Cake and Sex? Director of "Red, White and Royal Blue" Explains Vital Aspects in Prime Video Adaptation

Queer romance featuring Nicholas Galitzine and Taylor Zakhar Perez arrived on Amazon Prime Video recently

Listed in many reader favorites on TikTok, the film adaptation of "Red, White and Royal Blue" is eagerly anticipated by fans. Acknowledging the controversies surrounding the casting of the main couple and the omission of some book characters, director Matthew López defends the changes made from Casey McQuiston's text. Nevertheless, the adaptation's creator emphasized which elements simply couldn't be omitted in the final version.

Fans could breathe a sigh of relief from the first teaser released by Amazon Prime Video, as the iconic cake-fall scene featuring Alex (Taylor Zakhar Perez) and Henry (Nicholas Galitzine) was portrayed. For Matthew López, the scene in which the protagonists argue and accidentally topple the extravagant wedding cake is the story's major turning point:

"There was no way I was cutting the cake scene! I think there are certain things from the book that if I hadn't included, I wouldn't have been allowed to direct a film ever again," he shared in an interview with Radio Times.

"Looks terrible... I'm going to watch it": Controversies, camaraderie, and Lil Nas X heat up the arrival of "Red, White and Royal Blue" on Prime Video.

DIRECTOR HIGHLIGHTS THE IMPORTANCE OF EXPLICIT SCENES IN "RED, WHITE AND ROYAL BLUE"

Amazon Studios In addition to key moments like the famous "cake scene" and the scenes filmed at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, Matthew López also emphasized that the explicit sex scenes are crucial for the development of "Red, White and Royal Blue"'s plot. He stressed that "you can't tell Alex and Henry's story without discussing their very pleasurable sex life," as he told The Pink News.

To ensure that nudity-involved sequences were handled with care, safety, and realism, Taylor Zakhar Perez and Nicholas Galitzine were guided by an intimacy coordinator. For López, conveying that the characters genuinely share a healthy and authentic sexual connection is important to him, especially in a queer romance.

To ensure that sex isn't just an accessory in his film, the director – who previously won a Tony Award for the Broadway play "The Inheritance" – likened explicit scenes to songs in a musical: "[Sex] needs to propel the story forward, it needs to collaborate in your understanding of the character. Otherwise, it doesn't belong there," he argued.