Regé-Jean Page and Halle Bailey are already giving classic rom-com pairing energy - and, crucially, they seem to know exactly why it works.
The duo star in You, Me and Tuscany, a sun-soaked romantic comedy set in an Italian villa, where Bailey plays Anna, a drifting twenty-something who impulsively decamps to Tuscany and ends up entangled in a lie - and a romance involving Page’s character, Michael.
The pair stepped out together at a London screening at Ham Yard Hotel on Monday, joined by co-star Lorenzo de Moor, producer Will Packer and director Kat Coiro, as early buzz around their on-screen chemistry continues to build.
For Page, 38, that chemistry came down to something deceptively simple: trust.
“I mean, chemistry between actors is in my book, mostly about trust,” he tells The Standard. “So, when you realise that you trust each other, it's easy.
“Halle, you met her as one of the most disarming, charming, winning people I've ever met. You want good things for her. She's easy to root for,” he continued.
“And so, the moment that Halle and I met each other, realised that we both had a certain generosity. Romance movies involve an emotional trust fall every day and very quickly we realised that Halle was there to catch me, I was there to catch her.
Adding: “Once you have that you can play, you can surprise each other, you can really start bringing the characters to the table and letting them interact in that chemical way, that is the chemistry we're talking about, so that’s how it happened, we got on and realised that we're people that we can trust and then we came to work and play.”
Bailey, 25, echoed the sentiment and admitted she was already a fan before they met.
“I was really excited to work with Regé because I was a fan of him already from Bridgerton, from all his other projects, and meeting him was even better because he's a kind hearted person, and I think that's all you need for chemistry,” she shared.
“You just have to trust somebody and build that friendship. And it was really fun and easy to do that in a beautiful place like Tuscany, oh my gosh.”
If the film leans heavily into escapism, the shoot seems to have followed suit.
Page described filming as something close to a dream sequence, equal parts work and extended summer reverie.
He reflected: “This has moved pretty quick. We shot summer 2025 so I think June and July, it was very hot. We enjoyed ourselves, and it was, it was a ride.
“We got to take a great big summer holiday in the venues at Tuscany, getting into the landscape. I saw the field of Russell Crowe was Gladiator, like you're stepping into a dream.
“And our only job was to, like, live in that inhabit it, bottle it, get it in the camera. Get the vibe in the camera, not just the pictures. Get the people, get the custom, get the rhythm, get that music, put it on screen, put it in cinema, so that all of you can take that journey with us.”
You, Me and Tuscany opens in cinemas from Friday, April 10
