People We Meet on Vacation’s Emily Henry & Brett Haley Talk Netflix Movie Changes | Interview
ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with People We Meet on Vacation author Emily Henry and director Brett Haley about adapting the hit novel into a movie, filming on a nude beach, and more. Starring Emily Bader and Tom Blyth, it begins streaming on Netflix on January 9, 2026.
“Free-spirited Poppy and routine-loving Alex have been unlikely best friends for a decade, living in different cities but spending every summer vacation together. The careful balance of their friendship is put to the test when they begin to question what has been obvious to everyone else — could they actually be the perfect romantic match?” says the official synopsis.
Tyler Treese: Emily, I wanted to hear about your set visit in Spain and getting to see People We Meet on Vacation come to life. What stood out about that? Because I can’t imagine anything more special as a creative than getting to see that.
Emily Henry: Yeah, I mean, it’s funny to see this backdrop behind you, which is from the set visit. That day I flew in, and someone picked me up and drove me straight to the beach that is behind you at this moment, and no one told me ahead of time that it was a nude beach.
It was my first introduction to meeting Tom and Emily in real life and meeting Brett in real life. We’d been on the phone all the time, but we’d never met in real life. All happened just surrounded by naked men of a certain age, and so that was surreal in every way.
It was a very magical day. It was the day that they were recreating the book cover, and I don’t think that you told me ahead of time, I came down the beach and saw the chair set up. I don’t think I knew.
Brett Haley: Maybe I did. Yeah, I can’t remember. But it was definitely like I knew I wanted you on set for that.
Emily Henry: It was, it was really, really special.
That does sound special. Especially all the nudists – that sounds hilarious.
Brett Haley: Yeah, I mean…
Emily Henry: They were very nice. They were so nice ’cause I’m looking at this umbrella, and we had a real hard time trying to get that umbrella positioned. There were all these guys shuffling over trying to help.
Brett Haley: We had to say, “Thank you, thank you, but no thank you. We’ve got it.” But they were very kind. They were very kind.
Brett, I really loved how you used the framing device of jumping around different times. How is it making sure that each vacation feels distinct and different while still building these two characters and their relationship, which changes each time?
Brett Haley: Yeah. Really, the structure of it is from Emily’s book, and I wanted to do it this summer and then x summers ago. That was sort of the fun of this. I thought it was a different way to go about telling this story. It’s obviously in the book that way for a reason. You’re sort of unfolding this information in a really unique way. For me, it was an opportunity where every vacation was like its own little movie. It was like making these little movies that by the end of it, something had shifted between Alex and Poppy.
That was my goal. Every time we ended one, we had moved their relationship forward, and we’ve seen sort of the progression and the history and the origin of their friendship into possibly more. And we’re playing catch-up, and we’re understanding why they’re a bit estranged when we first meet Poppy at the beginning of the movie. So we’re playing catch-up.
So, there’s these two narratives running opposite each other. But my goal was by the end of each vacation to really have a clear idea of where they were and how they were growing between each vacation. And each one was so fun and so distinct, just location-wise, that it was a blast to do.
Emily, I wanted to ask you what change in the People We Meet on Vacation movie kind of stood out in a very good way that you liked the most? Because it’s always interesting seeing what’s added and what gets tweaked.
Emily Henry: I mean, I like all of the changes. I cannot stress enough how thoroughly the changes are approved by me. And enjoyed by me. I mean, I think it’s a real treat for the readers that they get to go into this experience and have scenes that they’ve never read before unfold, have jokes that they’ve never heard before, and moments between Alex and Poppy that they haven’t imagined before. So I’m a huge fan of all of it. I think it’s all true to the characters, it’s all true to the heart of the story.
But one small change that I really, really love is the character arc for a side character, which is Sarah – Alex’s on-again, off-again girlfriend. She’s not in the movie a ton. She’s in the background of the movie a lot. But there was a really smart, thoughtful little addition at the end of the movie that kind of points her character in a new direction that I absolutely loved and thought was so clever and just optimistic and hopeful, and I don’t know. That was a really small little detail that was just really exciting to me.
Thanks to Brett Haley and Emily Henry for taking the time to talk about People We Meet on Vacation.
Source: Comingsoon.net