Lili Reinhart On What The Love Hypothesis Movie Changed From The Book: “You Can’t Put Every Single Thing In”
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BookTokers have a lot of opinions. Especially when it comes to their beloved books, such as The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood. The IP is rooted in fandom and began as a Reylo (Rey and Kylo Ren from Star Wars) fanfic before turning into the fake-dating story that spent weeks on the New York Times Best Sellers list. Now it’s had the movie treatment, with Lili Reinhart playing Olive Smith and Tom Bateman playing Dr Adam Carlsen. However, fitting a 300-400 page book into a film comes with sacrifices, and the cast knows how particular the audience is.
“I don’t really know why they chose which scenes [would make it in], but I think it’s just the ones that kind of jump off the page that feel the most cinematic as well,” Reinhart tells Refinery29. “You can’t put every single thing in there because sometimes it just wouldn’t work in a movie; it just wouldn’t make sense or flow in the right way that it does when you’re reading something.”
Bateman admits he hadn’t read the book before he read the script, but believes viewers will appreciate how it stands on its own. “I remember thinking I didn’t feel like there were any holes in the script. The script was such a wonderful page turner. I thought there was everything there that you’d want from a romantic comedy film,” he says. “When I then went and read the book, I thought, yeah, you could have put those moments in, but to be honest, I can see why they didn’t.”
You can’t put every single thing in there because sometimes it just wouldn’t work in a movie; it just wouldn’t make sense or flow in the right way that it does when you’re reading something.
Book purists shouldn’t panic, though, as Reinhart is chronically online and pushed for certain book moments to be added to the script after she joined the project. “I was [for] research purposes seeing sort of the scenes and the lines that people really wanted, and I would push for those. They were mostly already actually in there, but maybe a few lines here and there I pushed for,” she adds. “I was able to give my input and notes on Olive and certain things that maybe I felt lines-wise from the book that people would really want.”
The pair know immense criticism will come from those who love the book, but there’s no such thing as a 100% faithful adaptation, especially when everyone interprets the source text differently. “You can hate the movie if you want. Totally fine,” Reinhart says. “It’s par for the course when you do an adaptation. You genuinely know that some people are not going to like it, and not approve of you as this character that they have been thinking about in their head.” She notes that fans can still go back and read the book, so they can keep loving whatever version they please. The idea of being crucified online for an adaptation doesn’t bother her, either, because as an actor, nothing will stop her from doing her best to play Olive in the way she believes works.
You can hate the movie if you want. Totally fine. It’s par for the course when you do an adaptation.
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Bateman agrees, saying: “Ultimately, you can’t please everyone. You never will be able to. There’s never been any piece of thing created that was universally loved… but you[‘ve] just got to keep true to yourself.”
One much-loved moment that did make it into The Love Hypothesis movie was Fluchella, where Olive forces Dr Carlsen to get a flu shot. It helps expose Adam’s vulnerabilities and takes their relationship to the next level. “It does so many things in that one moment. Olive gets to see a side of him that he’s still trying to protect,” Bateman muses. “There’s a playfulness there that comes out, but you’ve still got the rigidity of who these characters are.”
The actor thinks that a good book-to-screen adaptation comes down to “energy”. While not all book scenes work on camera, creative teams and actors can channel the same type of feeling, keeping the adaptation feeling faithful but with the ability to be told in a different medium. “I thought they did a really smart job of blending moments [together],” he says. “It’s all to do with character development and story arc.”
The Love Hypothesis will be released on Prime Video on September 23, 2026.
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Originally published at www.refinery29.com.