mary & George.

There's no denying his star is on the rise and he's on track to become Hollywood's next darling (if he isn't already). So did he borrow any of the dizzying experiences he's had over the past few years while channelling Hayes? 

"I think Hayes is at a completely different level, his fame is stratospheric," says Galitzine. "It was really trying to actually  take small parts of what I know to be true about the industry but also empathise with someone who’s been perceived since he was a kid.”

As much as Galitzine is in the zeitgeist now, he is no overnight success and has been grinding away at the entertainment industry for over 10 years. It has put him in good stead to deal with the intense attention he's receiving now.

"I’ve had a really kind of wonderful ascent into, I suppose you could say, success and fame," he says. "I think actually the fact that the first few years of my career were juggling both trying to be an actor and doing multiple part-time work and getting to a point now I feel a level of calm that maybe I wouldn’t of had in someone like in Hayes’ situation, who really becomes very famous when he joins the band when he’s 14."

As titillating as it is to delve into a world where someone like Styles might just bump into a regular single mum having an identity crisis and they fall in love, this movie speaks to something a bit more cerebral.

Nicholas Galitzine and Anne Hathaway in The Idea Of You. Image: Amazon Prime.

After watching this movie it's clear that society still has a hang-up surrounding women who have consensual adult relationships with younger men. Galitzine hopes that The Idea Of You will go some way towards normalising these kinds of romantic relationships while shutting down ageism.

"I hope it does normalise this 'May December' love that we haven’t seen as much," says Galitzine. "It (The Idea Of You) lends itself to creating something really unique within the romantic comedy space. I don’t think we’ve really seen something like this before.

I think anyone who watches the movie can see that the chemistry and the connection between these two people is something we can all really aspire to."

And with that it concluded my interview with Nicholas Galitzine, Hollywood's latest humble heartthrob. After a 10-minute slot on Zoom I lived a digital fan-fiction of my own. He politely thanked me for my time, I shut my screen and I was thrust back into the chaos of mum life.

Oh to have been Solène for a minute sure was nice.

The Idea Of You is now steaming on Prime Video. 

Feature Image: Amazon Prime.