Love stories never fall out of fashion
Love stories never fall out of fashion, as evident in the remake of Endless Love.
THE range of emotions when one is young and in love can be anywhere from simply joyous to painfully heartbroken. These all-consuming feelings are depicted in Scott Spencer’s 1979 book, Endless Love, which revolves around two teenagers who fall passionately in love only to be kept apart by the adults.
Spencer’s tale first got its Hollywood treatment in 1981 featuring a young Brooke Shields. Now, after more than three decades, it receives an update with Gabriella Wilde ( Carrie) and Alex Pettyfer ( Magic Mike) in the role of Jade Butterfield and David Axelrod.
In an interview transcript provided by the film’s distributor, United International Pictures, Wilde, 24, shared that she and 23-year-old Pettyfer were given ample rehearsal time by director Shana Feste so they could develop their onscreen relationship, so to ensure it came across real and natural.
“It was very important for Shana to make a movie that was truthful,” explained Wilde. “We just did a lot of exercises, a lot of things to completely humiliate ourselves in front of Shana, so that no barriers were left by the end. We went into the movie having not worked on the script like a typical rehearsal but incredibly open and prepared to try anything.”
With chemistry established, it was time to tackle the story. Wilde’s take on the film is that it is character-driven with a detailed study of two young people falling in love and the intensity behind it.
“When you film with Shana, you really are seeing a truthful telling of what it is to fall in love and the extremity of it,” shared Wilde.
With so much feelings poured into the film, it was a relief for the England-born actress that her leading man is also British. However, she said that it is “kind of a doubleedged sword.”
Wilde added: “It was great to have someone who knows where you are from and you can relate to on certain things straight off the bat. But at the same time, it was kind of strange because we are going into a very American movie playing a very American story and we are both English. As a result, it’s not as easy to get into the story very quickly.”
Well, judge for yourselves the performances of these two young stars when Endless Love opens in cinemas, nationwide, today.