Are you ready for Verity? Adapted from Colleen Hoover’s bestselling novel of the same name, the film tells the story of Lowen Ashleigh (Dakota Johnson), a struggling, stagnant author who receives the offer of a lifetime following a chance encounter with a charming stranger. Jeremy Crawford (Josh Hartnett) proposes that Lowen ghostwrite the final book in his wife, author Verity Crawford’s (Anne Hathaway) acclaimed series, for a large sum of money, after an accident leaves Verity in a vegetative state.
Lowen reluctantly agrees — but the arrangement soon unravels into something far darker. After unearthing a manuscript Verity had hidden away, Lowen begins to wonder whether the well-respected author is actually responsible for a horrific crime.
“It’s such a theatrical story. It’s incredibly cinematic. It’s so thrilling, it’s super sexy,” Johnson said in an interview with Hollywood+. “It’s really like a fun movie to go to the movie theater to see.”
Hathaway added, “I think this is a movie that was designed to thrill audiences, made by people who really, really love making movies. I hope people scream, I hope that people, like, dress up. And the hope is, at the end, that we ended up somewhere ambiguous but not vague.”
Yahoo rounded up some of the most fascinating, head-scratching behind-the-scenes facts about the adaptation of Hoover’s beloved book, from the preparation that went into Hathaway’s headboard scene to the film’s intentionally ambiguous ending.
Hathaway and Johnson improvised this ‘very sexy’ scene
If there’s one thing audiences can count on, it’s that Hathaway and Johnson bring some serious steam to Verity.In an interview with Variety, Veritydirector Michael Showalter revealed that Hathaway and Johnson improvised a scene in the film that essentially turns into a steamy makeout session.
There’s a moment in Hoover’s book where Lowen (Johnson) and Jeremy (Hartnett) share a hug. Showalter felt the scene could play out with more sexual tension in the film, as an “intimate-hug moment” that “had the potential to be something very sexually charged,” as he put it. It’s “grief that then turns erotic,” Showalter told Variety.
“It really evolved into Anne and Dakota saying, ‘What if while she’s making out with him, it turns into [Anne]?’ And me going, ‘If you want to do that, yeah,'” he said. “And I thought there was something very sexy — erotic — about Dakota being like, ‘I’m just going to sit on your lap and start kissing you.’ She sees [Jeremy] and just goes there, and that felt like the beginning of something that felt transgressive. She took this thing that she wants, and he’s there for it.”
Johnson said she would kiss Hathaway ‘every day’ if she could
When it comes to kissing Hathaway, Johnson has no notes. While chatting with Out magazine, Johnson gushed about her spicy scenes with The Odysseyactor.
“Spicy sapphic scenes! I love that! That’ll be on my tombstone,” Johnson said, before diving into her makeout scene with Hathaway and Hartnett. “It was very technical, but obviously incredibly enjoyable. I got to make out with the two of them for a few hours! One of them would be under me, one would slide out, and then another would slide in. It was very technical and that is art.”
Hartnett chimed in, “We had such great chemistry as friends on set! The sexual scenes were a little bit goofy when we weren’t filming. You have to keep it light and keep moving! The chemistry in the film is palpable. It comes from mutual respect and understanding.”
Johnson echoed her enthusiasm about kissing Hathaway while talking to Extra TV, as she gushed, “I would kiss Annie for the rest of my life. Every day. If you need me, I’m there.”
That infamous bedroom bite
Don’t worry, Verityfans. One particular detail was translated straight from the book to the screen: When Verity bites the headboard.
“I never thought I’d bite a headboard on camera in my life,” Hathaway told E! News in a joint interview with Johnson and Hartnett. “But that was just like Tuesday.”
According to Hathaway, the moment was extensively rehearsed. Hartnett also chimed in, adding that he had seen several pieces of the headboard with different bite marks on them.
“We had like stunt rehearsals. We had to test so many things,” Hathaway said. “There are certain things that, like, Verity could be, maybe Verity could be a brunette, but we can’t mess up the headboard bite. We have to get that right, because it’s too… it’s too specific and unusual. And so, like, if we’re going to make this movie, we have to get like, a detail like that right.”
During an episode of the Spill Podcast,Hathaway further elaborated on the “multiple meetings” that were held to bring this scene to life. The goal, she explained, was to figure out “how to convincingly make the choice to bite a headboard.”
Hathaway added, “I just couldn’t stop laughing ’cause I just thought, ‘I can’t believe I’m an adult and this is — I’m doing this for work. I’m figuring out how to bite a piece of balsa wood at work today.'”
Hathaway’s creepy, unscripted waltz
While chatting with Hola magazine, Hathaway recalled another on-set improvisation.
“I remember there’s this one [scene] where Verity’s doing something awful,” she told the outlet. “And Michael [Showalter] came to me and said, ‘OK, we’re gonna do it one more time. Can you get into bed and be the happiest person who’s ever gotten into bed?'”
The soon-to-be Yesteryearstar then added, “For some reason, I thought, ‘What if I waltz my way into bed?'”
Showalter and Hathaway wondered if the choice was too bizarre to make the final cut.
“And we were wrong! It’s in the movie,” she said.
The scene that was ultimately axed
Unfortunately, not every scene makes it into the final edit. In Hoover’s book,Lowen has a history of sleepwalking. While chatting with E! News, Hathaway and Johnson confirmed that most of those sleepwalking scenes were ultimately cut.
“It’s just not necessarily that interesting to watch someone sleepwalk,” Johnson said.
Hathaway added, “There’s a little bit of it but there was a lot more that was shot.”
Hartnett on the film’s ‘ambiguous’ ending
One thing Hartnett is looking forward to when the film drops? How the audience will debate its ambiguous ending.
“The thing that I can say that’s different about this film than almost any film I’ve read, at this level, a studio releasing a film that has an ambiguous ending and it sort of invites debates from the audience afterward. It’s so rare,” Hartnett told the Associated Press during the film’s London premiere in September. “And I think it’s such a great thing to kind of introduce to cinema at this time. And I think it would be nice to hear people argue about something that’s as fun as this.”
Why Hoover has been feeling ‘all over the place’
The process of bringing Verityto the screen impacted how Hoover viewed the book’s final chapters.
“It did give me, um, you know, food for thought,” Hoover told E! News. “I thought a certain way for so long after writing the book, that seeing the movie and seeing how Michael, you know, kind of dove into every point of view, I started to find myself feeling sorry for the character I thought was more evil in the book.”
Hoover said the experience left her feeling “all over the place.”
“Not that the movie, like, shifts you in one direction or another, I think it was just really fun seeing everyone’s opinions of the truth,” she added.
Hathaway’s doctor advised against eating spicy wings during press tour
When it comes to high-profile press tours, stopping by Sean Evans’s Hot Ones is practically a necessity. The famed segment, where celebrities attempt to eat increasingly spicy wings while answering Evans’s interview questions, has produced some pretty iconic clips. Unfortunately, Hathaway’s doctor advised against her taking on the challenge during her pregnancy.
Fans can still see Hathaway participate in the celebrity rite of passage — sort of. In the film,her character, Verity, appears in an episode of Hot Ones.During an appearance on theTalk of the Townsendspodcast, Hathaway explained how she filmed the scene.
“I did the first three wings for real, and then I switched into dummy wings. And then I thought that I was gonna be able to do the Hot Ones challenge to do press for this film because it just made sense,” Hathaway said. “But then I got pregnant, and my doctor said I couldn’t do it because I might go into early labor. So I still haven’t done the gauntlet yet. I’m not sure when that’s gonna happen. Maybe next year.”
