Emily Henry has finally broken her silence on the Beach Read film post-Gus Everett casting. But do her words really tell us anything?
Do you ever have those moments where you think too hard about something and when it happens you feel like you willed it into being?
I had one of those moments Tuesday afternoon, when I opened Instagram to upload a photo to accompany this blog post and saw a clip of Emily Henry on TODAY with Jenna & Sheinelle breaking her silence on the Beach Read adaptation post-Patrick Schwarzenegger casting. And so my original planned post, on her monthlong silence, went out the window — sort of.
Henry gave her first public comments on the project in over a month Tuesday morning, during an appearance that included promotion for the new paperback version of Great Big Beautiful Life, and a few summer reading picks, including Kennedy Ryan’s newest, Score. And while she technically talked about the Beach Read film, she ultimately said very little — and nothing explicitly about Schwarzenegger or her feelings about his casting as the film’s male lead, Augustus “Gus” Everett.
Schwarzenegger was announced as Gus in mid-April. Fans vocally questioned the casting, with complaints including that Schwarzenegger doesn’t have the physical look of the character and his nepo-baby background is at odds with Gus’s own. Comments on screenwriter and director Yulin Kuang’s Instagram casting announcement were soon limited, as users filled the comment section with disbelieving remarks and demands she recast the role.
Henry’s silence on the casting immediately drew fan and media attention.
Co-host Jenna Bush Hager asked Henry how she communicates that “this is going to be fine, guys” to fans when they’re not all excited by the direction of the project. Neither Henry or Bush Hager specifically referenced Schwarzenegger or the fan ire directed at him during the exchange, and Henry kept her response brief and general.
“I also have to sit back and, like, let it unfold. It’s not – I mean, it is our baby, the readers’ and my baby, but it’s also the filmmakers’ baby and the studio’s baby and I’m along for the ride with the readers. And we just have to trust, you know, the vision. And I feel like Yulin Kuang, our writer/director, is so brilliant, and I know she’s going to do an amazing job,” Henry said.
Other than that, she said she’s excited about the other actors they’re signing onto the project and they’re going to start shooting soon. Henry didn’t share any specific excitement or support for Schwarzenegger, or speak out to defend his casting to fans.
I’m curious to see how she follows up this TV appearance on her personal social media and through her newsletter, Emily’s Grocery List, where she often shares major news about her books and their adaptations. Because to date, the difference in her response to Phoebe Dynevor’s casting as the film’s female lead, January Andrews, and Schwarzenegger’s is stark.
Henry posted on social media immediately announcing Dynevor’s casting in February and the post is pinned to the top of her Instagram grid. While she took another month to address the casting in detail in her newsletter, when she did she was effusive: “We couldn’t have gotten luckier than we have with Phoebe. She has everything we need, in spades, and I cannot wait for you to see how perfect she is.”
I saw fan commentary suggesting that Henry’s silence stemmed from her writing schedule or her being otherwise engaged. To me that feels like a flimsy explanation.
While Henry has said she’s working on her next novel, that hasn’t stopped her from occasionally posting on social media or giving media interviews about unrelated topics, like sharing photos of her dog, promoting other writers’ upcoming releases and giving interviews to outlets like the New York Times and Into the Gloss. If she has time for that, I have to think she has time to address the lead casting for her book-to-screen adaptation that has book fans buzzing online.
I was most surprised when she sent out an April 22 edition of Emily’s Grocery List and it contained nary a peep about the Beach Read adaptation or Schwarzenegger’s casting. Sending out a newsletter a week after the announcement without acknowledging it felt like a choice.
It would be one thing if Henry were a less public facing author or maintained a strong separation between herself and her books’ adaptations, but that hasn’t been the case. She’s set a precedent for her engagement, both regarding the Beach Read project specifically, and her works broadly. Notably, she was heavily involved in the rollout and press cycle for the People We Meet on Vacation adaptation, released on Netflix in early January – doing interviews with cast members, attending pop-up events and surprising fans at screenings.
Fan scrutiny of Henry right now is high, with fans trying to parse meaning from every word and silence. I’ve seen fans suggest she’s unhappy with the casting news, including after her non-statement on TODAY. Others think fans dissatisfied with the casting are seeking to confirm their own feelings with little evidence.
Henry must be aware of the attention on her, and that makes her approach to this moment so intriguing to me. Whether Henry is dissatisfied or not is a question that’s been rolling around in my head, among others, for the past month.
Is Henry unhappy with the casting decision?
Henry said in a past edition of Emily’s Grocery List that of all her characters she felt the most pressure to nail the casting of Gus: “When we find our Gus, he WILL be the best possible Gus for this version of the story.”
So: is Patrick Schwarzenegger the best possible Gus for this version of the story?
If she is unhappy, then what does that mean for the production moving forward?
Henry is an author with diehard fans; the loyalists love not only her books, but her too. If she’s wavering on the trajectory of the project, what will that mean for reception of the eventual film, especially if it’s progressing toward a theatrical release as planned? Will the box office performance take a hit? Will it ultimately not have a box office release and instead go to a streamer?
Is she considering her other projects when weighing her response?
Henry may be playing things close to the vest to protect her other projects.
Henry has other adaptations in the works – Book Lovers has a screenwriter attached, Henry herself is handling the screenplay for the Funny Story adaptation, and Happy Place was optioned by J.Lo.’s Nuyorican Productions, according to Deadline.
With other projects underway — which rely on fans for their success — anything she says could put her in a bind. If she’s critical of the casting, she may be choosing to stay quiet so that the film’s reception doesn’t take a hit. Even if it’s not going exactly how she’d like, she’s invested in its success, both financially and for what its performance could mean for continued industry backing of her other projects. If she likes the casting, she may be staying quiet to avoid alienating fans, who she needs to maintain goodwill with so they’ll buy box office tickets and stream her future projects.
Is she OK with the casting, but put off by fans’ immediate negative responses?
In her newsletter celebrating Dynevor’s casting, Henry said: “I’ve spent the days since the initial announcement basking in your excitement. You really can’t imagine how much your support means to me. Like, I promise you that. You’re underestimating it.”
If she’s been reading the negative feedback, it’s possible the poor fan response caused her to retreat a bit. Maybe she’s reconsidering how forthcoming she’ll be as she navigates shifting fan sentiment project to project, or debating how much she owes fans re: explanations when it comes to fan discontent or differing opinions. It’s a hard line to walk because once you start explaining yourself for every thing fans don’t like you can really get backed into a corner.
Have fans misunderstood where Henry stands on her adaptations?
One thing some fans reacted negatively to was Kuang’s characterization of the casting process: “I have always maintained that we are not casting a character, but a relationship. Once we knew Phoebe would be our January, my efforts became more focused and specific – not on who would play the best Gus according to the text, but who would play the best Gus opposite our specific January.”
A repeated complaint was that Gus is indeed a character, with his own backstory, quirks and motivations, and if you’re not casting the character and are only focused on chemistry, then what’s the point of an adaptation?
But this is an area where, at least in theory, Henry has expressed similar sentiments.
She’s used language like finding the best Gus “for this version of the story” and has maintained that her books and their subsequent adaptations should be thought of like related but distinct entities: “I think it’s helpful to think of an adaptation like you would a play, or a superhero franchise. The characters will always exist separate from the plays and films themselves. There are so many different Batmans, and none of them is the real Batman; it’s all about what different actors can bring to a character.”
Character appearance is also something Henry has said she isn’t married to: “I see my characters in slivers, little bits of detail that I love about them, and that’s one of many reasons that I’ve always been adamant that an actor doesn’t need to match up physically to the book’s description of the character they’re portraying. For me, the performance and energy matter so, so much more.”
It’s likely we’ll never know the full story of what’s been happening behind-the-scenes.
I have mixed feelings about the casting, personally. I agree that Schwarzenegger doesn’t really have the look, or more specifically the vibe, that I imagined for Gus based on the books. But that is what acting is for, and people aren’t supposed to be the characters that they play.
Character looks matching one-to-one don’t matter heavily to me and I think a lot can be done with hair, makeup and wardrobe. But aura? That really comes down to Schwarzenegger’s ability to transform as an actor. I’ve only seen him in The White Lotus and Moxie, and I can’t say that either role felt particularly transformative.
I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
The casting and production teams chose him for a reason, and none of us were in those audition rooms. I can’t imagine what it feels like to be him and know that so many people are responding negatively to your casting, including in the comment sections of your own social media posts, before you’ve even had a chance to show what you can do in the role.
I hope he blows us all away with a hit performance. But I’ll be bracing myself until then.
What are your thoughts about the casting and Henry’s response – or lack thereof? Let me know in the comments!
Katie the Book Reporter 
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