SPOILERS are ahead for Rosaline, now streaming with a Hulu subscription.
The latest in Shakespearean inspiration recently came in the form of Rosaline, a comedy that imagines Romeo and Juliet from the perspective of Rosaline, Romeo’s ex. During filming, the cast had loads of fun doing their own spin on the classic tragedy, but as they all seemed to agree, it was Rosaline’s twist ending that was an especially memorable day on set.
When CinemaBlend spoke with the cast of Rosaline, we spoke about the changes they got to make to the iconic story by telling it as a comedy through Rosaline’s eyes. They all agreed the ending was the best time on set, including Minnie Driver, who said this to us:
Definitely the scene at the end where we believe the lovers are dead in the crypt and in our story they're not actually dead. It was very difficult to do because you do have grieving parents, but you also have this comedic moment of Rosaline looking at Juliet, telling her to pretend to stay dead and looking at me, whilst also Kaitlyn's character, Rosaline has this wonderful moment where she really gets to speak to the two warring houses and say, 'Pull yourselves together, why are you always fighting?' So there's, I think it's my favorite scene because it's this wonderful coming together. It's artful, it's really well written and I think it's very well acted.
Minnie Driver plays the Nurse in Rosaline, which is also a pivotal character in the original play. Except for Rosaline, the actress got to bring her hilarious charms to the role. As she shared, the scene where Romeo and Juliet play dead was a blast to bring to life on set. The movie’s director, Karen Maine, echoed these sentiments, adding:
It's not sort of as sad and dramatic as the original. But what makes this film so great is there's so many additional scenes as well that aren't in the original play. And that was also incredibly fun.
Sean Teale, who plays a new character named Dario, agreed that the end was the best scene too. In his words:
Solely in a selfish way, cause it was a fun day filming it, but the death scene, We put our spin on it and it and the death scene in the movie was just great. So it was all of us together in this big beautiful church. And we just laughed for two days actually.
One of the biggest storylines of Romeo and Juliet is the irony of the two of them dying for one another, but in Rosaline, they switched things up. In this version, it’s only a front to show the two houses that they’re flawed before Romeo and Juliet escape them to be in love without any family drama. Except as they go away on their boat, they start to realize that being starcrossed may have been the main draw of their passion as they get into an awkward conversation about pizza preferences.
When CinemaBlend spoke to Rosaline’s Romeo, Kyle Allen, the actor admitted that they spoke on set about another match for Romeo: Dario. Amazing, right? Oh well, at least Rosaline provides ample laughs. CinemaBlend gave the movie a 3 out of 5 in our Rosaline review, and critics and audiences liked the twist overall.
In our interviews with the Rosaline cast, the movie’s Juliet actress, Isabela Merced, teased her upcoming Madame Web role a bit as well. Following the Disney/Hulu release, check out what Disney movie releases are coming up next here on CinemaBlend.
