'The Love Hypothesis' Star Lili Reinhart Opens Up About Filming the Reylo-Inspired Rom-Com [Exclusive]

Ali Hazelwood’s publishing phenomenon The Love Hypothesis is officially heading to the big screen, with Riverdale’s Lili Reinhart stepping into the lab coat of Olive Smith, a Ph.D. student caught up in fake-dating hijinks. Fans of the novel — and of BookTok, where it became a sensation — have been waiting to see how the story would make the leap from page to screen. Collider’s Michael Zimmermann caught up recently with Reinhart, who opened up about her time on set and the weight of expectation. She told Collider:

“I just shot it for two months in Montreal. Yeah, holy shit. [Laughs]. I mean, I’ve done things based off of IP before, but I… yeah, TikTok really, really loved what I was getting, putting out there for the movie. As for the movie itself, I mean, we had a really good time shooting it, and I had the best co-star of all time in Tom Bateman, and everyone else. It was a really fun, young, fun cast. And I think we’re just hoping that we do, you know, the book lovers justice and that it’s—I don’t know, I mean, I did my job, I did my job, and now I just hope that it does well.”

What Is ‘The Love Hypothesis’ About?

Directed by Claire Scanlon (Set It Up) from a script by Sarah Rothschild (The Sleepover), The Love Hypothesis is being produced by Elizabeth Cantillon, with Reinhart and Hazelwood serving as executive producers. The story follows Olive, a third-year biology Ph.D. candidate who blurts out she’s in a relationship to avoid questions from her best friend — only to seal the lie with an impulsive kiss on the notoriously icy Professor Carlsen. What begins as a fake romance soon starts to feel real, testing Olive’s balance between academic ambition and unexpected love.

Bateman, of Murder on the Orient Express fame, plays Olive’s grumpy, genius fake-boyfriend Dr. Adam Carlsen. The casting comes with a clever wink to fans. For those who are somehow not chronically online like the rest of us, Bateman is married to Daisy Ridley, the Star Wars actress whose romance with Adam Driver‘s Kylo Ren — this is a safe space for Reylos — directly inspired Hazelwood’s novel. Hazelwood herself has described the adaptation as “a dream come true,” while Ridley told Collider’s Steve Weintraub she found the whole thing “very thrilling” and “fucking cool.”

Stay tuned to Collider for all the latest on The Love Hypothesis.