The ‘Rosaline’ Cast & Creative Team On Updating A Classic, Love Bombing and The Importance Of A Spotify Playlist

Rosaline Press Conference

Moderator: Nikki Novak from Rotten Tomatoes
Participants:
Kyle Allen / Romeo
Isabela Merced / Juliet
Kaitlyn Dever / Rosaline
Sean Teale /Dario
Minnie Driver / Nurse Janet
Spencer Stevenson / Paris
Karen Maine / Director

For those of you that are far removed from middle school English, Rosaline was Romeo’s previous girlfriend who quickly exits the play. However, thanks to this clever retelling, the new Disney film Rosaline reframes the action from the perspective of the titular female protagonist.
Rosaline is currently streaming on Hulu.

Kicking things off Karen Maine was asked what brought her to the project. She replied: “So, the script was sent to me, and I was told that Kaitlyn was attached to play the lead. So immediately I was like, I love Kaitlyn and her work and was dying to work with her. She’s amazing.”

Kaitlyn Dever who played the title role talked about playing Rosaline saying, “I was just having so much fun with the role. I just appreciated and admired her determination, fearlessness and drive. But just playing up the comedy. The writing is so brilliant. It was really easy to kind of go there. It was so easy to just have the most fun and just be sort of outrageous sometimes, and sarcastic and comedic with this whole cast. It was really, really fun.”

We then moved over to Kyle Allen who plays Romeo. When Nikki the moderator brought up Romeo “love bombing” he replied, “Romeo would fall in love with a stick if you’d let him. He’s completely obsessed with the concept and the idea of love. That’s pretty much the entirety of his personality. He doesn’t have much else going on.”

Moving on, Isabela Merced explained what she brought to the role of Juliet saying, “I was very surprised. I didn’t really see myself as a Juliet type. I’m used to playing characters that are very headstrong, independent, kind of typically, not Juliet. So, I was very excited at the idea of it. They came to me, so I was very surprised. And I thought it was super exciting. I mean, Juliet is a strong woman, but she’s also very sensitive, emotional, sympathetic and empathetic. I think Rosaline and Juliet do a great job of representing both sides of, you know, of what feminism and what womanhood really is. You can be strong and you can be sentimental and sensitive.”

Adding to the discourse, Sean Teale who plays Dario, the love
Sean Teale who plays Dario, the love interest of Rosaline on what interested him about the role saying: “The thing that drew me to Dario is that something that I didn’t have, which is that he just didn’t mind what anyone thinks of him or how he appears. He is a certain way and I do not possess that trait at all. I’m scared about everyone’s opinion. But, Dario sort of manages to be a lot more progressive than a man would be in that time.”

Spencer Stevenson who plays Paris in the film shared his crazy Italy experience saying, “Getting to Italy was a whole journey. When I booked the role, I did not have a passport. And I needed like a week to get there. So, I ended up getting my passport on Thursday and got on a plane on Saturday. It was intense. It was my first time leaving the country.

Oscar nominated actor Minnie Driver, who plays Nurse Janet described what she enjoyed about her character saying, “I love all of the sort of vague resentment and sadness of this lost life that you know nothing about. This film has nothing to do with Janet’s other life. But I like that you feel it there. And I love how much she loves her girl and how she wants the best for her girl. And that’s what made it funny and great. And that she helps the young people at the end by saying that they’re dead when they’re not.”

The topic of music came up to which director Karen Maine replied, “The music was very fun to play around with. Whenever I make a film, I just do a deep dive into Spotify and make a playlist. And I remember Kaitlyn too does this to an extent, which I’ll let you talk about. But Kaitlyn also had made a Rosaline playlist and sent it to me. So, I had that as well.”

And went onto add, “It was about finding a way for it to hit the theme of the film and the comedy and walking that kind of anachronistic line between period and modern, that makes everything pop. So, there’s stuff that I didn’t limit myself to. There’s new stuff and there’s old stuff. There’s Enrique, there’s Celine and there’s Robin. And other than Ethan Gruska, everything is sung or written by a woman. The Enrique, we had it covered by an amazing artist named Anna of the North. So, it’s all very female. Like, I wanted the film to just have this very strong female undercurrent in the music. But the music’s amazing. The soundtrack will be on Spotify.”

The cast was asked if they had ever been in a Shakespeare production prior to Rosaline.

Spencer replied “I was not, you know. But I did fail my Shakespeare class.”

The classically trained Driver chimed in saying, “I was invited by the National Theater of Great Britain, which is, you know, a huge theater. They got a collection of actors together and what we didn’t know is that it was a giant audition for Romeo and Juliet. We thought we were just there to do a study group. I was the first person to get up. And I did the balcony scene. And Richard Eyre, who was the artistic director, at the end, was like, “That was so great because it’s really important to see how not to do it. Every pitfall that you fell into are pitfalls that actors fall into with this role. So, good job. You can sit down now.” And it was the most humiliating experience, but he was not wrong. And I can recite the balcony speech in my sleep.”

Edited for clarity. Rosaline is currently streaming on Hulu