In ‘One Day,’ a new Emma and Dexter bring angst and yearning
Long before Netflix hooked viewers with a premise that tested whether a love connection could be formed in a matter of days in a “pod” with a glowing blue wall on “Love Is Blind,” a fictional duo had hopeful romantics yearning for a different kind of connection — a beautifully torturous 20-year slow burn.
“One Day,” David Nicholls’ bestselling novel, is a melancholic, angst-ridden portrait of a friendship between two young people that deepens and matures into a romance separated by time and timing. It was adapted for the big screen in 2011 with Anne
Hathaway and Jim Sturgess. Now, the love story has been refashioned into a 14-episode Netflix series by lead writer Nicole Taylor that was released last week. (Nicholls is an executive producer on the series.)
Emma, played by Ambika Mod (“This Is Going to Hurt”), is smart and witty, but insecure and stubborn; Dexter, played by Leo Woodall (“The White Lotus”), is privileged and unworried, but emotionally tortured. The pair spend the night together after their college graduation in 1988 —they talk, they drink, they remove clothing, but their onenight stand doesn’t lead to sex. It sets their foundation. From there, the series checks in with them over the next 20 years on the same day (July 15) and chronicles their evolving relationship and lives as they navigate the pull of their tormented chemistry.
In a late-January Zoom conversation across time zones — Woodall and Mod joined in from their respective homes in London — the duo talked about chemistry reads, fans who enjoy the yearn, and how things end for Emma and Dexter. This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Q: How familiar were you with David Nicholls and “One Day” before you started shooting?
Mod: I was very familiar. I had read the book ... I think when it came out. I was maybe 13 or 14. It’s always been one of my favorite books. It kind of felt really surreal to be playing this part in this adaptation because I just love the story so much.
Woodall: When I first got the audition, I watched the movie. After that, I started reading the book. But I’m a very slow reader, so I did do some of it on Audible. When it came to the final round of auditions, or scenes from the last episode in there, I had to kind of shimmy ahead. We’ve seen David countless times on set and just in general, and he’s such a humble, sweet, gentle man.
Q: When the show was announced, it was interesting seeing the reaction on social media of people being like, “I can’t wait to be in pain.” Why do you think we’re so drawn to the angst and the yearning?
Mod: I think so many people hold a special place in their heart for this book and this story. What I will say about the series is — as much as the ending is very
sad, as much as there is all that longing, [and] there is all that angst, it’s also a very joyful story and very joyful series. It’s really nostalgic. I think, especially as we get older, especially in terms of our friendships, we all have a relationship like Emma and Dexter’s, where you meet someone and you could never have guessed so many years later how they might have impacted your life and what role they’d suddenly play in your life decades later.
Q: The chemistry between Emma and Dex is so crucial to the magic of their story and how it develops over time. Tell me about the chemistry read. What were the scenes that you had to do? What do you remember about meeting each other?
Mod: We met at the chemistry reads. I read with two or three other Dexters that day, you read with a few different Emmas that day. And chemistry reads are always weird because, by that point, anyone who has been called to that round could play the part. It’s just about chemistry and that’s just not in your control. It’s so hard to be aware of whether or not it’s present because you’ll know that’s being tested for.
Woodall: What were the scenes? There was the wedding scene ...
Mod: Yeah, the wedding scene, the Primrose Hill scene, and the bedroom scene from Episode 1.
Woodall: It is very weird. Like Ambika said, it is out of your control whether you have chemistry with someone or not. Maybe it’s a bit of a lottery, I don’t know. But we both were just playing our parts as truthfully as we could and hoped that that would work. I forced a couple of chemistry moments — I told Ambika that I really liked her shoes. It didn’t quite land as like, “Oh, these two are really vibing.”
Mod: Did you get in trouble for that?
Woodall: I did kind of get into trouble for that. I can say it now. But, yeah, I remember hearing that I should focus a bit more.
Mod: You do, though, try and force banter in those situations. It’s like, we need to be twins separated at birth. This needs to be perfect. So, of course, you force that stuff, especially when you’re not in the scene and you just want to do everything in your favor. Chemistry is either there or it’s not. You can’t build it. You can’t fake it.
Woodall: Do you remember in the maze scene, they hug and there’s a moment where they’re so close to each other, and we had just met —
Mod: And they kiss in the scene, but in the chemistry read, they were like, “Don’t kiss!” So we just had to be really, really close to each other. And it was a bit weird because we just met.
Q: So much of what goes on between your characters is either unspoken or it is sometimes said at the wrong time. What did you make of their difficulty in saying what they were feeling?
Mod: I’ve never really thought about it like that. I suppose a real basic answer is I think people never really say what they’re really feeling. I think that miscommunication is what trips us up a lot of the time in our relationships. I think there’s a mixture of reasons why throughout the 20 years of knowing each other that Emma and Dexter have those same tripups. When writing is really good, it’s always about subtext; it’s always about what’s not being said. What I love about the first episode, in particular, is that it really captures that awkwardness, especially like a one-night stand. And there are so many misfires and missed connections and missed opportunities. I think that extends in a much deeper way as they become closer and their relationship becomes more platonic. I guess the closer you get with someone as a friend, the harder it is to cross that line into something more romantic.