Red white and royal blue gay sex

“There we were at the time, with a monarch who had been ruling for 70 years played with distinction by Helen Mirren, by Olivia Colman, by Claire Foy, by Imelda Staunton,” he says with a chuckle. I wanted to take away as little screen time from the romance as possible, which means I had to deliver the peril and the stakes efficiently.”

While he found the political intrigue of Luna’s machinations to be gripping as a reader, “As an adapter, I looked at it and said, that’s, like, 10 minutes there.”

Similarly, López faced a dilemma about what to do with Alex’s core confidantes in the novel: His sister, June, and his best friend, Nora, the vice president’s granddaughter. 

“I really didn’t relish the idea of getting on set with two young actresses who are each being given half a meal,” López says.

“It was so important to me that this was a woman who could hold both things — that she could be a powerful woman who also presented her own femininity in the world without apologies.”

Reshaping Alex’s bisexual journey

In both the novel and the film, Prince Henry first kisses Alex on New Year’s Eve, but Alex’s reaction changed significantly in López’s adaptation.

I always say that however long the runtime of the audiobook is, subtract that by two [hours]. Because we were like, ‘Alright, we’re having sex. Where was Alex Claremont-Diaz all my life? “Most of the world will know a King of England, not a Queen of England for most of their lives,” he says. We put it out there.” And so it is sitting very prominently on a mantel in my living room.

The moments of physical intimacy between First Son Alex Claremont-Diaz and His Royal Highness Prince Henry are steamy and explicit, yes (and, no doubt, a major reason McQuiston’s debut novel was so addicting). And I say that not to self-aggrandize, but this is the story that I needed to see. Nick and Taylor will be fine. But one of the things that Nick and I decided together was this is the first time that Henry is having sex with someone he has real feelings for.

He can’t be rescued by his mother.”

López also decided change the Queen of England to the King in the film — but he made that decision months before the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. (Stephen Fry shot his scene as the King in July 2022, two months before the Queen’s death.)

Instead, López’s decision was driven by how saturated pop culture had become with Oscar and Emmy-winning depictions of Queen Elizabeth.

And I’m sad that Taylor and Nick don’t get a chance to do that. 

I’m angry because this strike could have been avoided and it wasn’t. They have their novel, which they can always return to anytime they want to, and now they have the movie, which is different enough from the book to be its own thing, but respectful enough to the book, and in love enough for the book, to also deliver exactly the same feelings that the book delivered.

“The Inheritance” was recently performed here in Metro Detroit.