the real truth about ‘the idea of you’, harry styles and olivia wilde
[Music] hello hello welcome back to so into that the podcast where you get to chat with really awesome people about the things that we are so into right now I’m your host Caroline Chambers and this week’s guest you guys this has been a long time in making getting Robin on the podcast Robin Lee the author of the idea of you is our guest today if you do not know what the idea of you is the book the movie have you been living under a rock the movie came out out on prime a couple of weeks ago with Anne Hathaway Nicholas galline I don’t know how to say his last name and it’s I don’t know I feel like it’s the hottest movie right now it’s what everybody’s talking about everybody’s watching and it is based on the book the idea of you by Robin Lee the incredible author and actress and mother who I get to chat with today Robin called in from Paris where she lives with her family fun fact that we didn’t even get to chat about is that she’s an expat living in Paris but we had way too much to talk about about this book that she wrote that came out in 2017 and really didn’t pick up the like extreme cult feverish Obsession until 2020 when everyone was stuck in their homes looking for escapism and it gave us exactly that if you’re a long-term follower of mine you know that theide IDE of you was the first what I call romance book but as you’ll learn in this podcast Ro Robin would not call a romance the idea was of you was the first romance book that I ever read and it really has like changed it’s definitely changed the way that I read I now pretty much only read sort of romance women’s fiction lighthearted happy books um but as you’ll hear in this podcast she feels like the book shouldn’t be classified as such there’s so many huge issues that are being tackled of feminism and motherhood and the push and pull of motherhood and balancing like our desires with what we have to do as mothers it’s such a beautiful book it literally has like I think I’ve recommended it500 times on my Instagram everyone I meet I recommend it to because it doesn’t follow the traditional Arc of like a a a romance be treed right it has so much more depth female friendships um this incredibly strong female character so in this episode you get to hear from Robin about what the process was in making the movie the changes that she would make if she had been more involved in the creation of the movie her relationship with the music producer who brought to life this music that she wrote about in a book and then had to be actually brought to life on screen and what she’s really into right now which is is related to the book and is really really fun and I can’t wait to go listen to Robin is such a treat I’m so excited for you guys to listen to this episode be sure to follow her on Instagram I will tag all of her books all the things in the show notes she is so rad and I cannot wait for her next book to come out and we’ll have her back on but until then this is Robin Lee talking about the idea of you the book and also how it was made into the Prime movie with Ann hathway and Nicholas booty booty booty boy enjoy Robin Lee I am so excited to have you here you are the woman of the hour everyone is talking about the idea of you but first before we jump in and hear all about your story and the book and the movie what is something that you are really into right now um okay this is going to sound you know I was he sent me this message 24 hours ago and I was like what am I into what am I really into what am I I have been listening to the idea of You soundtrack on repeat these these last seven or eight days and it’s like it’s so good it’s really really good and the songwriter Savon Keta and I’m sure I’m butchering his name super talented he’s he reached out to me while they were shooting and said hi just wanted to say hello and introduce myself I’ll be doing the movie music for August Moon and like I’ve I’ve not been involved at all in the production I knew nothing about what’s going on at all okay so he reached out to me not maybe not while they were shooting but maybe after I don’t remember if it was like while they was shooting or shortly after when they were in post-production but he just wanted to introduce himself and um at first I you know it was like it was doing like my message requests through my message request on Instagram so I was like is he just making this up like is this a real person I looked up his name I was like no he’s real he’s a real producer and he’s got some real credits um and he was so nice and it was like it was just really lovely to have someone reach out from the production and then once it was out he’s like have you seen it yet he was kept he was very eager I wonder know what you think I wonder know what you think and I was like I’ve only heard the like two tracks and they sound good I’ll let you know when I see the movie and so when I did I like I reached out to Media I was like it’s way better than I could have ever imagined and I can’t get the songs out of my head and thank you thank you thank you for doing this band Justice and writing some beautiful brilliant pop songs that were like not like I I’ve got in and out of my boy band phases in life and I’m older now so I’m really not listening to boy like I don’t listen to BTS at all or anything you know I haven’t really listened to boy bands as a thing for a long time and uh yeah this was perfect it was a little nostalgic for like my like eight not 80s but more ’90s I guess but still really really good and fresh and modern and he it was just so it was more than I expected and it wasn’t it wasn’t even how I how I imagined August Moon sounding when I was writing for them but that was okay that was okay like it oh I love that I love that that was okay yeah I when I heard so I just watched the movie last night because I was I wanted to it to be really fresh when I talked to you and so I watched last night and when they played closer to you I was like this is exactly what I like I was like I feel like I’ve heard song 50 times it was a really weird feeling like the the emphasis on the end that like kind of makes you have butterflies when they say closer to you I was like oh yeah that was exactly it’s a great hook as they say um it’s a really great hook oh that makes me feel happy and I also think probably a part of why you feel so great about the music is because this guy took the time out of his day and week and month to think of you like he was like she’s the creator of this yeah it was so personal and it was really it was really lovely to have that kind of connection with him early and then I I met him uh this week in New York we were in town for the premiere and I guess it was still Sunday I just checked into the hotel and I was in the hotel lobby and he went walking through and I looked at him and he looked at me he like Robin I was so excited like oh he knows me and no it just felt it was really really lovely and he I have I just I’m singing his Praises I hope hope he goes all the way I hope he gets a gamy I hope he gets an Oscar I don’t know who knows it’s just a you know it’s just a little movie on Amazon I’m now his biggest it’s not just a little movie never said that but should it should well I’m now right like should big things happen for this movie and for the music I really hope he gets all the credit for the music it’s really lovely that’s so cool wow I absolutely love that answer um okay so take me back because I do want to get into the movie but first we have to hear how this happened the idea of you was kind of a I mean I want to hear it from your mouth but from my take I like maybe heard one or two people talk about it and then all of a sudden it was what 2020 2021 and it was like every where everyone was reading it if I mentioned it everybody had already read it so talk to me about this book what year did you write it in how did you write a book like take us back I wrote it in 2000 between April 2014 and October 2015 um oh I I I the idea was planted in April 2014 and I was obsessed and started writing it immediately it was like March 29th 2014 but like by you know by March by April 1st I was writing and by a month later I had the first uh chapter done and I workshopped that in my writers group excuse my interrupting have you ever written a book at this place yes so I’ve been writing books since I was little mostly for myself I wrote my first book when I was in 9th grade so I’m 14 years old and like and literally handwriting in like on loose leaf paper so and it’s eight it was 884 Pages it is it is in a a box or two under the bed in our guest bedroom here and uh I love it and I um that was like the first book I wrote and I wrote it for myself and then I wrote it I started writing another one about two years after that like when I was a junior in high school and and that went on for some time that went on I think for like five years and it was like 1,200 pages and I was kind of like I don’t I’m not doing anything with this book or maybe it was four years whatever but I just like I got bored of it and I just stopped and then I started another one when I was in law school and then kind of stopped with that as well and it wasn’t until after I had my first child um that I spent six years working on a novel that I was like okay this is it this is the one I’m going to try to publish like beginning middle Bend I’m GNA finesse it I’m gonna edit I’m gonna edit edit edit edit edit and I’m G to get a agent and publish it and I couldn’t sell it I just couldn’t and so I was heartbroken I took off two years from writing like I couldn’t even think about writing um and then I got the idea for this book and it was so alive for me and real and viable and I was such a passion that I knew it could be a great story I knew I could do it justice but I had to do it as quickly as possible because I didn’t want to spend another six years writing something that I couldn’t sell and I knew I was making it timely I didn’t want someone else to come up with the same idea before my book was out there I I would like I would Google like quick like I’d go on Amazon every once in a while like searching like books about boy bands okay nothing okay and then I was a couple I saw something and I was I was like is that no no that’s not my story at all like um yeah and 20145 boy band era who is like your main inspiration behind this because of course there’s speculation that it’s you know One Direction were big during that time for sure uh but I was also I was looking at other things so I when I was young like an adolescent my first Obsession was Durand Duran And as a teenager and uh and I used to write Durand Duran fanfiction and so so before fan it was called fanfiction my stories about dur Durant so I so when I had the idea for this book I knew I was like well I’ve written for British characters before I’ve written for British guys in a band I’ve written all this like interband mac I mean of course it was like my teenage imagination and like what is it like on tour but then when I was uh uh still in college I’d started a company with a girlfriend of mine and it was a management company we’re managing a singing group a girls group and we got one of the New Kids on the Block to produce for us when they were kind of at the height of their Fame and so I got to know him and the other guys in the band when they were like crazy crazy famous and at the height of it and so I could see all that up close in person like I knew as close as one could possibly know like as much as I’m I’m one of those people who I don’t forget anything I keep it all in a journal so like I’m like so you’re there and you’re like you’re you’re either you’re back stage you’re at the hotel you’re in the recording studio you’re you’re moving with them and like in Caravans and they’re like Okay meet us here come through this back door because what you call it this security guy will meet you because you won’t be able to get in with that like little things like that and and I just like remember it remember it remember it and so when I when I came up the idea of this book I was like I know this I’ve lived this I can write this I can write this but British because of my Durand Duran time and I just needed to know what was a modern-day boy band like and and so One Direction where the the the most current one and so I would look at the like mostly I didn’t want to know about the individual guys and their histories and how they got to be with the band I wanted to know what their day-to-day was like like what what TV shows they were doing what what appearances they were doing like you know like because you know it wasn’t so much the mttv generation anymore it was just how I grew up yeah and I wanted to know like it was like okay so you’re on The Graham Norton Show or you’re on Jimmy Kimo or your you know what I mean like I wanted to know what that looked like and then when I was looking at their tours I wanted to know what how you went from an arena tour to a stadium tour and so I’d follow other big acts like I I followed Ed Sharon’s trajectory I was following Beyonce’s trajectory even like Rolling Stones like What stadiums are they playing now like what’s hot in 2015 and so I so it wasn’t like let me just do One Direction it was like okay I need to know like if I was a if this was a really big act right now where would they be who would they be doing who would what would their what would their be like are they the American Music Awards are they at the Grammys are they being nominated for Grammys are they just performing are they you know like all those little things and and so all that went into to creating August Moon and August Moon is actually a lyric from a Duran Duran song it’s from oh it’s from Wild Boys it’s from the song Wild Boys and so August Moon and all their song titles and album titles and tour titles in in the book are all Duran Duran lyrics they’re like esoteric Duran lyrics what that is a huge that’s fantastic okay so 2015 you absolutely you sounds like you just had the exact Vision you hammer out this book I hammered the book I the first s agent I sent it off to loved it signed me come on did you have a pre-existing relationship I did not I did not he was a a friend of mine introduced us she knew of an agent and I was like fine to tuning my list of like my five top agencies that I thought would be great and she kind of preempted it’s like I’ve already pitched your idea to someone I want you to look at it do you mind he happened to be like the head of one of my top five agencies um so it was like a no-brainer but he was a man and I really thought this was a woman’s book and I was like no no no I’m going to have a female agent this is very female driven yeah you’re not going to understand he’s not going to get it yeah he got everything he to this day like I love him we love a girl just he it was incredible like how he got it I’m I’m still blown away that he was able to like all the new ones all the s he was just wonderful wonderful and so I adore him I signed with him he spent a few several weeks like doing uh going through and giving me notes I got a bunch of notes a lot of notes um I guess it was like the uh the day before Thanksgiving 2015 fun and and I was traumatized and all my writer my tra my writer friends are like put it in a drawer don’t think about it for a month don’t think about it don’t even look at it whatever but of course you put it in then you are thinking about it constantly so I’m making little notes it’s like okay he wants to do okay I could do that and then what if I did okay I can so you start and then I I took it out of the drawer uh right before Christmas 2015 and just started writing and then in between while that was happening I booked a part in 50 Shades of so I’m an actress and I booked a part in 50 Shades of Gray yes I know we haven’t even talked about your acting career yet and uh I don’t you know if something is if you’re doing a film or television show and it’s based on a beloved book you want to read the book and I hadn’t Read 50 Shades so I didn’t want to read it while I was still writing because I didn’t want to influence my voice because I’m so susceptible to other authors voices so then I I kind of like I gave myself a deadline I was like I’ve got to be on set at a certain time in Vancouver I have before I get to Vancouver I have to have read the script and before I read the script I have to have read the book and before I read the book I have to finish my book and so it was kind of like go I love a deadline it was yes it was amazing it was wonderful to have that self-imposed deadline and so I just I just plowed through it and it was brutal and one of the notes was in addition to all the 800 line red lines in the thing and like six pages of notes there was try to lose 15 to 20,000 words and I was like absolutely no way I I was devastated there’s no way I could do that I was able to cut about 7,000 words and I did so within the within the text itself I did not lose one story line one character one whatever I was like I’m keeping it I’m keeping it I’m keeping it I’m just streamlining my sentences I’m rewriting them in different ways so that they’re they’re just short and sweet and get to the point God so that took a ton of effort ton of effort oh my God you were but I was so in love with the story and I was like I’m not I’m not giving up this I’m not giving up this Oliver storyline I’m not giving up you know like this friend coming over to talk to S like there’s so much in there that was so rich to me is like I’m not losing it I turned it in and then he sold it within two weeks and happily ever after I mean it was not it was not happily ever after that’s when everything began going wrong not wrong but it’s like you know once you put something out into the world it’s different Le it was just my story in my baby and it was this wonderful gift I had and now then you share it with the world and it opens it up to judgment and critique and that’s when it get it can get ugly Y and also you had not only your agent do that first pass of making it look like it was bleeding but then it went to your editor who I’m sure did the exact same thing she was a dream in the way that she didn’t want to change anything she’s like you can add more here like she didn’t say lose P She was like add this add that I like I can add I’m I’m great at adding things yes like I know these characters so well I can another story L sure um okay that’s incredible so when did it publish June 2017 and what was that first month like for you was it oh my gosh this book is being found this book is getting this amazing reception no you know it wasn’t that at all it was quite the opposite it was really I a lot of anxiety a lot I was a lot of um I was super nervous about it I was uncertain of how it was being pissed [ __ ] I thought they they’d kind of package it and they were promoting it and marketing it more towards a romance and to me it was not a romance it was a love story I was not a romance I was not a fan of romances I hadn’t read any romances um that’s different now because of because of how my book has been positioned I’ve met lots of other romance readers and so sorry writers and so I read their books but then I hadn’t I didn’t read romance and so I didn’t I didn’t follow a formula I didn’t know there was a formula I was just writing my story and I read a lot of lit fiction and women’s fiction and to me that’s what it was but it was a love story in you know in that in that kind of world and it also does have very the like romantic scenes that are traditional of a romance book well it doesn’t it doesn’t I mean they’re romantic there’s sex but I UND As I understood it as I was writing it and someone My Writers group critiqued it she said oh you know you’re supposed to have it was something like three scenes or two or three love scenes Soup To Nuts And I was like what is soup I literally asked what’s Soup To Nuts what does that mean what’s Soup To Nuts she’s like let me to the orgasm and I was like she’s like did your mother ever teach you and then I was like three I was like but they have sex more than three times it’s like and I don’t want to show the entire thing every single time like I’m not yeah I when I was writing the book I was very much like I’m not putting them naked on the page unless they were emotionally naked and so each scene that that happens to be a sex scene they have to be revealing something of themselves or to each other either to the to the reader or to each other otherwise I didn’t want to put it there so I wasn’t going to throw in sex scenes just to have a sex scene um and I also I kind of thought of it as like uh as like reading a woman’s Journal right so this is how I used to write in my journal back when sex was new or sex was with a new partner I’ve been married for a long time now and so sex is not so new but uh but in the beginning like you want to write about everything and then you know by the fourth or fifth time you’re just like and then maybe but you don’t yeah you don’t have to I don’t have to describe dimensions and things like yes it’s like it’s the same guy we’ve been together for a few months now same yeah same Parts different different place and so I want it to feel like that so in the beginning it’s everything with him is new and so she’s recalling more of it she’s recounting more of it for the reader gosh oh I love that yeah yeah we’re like getting more detail at the beginning because it’s so fresh and exciting and new for her for senen this is very interesting so many of my favorite authors don’t classify themselves as romance authors and who who I would have thought because you know I’m not in the world I’m not the author who I would have thought are so clearly romance authors um and so yeah you’re the third author who I’ve spoken to who’s like no I’m not a romance author and I’m like you’re not because that was a really romantic book it you know it did have the but there is so much more depth to it and those female friendships the relationship with her daughter um and like it does I mean your book I it’s so funny though I recommend your book frequently like once a month I’m talking about it on my Instagram and then for the next two weeks I get just hate mail how could you break my heart like this how could you do this to me this is the best book I’ve ever read I can’t believe how it ended it tore me apart so if you’re if you’re getting that you can imagine what I’ve been getting and I’ve been getting it for seven years and I blame it on the packaging yes totally that is so true if you if you’re telling a woman here’s the formula you’re going to get fall in love have a breakup get back together happily ever after then of course they’re going to be pissed that’s what we’re used to getting but guess what guys it doesn’t have to be the same exact story every right exactly exactly it doesn’t have to be so okay 2017 comes it has uh would you call it a lukewarm reception I honestly don’t know how was it received at first it wasn’t that it was a lukewarm reception that it was just a small launch like they didn’t they didn’t make it a they were it wasn’t on their list to make a big book and so Publishers I think the Publishers are so yeah so I brought on an independent publicist they have a really hard time with publicity yes I brought an independent publicist all your everything myself like everything I made for the advance went to my publicist and and I was just sure that it that if enough people read it and the right people read it they would respond to it and it would grow and so I have been on social media every day for seven years trying to sell this book and it’s just been grinding grinding because it’s like it’s gonna have to be word of mouth because I don’t I’ve run out of money to publicize I’m not going to buy like a billboard or you know like I it’s just going have to be word of mouth and I’m just I have to hope that my readers like it enough and talk about it enough and so I engage with any reader who reached out to me like DMD me was a message request whether tagged me something on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter like I was there to engage with them whether they liked it or not um yep yeah because they were saying how did this book end this way that’s life I’m so sorry maybe I’ll write a sequel someday maybe not like I that wasn’t um yeah so God so it’s been exhausting um it’s been exhausting and it’s affected every aspect of my life and like for three years after I couldn’t write I had fullon writer block because I was like what did I do wrong to make them oh position the book in this way and so that I have to fight so hard to get it seen for what it is and I I couldn’t write it could not right and then when I did start writing it took a long time like I just finished a decent first draft of the next novel and that that’s after five years of writing five years of writing which followed three years of writer’s block right and whereas this book had come out and flowed out so easily because you knew exactly what you wanted to write and then the world and your publisher and right yeah just felt like they weren’t they they weren’t taking it seriously I guess or they weren’t they didn’t care about the thing that were most important to me like the theme like the love story is is lovely but that’s yeah it’s almost anill it’s not it’s her story it’s This Woman’s story it’s her totally Reawakening and you know her desire to kind of live outside of the box and and her her journey to like redefining herself and what her happiness is and then also showing like how as women we are so often put others happiness before our own and like that that tie between being a mother and being a woman you know and like I mean the tie sorry the tie pulling this all the different ways that you’re pulled in different directions and not able to do anything to the fullest or trying everything and like and feeling like you’re failing at something or not at another and like and you know she she falls in love and then her right and her business suffers and and her relationship with her daughter suffers and it’s like why can’t I have it all and and I wanted her I wanted the audience to the reader to think about that and if I put it like and then she runs off into the they run off into the whatever they run off into like then then it would been like then you would have been like happy ever after and people like oh that was great and put it aside and never forget I mean like and move on to the next book yeah but if they don’t they have to stop they have to stop and like we women have to think why why couldn’t Why didn’t it work out why what is it that yeah yeah and I and I get and I get hate mail like Well if you really loved them if you’re really a feminist you would give her what she wanted and I was like no I’m giving you the opportunity to think about it like like I’m not here to like no I’m a feminist so I’m giving you the opportunity to think about it wow I love that I’ve had this conversation with so many people over the years and I’ve never thought about it fully from that I’ve always said well don’t you love that it ended differently than everything else you know just kind of like that’s been my blanket statement like how what a gift to us that finally a romance book because I’ve never I never thought oh it’s not a romance book what a gift that a romance book didn’t in the exact same freaking way as all of the other ones but I’ve never thought um of this like feminist angle of this push and pull and like no it simply couldn’t work out for her to get it and that’s that’s why and you think you think about that you think about the double standard you think about the the darker side of Fame like it should you should have questions you should be angry you should be upset you should like should start a revolution with me guys come on women the the darker the darker side of Fame thing AKA so in the book haz’s Fame really is what and in the movie too but we obviously just get so much more detail in the book haz’s Fame is really the reason why they can’t be together ultimately um it’s it’s too much and like yes that is in the movie too but it’s just we feel it so much more deeply like one part that I thought was really interesting in the movie is that they really glorify the tour the Europe tour as like when they fall fell in love and had all this fun time together on the beach biking around France and that is not how the book goes in the book The Tour is a disaster like she’s in a hotel room she’s like we you know we can’t they can’t be seen in public because it’s a mob that’s when things really get tough for them in the book I thought that was a huge key difference um so yeah the darker side of Fame is some something that’s so examined in the book and is such a key part of like he’s like [ __ ] this Fame if I don’t get to have you like that’s the only thing that’s important okay so I do want to finish the Arc of when the book like really took off as this cult phenomenon was there a moment that you were like oh my gosh this book’s going to be huge oh my gosh movie producers are calling me trying to buy the rights like was there a one moment I didn’t feel like there was one moment I feel like it was slowly snowballing and I was literally selling there were days I felt like I sold one book a day I sold one book today on the on Instagram like I connected with one person who said I’ll give that a shot yeah um but I do feel like there were a few poignant moments there was in the spring of 2018 Colleen Hoover reached out to me cuz she the book and thought it was amazing and wanted me to attend her first book Bonanza um that is that a public facing event or like for writers it’s public facing it’s for readers it’s for readers and I mean well readers in general you sign up you buy a ticket and there’s like a series of panels and then autograph sign like you meet your writer whatever autograph signing it’s like a three-day or two and a half day Bonanza kind of thing and the first year it was in Denver Colorado and then there after it’s been in Dallas um so she asked me to do it in 2018 and all of her money by the way goes to a charity she’s amazing so yeah it’s not she’s not just poing it we don’t get paid for being there but yeah that’s really cool I should probably point that out that’s very important um yeah so that was a a big moment and then they asked me to do the opening they had one big opening panel I think it was about writing sex scenes and they put me up in the opening panel with along with eel James and because I’d done 50 Shades of Gray um it was a friendly panel and it was to the full audience at that point I think we were like 3500 2500 there was a lot 1500 I don’t know somewhere between 1500 and 3500 I cannot remember being a huge C body and uh and so I felt like I sold a lot of books that day um and then uh but yeah you’re still like kind of counting individual book sales at that and in the spring of 2019 I would I was approached by Grace Atwood and Becca Freeman to to do their bat on paper uh podcast I think they did one on the book itself and they wanted to interview me and I decided that actually I was approach directly my the publist at my publisher reached out to me and said they would like you to do it could you do I was like that’s something I can call in she’s like you can call in or you can go into their Studio which was like in Brooklyn and I was like you know what I’m going to fly to New York and go and meet them and I’m glad I did it because it really I feel like that was a huge moment and they had so many followers and they were invested and they both love the book so much and they’re both such awesome woman I don’t know if you they’re so cool yeah they’re super super cool and we’re still in touch to this day and um I feel like that was a sh a major shift and then during the pandemic a catapult yeah with this like yeah we had a captive audience everyone was home and looking for escapism and the book provides that and there was I think it came out like on the skim maybe it did something first and then oprah.com did something and then in December of 2020 Michelle Ruiz wrote an article for Vogue that kind of went viral and that was a big deal um and ironically enough so so just to let you know the book the book was written 2014 2015 it came out 2017 but in the summer of not summer in the fall of 2020 and I hate to bring this up because I like to avoid it as much as possible but Harry Styles started dating Olivia wild yes and and everyone was going is it about that and I was like and I was like you Dum did I did I predict it for not KN nether I predict um but that was a lot there was a lot of press on that I mean like not press like even just Instagram talking Tik Tok talking whatever and but that brought attention more attention to the book and it was kind of a weird because if you are not aware everyone despite that Robin did not particularly write right Haze to be hary everyone speculates that Hayes is Harry in One Direction and then all of a sudden Harry was dating this older woman Olivia wild who was the same agees the L sort of like like a lot of similarities there but marriage but then or or or partnership I don’t know if they’re married but anyway no I think they’re I don’t know anyway I I’ve not I’ve tried not to look into the details but because yeah that’s not what you were doing but then I’ve had I see now like I I try to stay away from Tick chck Tock and certain social media things yeah but I see all people like oh my God that that Harry Styles Olivia wild book made whatever I was like I didn’t write a book about sty Olivia wild you stupid people sorry you stupid Dum Dums look at the look at the oh that’s so funny yeah and then like there you are being kind of put in a box again it’s like nope that’s not what this is again that’s not the book I was writing that’s not what I was doing okay so yeah 2020 kind of takes off was when did I know Hollywood likes to gobble up book rights like their trophies and then often they don’t even produce them they just sit there when did you when were the rights bought and when did it start actually being made so the rights were first [Music] optioned I guess she made the offer in the summer of 2017 the summer it came out and I think we deal didn’t close until like December or November of 2017 yeah early right away and then before it was even this what it is and they attached a writer she attached a writer in August or September of 2019 um and the writer come up with a script in Spring of 2020 and then Annie signed on right after shortly after the Vogue article went viral and then shortly after Amazon made their deal with the producer the main producer and that was it kind of so that kind of all took off so you you somebody optioned this book right when the book came out before back when we’re still selling like maybe one book a day on Instagram is that that a thing that’s is that I you have you now have tons of romance author friends now that you’ve been you know lumped into this category is that is that is that a thing are they trying to come in and get them before the book takes off so that they can sell option them for less like is that the strategy you know I uh my best romance author friends now are all super successful I don’t know if I just chose them well or they chose me yeah but it’s happened in the last seven years like since my book has come out they’ve gotten really big and so it happens for them early on so I kind of feel like that’s when it happens that like and people tell you like if it’s going to go if your book is going to auction if your book when your book is being sold it’s kind of like the time to get it out there to option it as well if it’s considered a hot commodity but this is my first time this is my first time writing so it wasn’t going to be a hot commodity you know it’s very rare that your book comes out a hot commodity unless it’s like I don’t know eat freay love or something like that like you know you’re right so were you were you like blown away that somebody would adoption the rights of your book or were you like yeah this is this amazing incredible book of course they do like because that to me that’s like whoa I was kind of the ladder I was not blown away because I I um when I was writing it I wasn’t seeing it as a film I was definitely writing it for a book right but once it was done I could start planning the next thing and I like you know what I’m gonna get this made like I think this is would be a great project and like I was thinking like how do you make it and make it cheaper because I have to I had so many locations and so many Stadium scenes like as a someone who’ produced before and had been on numerous film sets I knew that was G it was expensive and uh and it was going to take so you have all these little different ways of looking at film right so if you’ve got a project that’s going to have big um film seet whatever like uh big sets and locations and like it’s going to require a certain amount of money and the more money a studio is gonna or someone’s going to put up they’re going to want a bigger star you’re not going to get a little star and then really big you know so I thought well they’re going to have to get an A-list star it’s probably it’s it’s going to be the woman not the guy um it has to be right and then usually and usually there only a certain amount of guys actors male actors who are going to who are really who are well known who are okay being second fiddle to the woman so it’s probably going to be more of an unknown guy um so like I was aware of all these things that were going to have to happen yeah and and they kind of they kind of all did and we just got lucky because Nicholas was unknown but then he just started like everything started yeah he took off like right before this came out yeah that that was lucky we were lucky and I say I I was not I wasn’t part of it I wasn’t lucky they got lucky they brought on Nicholas he was unknown and then he he his career just started like really happening in the between the time they signed him in releasing this movie perfect you have said a few times you weren’t involved with the production would you have liked to have been um yeah I’m sure it’s hard to look back cuz it’s like I wasn’t and it turned out here and it’s in a great place but here’s a better question you are writing your second novel or your billionth novel but your second novel that you’ll publish to the world it will be available to me and not underneath your gu um you are writing your second novel will you be more involved in the production of absolutely yeah great I look forward to that there were I love this movie I love your book so much I’ve read it five times I recommend it to everyone I talked to thank you so much I I really enjoyed the movie movie but there were so there’s of course any book to movie adaptation is going to have this there’s so much that gets lost but I think there were things that I would have focused on had I the the idea of you evangelist been involved um that were what what were things what was something that was not carried from book to film that you had you been involved would have pushed for um I would have pushed for uh the appearance of lulit her business partner and best friend that is a really important dyamic that that female friendship is what makes the book is such an important piece of the book um and for it to feel a little bit more like the art world like to feel like the art world that I I I’d created like on a on a larger scale like having her more powerful and working at a more powerful successful uh Gallery than just a small local Galler they’re called local galleries when they’re when they’re small and they like you know you’re just in your little city um sure and that was not what it was in the book because that’s not it like yeah she was like an international badass badass art dealer she’s traveling the world with her business partner she’s got her own like agency she has agency and she has like and she has power and you understand more why he finds her desirable it’s not like she’s just like this single mom in a small town with a small business it’s like she’s like this business woman who like holds her own and like and there are many reasons for him to feel like not she’s not not not that he he’s her equal she she’s like ahead of him you know what I mean like yes famous and he’s got a lot of money whatever but like she’s not just she’s she’s kind of like she’s just hitting her stride in her power and it’s kind of sexy and wonderful to see and I missed that I really would have fought for that I missed that I tried to fight for that I really missed that I didn’t make it did you have any agency in the in the screen adaptation in the screen not at all and was that just early negotiated when you optioned it no I think it’s just it’s just how it didn’t it’s just how it plays out yeah and the next time you’ll know because that was your first time and you’ll fight harder I look forward to that um in in 10 years um the I totally that I’ll be putting like for my interview well just Mo you’ll you’ll be an haway you’ll be an haway Benjamin but and look better than you ever have that’s what’ll be happening I that was what I felt was missing the biggest missing piece from the movie and again I really enjoyed the movie but I felt that was the biggest missing piece was in the book in the movie She’s Like following him around on this world tour like oh sure I have nothing going on and it was like no you are so busy you’re in um she and she’s in Paris Art bosel thank you you’re in Switzerland for art bosle you’re in Paris for a huge thing and he is making time in his schedule for you and it just it just levels the playing field more too you know even their first um the New York meeting she was in New York for her own work and she didn’t fly there for him I was like no when I when that happened I was like oh no she’s not she does not get a booty called and fly to New York she’s in New York for herself and she pops and she makes a little time for him um that was my thing and my second was oh Isabelle I I said this in the thingy that I thought like um I loved Ella Rubin performance I thought she was an absolute Gem and she’s like yeah like we’re so lucky it was her this is the the daughter sorry she plays Isabelle but I would have liked to seen Isabelle at age 12 which is I feel like it’s much more fragile delicate age and were so much just hanging in the balance and as a mom you’re needed more you know and and that’s the age of their they want they’re pushing you aside they want to be independent they want to be their own woman woman and at the same time they like they need you they’re still they’re still a kid you know what I mean and and like I um I felt like the stakes were higher having her that age it’s like it’s a very tender age and I think they Hollywood I could been any one of the people in making this film kind of look at as like oh we didn’t want to alienate moms we didn’t want them to think of Annie’s character as a bad mom but it’s like that’s a part of it it’s like I like it that’s what this was yeah because it she you know it was having to play it was that push and pull that tension between desire and motherhood and in the end you know in the book she and she in the end she she chooses her daughter but yeah but I think they were afraid that women would not take to it and they needed and and because a book and the movie are geared towards women they really needed women to like her huh what do you think do you think that that’s that that would have been a problem or do you think it would have been an interesting story to tell maybe both I think it would have been an interesting storytelling I think it would been more it would been it would have been the difference between like romcom and uh yes more serious drama um yes yeah drama yeah I think there’s yeah it sounds like just a long the way this book and the movie got pushed from you know women’s literature to romance and from drama to rcom and it’s so funny that what or funny is a funny is one word for it what you wrote and what you intended this story to be we all wanted to put into such a different Society wanted to put into such a different category box to make it like more palatable almost to make it digestible to us well someone very early on one of my early reviews is kirkus review and the reviewer called said that this was a genre bending book which I think is is what it is and people exactly what it is which is it’s very um life imitating art because I talk about senen not wanting to be put in a box and not wanting to just be this or just be that and I feel like people want to put this book in a box and have it just be this something they’re familiar with and it’s not that yeah was there’s a line in the movie that I think was from the book and if it wasn’t then it was a good new thing when she’s talking to her friend on the phone and it’s after she’s getting totally blown up on the Internet they’ve her her relationship has been outed everyone’s saying her like 40-year-old cougar and just nasty things about her on the internet and she’s talking to a friend on the phone and she says people don’t why people don’t like to see happy woman is that it it’s it’s like who would know who could have known that my happiness would make everybody so angry yeah and that reminds me of this conversation it’s like you know women people want to see women in a very particular light and it’s it’s so interesting to me that all of it all of it that this is now the conversation that we’re having in 2024 like right 10 years after yeah but also like why I didn’t think I was writing anything Cutting Edge really I mean I don’t I mean I don’t I that wasn’t my intention my intention was to write this book about this woman and it wasn’t like I’m going to break down all the barriers and start a revolution we’re all going to talk about it um right but I guess nothing else was like that out there at least that was getting Garner attention so they had to yeah sh it down it is nice that you were able to put exactly the book that you wanted into the world and now people kind of digest it as they right as they can exactly as they can like some people see it as a romance that holy [ __ ] this is a romance that didn’t have a happy ending what and they’re so angry and they can’t understand it and then others get to have big conversations with their friends around the push and pull of motherhood and work and desire and romance and how it is impossible to have all of those things sometimes and it depends on where we are in our life um did you think that Anne hathway and Nicholas were the perfect people for their roles like did you when you first optioned it did you have somebody in mind like you know how people fancast books if you could fancast what would you have fan casted I never had a haze in mind for one because I felt like he was so perfect no one was ever going to get him right and so I thought was definitely someone we were going to have to find which is what they did I didn’t I didn’t think there was someone out there people like oh what about timoy sham existing big star Tim I think he’s a great talent but it was not his God that would have made me fous they’re like Sean mes and I was like um I don’t I don’t know that he can he act I don’t know he’s really goodl looking and I like his music I need I need a guy who could really act who’s going to be able to play British and he was going to be able to play well the way I didn’t was Posh predition I want him I want him to play more Posh than Nicholas plays in the movie and and I’m pretty sure Nicholas could do it but he was not directed to do that right um yeah and I want him toble to like yeah that’s so true hay is the hay is the Posh one they’re all Posh except for Rory but that that they changed it all so it’s not the same and then I wanted some I wanted him to I knew you had to be able to like sing like we have to believe that he was a performer and if you could play an instrument or two bonus and Nicholas came with all it checked all the boxes wait did Nicholas sing yes oh my God the whole August Moon soundtrack is Nicholas singing it’s not even the other guys the other guys act and dance it’s Jess Nicholas singing I’m sorry I know how great is he no I know he’s wonderful oh this is going to bring a Next Level to my enjoyment of the soundtrack that I’m about to go on this yeah it’s Nicholas singing yeah Prett it’s pretty nice he’s he’s okay that’s incredible so Nicholas Check Yes and he can act and he can cry when he needs to cry and he can be charming and adorable and and he can be sexy and like yeah and sexy perfect done he’s done um Annie was different because it was when she signed on to do the script it was a much different script it’s it was a different script than it is now but it was definitely different than senen in the book yes and what she does with the script she has here is pretty perfect yeah it’s different than Selen the book but she’s I have no I have no problems no critiques of her performance at all at all at all in this book in this yeah in this film yeah she was like so Allin and passionate and freaking gorgeous and all of the things stunning I would have loved to see Anne hathway playing the badass Salin that we the book readers now it would been kind ofal but we did see a powerful woman just in a very different place um okay I could talk to you for the rest of my life about your writing and your acting which we hardly even touched on and all of the things but will you give us a teaser of what the next book is it’s a female protagonist yep uh there are relationships that some people are going to call unexpected controversial provocative it’s takes place at least partly in the art World okay and sexy at points and that’s I can really tell you oh my gosh do we have any has it been when’s it come out do we know anything no no we’re we’re I’m still doing rewrites we don’t know anything I have not sold it I’ve not there’s no publishing date nothing can we expect it in the next two years within the next two year oh my gosh if not then I’ve done something awful in the next year I I don’t it depends how quickly is that you no within the next two years for sure the next it’ll be sold it’ll be done and ideally sold in the next year it depends you don’t know how much leeway a publisher wants to give it so oh you haven’t sold it yet you’re writing it and then you sell it okay cuz I Come From The cookbook world where we oh right yeah you you sell your proposal and then kind of fill it in after no I’m I need to I want it to be perfect before I I put it in the hands of someone else so they can so they can destroy or not wa so they can destroy you all over again and then the internet can come after you for what they think you should have done they won’t destroy it they’ll just it just makes me it’s agonizing to have people sometimes it can be agonizing yeah it’s like it’s all in your own world and it’s exactly what you wanted and then you put it out and people critique critique critique critique critique but although I have to say it’s I’m this time around I’m much less uh I’m prep I’m better prepared yes you now have the thick skin of I mean you unwittingly as an author in today’s publishing landscape you have to become like a creator also you have to become an influencer Creator p internet person to push your own book and the nature of being a Creator is that you are subject to direct criticism at all times absolutely at all times somebody doesn’t like your sweatshirt on you they’re going to say that sweatshirt washes you out and you’re going to say I just wor it to a [ __ ] photo shoot so thank you for telling me like what in what world are we getting giving people this type of feedback but through a screen people feel it um so let’s end it on I have no notes on the idea of view the book I think it is as your reader said a genre bending beautiful perfect book I am so impressed by you that it was made into this beautiful film it is such a different film than the book is but it’s wonderful and you should be so proud and I hope that you feel all of those things in addition to all of the difficult feelings that come with you know your baby this book that you worked on for so long becoming a totally different thing so I I bet it’s a really it’s such an exciting week for you and I’m so grateful for your time and go enjoy the weekend in Paris with your niece thank you very much thank you Carol thank you thank you so much Robin thanks for having me
Get this week’s full So Into That newsletter here! https://whattocook.substack.com/p/the-idea-of-you-author-robinne-lee
Was ‘The Idea of You’ REALLY based on a famous couple?
Author Robinne Lee is here to clear everything up… plus:
• why she doesn’t consider ‘TIOY’ a “romance novel”
• what inspired the story
• what she liked and didn’t like about the movie
• the tension between motherhood, romantic love, and career
• why she chose that ending
• a tease about her next book
• and much more!
Whether you’re a fan of The Idea of You or not (yet!), I’m so excited for you to get to know Robinne, who is also a talented actor and overall smart and fascinating woman.
note: *spoilers*
~~~~
🌐 episode page: https://whattocook.substack.com/p/the-idea-of-you-author-robinne-lee
~~~~
📱subscribe to the podcast here: https://pod.link/1718114096
~~~~
📖 pre-order my book here: https://www.amazon.com/product/dp/1454952717/?tag=unionsquare
~~~~
📸 follow me on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/carochambers
~~~~
❤️ leave a review on apple podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/so-into-that/id1718114096
~~~~
🟢 leave a rating on spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0tG1DDAnKPJyCciEwj1koM?si=d0c31e5d9fda4a5b
~~~~
🎬 production team: Podcast Pointman https://www.podcastpointman.com/