Get ready, BookTok.Because after Colleen Hoover’s novels It Ends With Us, Regretting You and Reminders of Him were turned into movies, the film adaptation of her thriller Verity is finally in theaters.
For those unfamiliar with the story, Verity Crawford (played by Anne Hathaway) is a bestselling author with secrets who's unable to finish her book series after a car crash leaves her in a coma. Her husband Jeremy Crawford (Josh Hartnett) invites struggling writer Lowen Ashleigh (Dakota Johnson) to finish the novels by going through Verity’s notes. However, things take a turn once Lowen finds a manuscript for what appears to be Verity's autobiography (more on that later), develops a romantic connection with Jeremy and begins to question if Verity really is as she seems.
And yes, the cast felt a lot of pressure to bring these characters from the pages to the big screen."But I think you feel that anyway," Hathaway explained to E! News’ Will Marfuggi ahead of the film's Oct. 2 release. "It’s not just because of the readers. It’s because it’s a lot of pressure to take on any role at all. Right off that bat, we’re making choices that people are either going to go with or they’re not."
But if you ask Hartnett, he’d say making some tweaks can be beneficial for all audiences.
"I think with any adaptation, it’s so much about just getting the spirit of it right," he added. "The spirit of this is to be surprising and to be a little bit tricky and devilish. So, it’s good that some things were changed so that people who really love the book could also experience that fright and that excitement."
As for how Hoover felt about it, she’s expressed how she was down with filmmakers putting their own spin on the book.
“I don’t really remember anything that made me think, ‘Oh no, don’t do that,’” she told E!. “All of the changes I feel like I understood and agreed with.”
Don’t worry, plenty of details from the book are still in the movie (like the bitemarks on the headboard—IYKYK). But readers will certainly pick up on some differences too.
To see a few examples before you book it to the theater, read on (warning: spoilers ahead).
In Colleen Hoover's book Verity, the titular character is blonde. But in the film adaptation, Anne Hathaway keeps her brunette tresses for her portrayal of Verity Crawford."For a lot of people, Verity is a blonde and that's that," the Oscar winner acknowledged in a recent interview with E! News. "You just kind of hope that people will go with your version of it and let it be it's own thing."
While Verity and her husband Jeremy Crawford (Josh Hartnett) welcomed three children in the book—son Crew and their late twin daughters Chastin and Harper—the couple have two kids in the movie.Content creators on BookTok have revealed that Chastin is the one who's removed from the movie and that Crew is the twin of his deceased sister Harper, which may surprise fans given Chastin's storyline in the book.In the autobiography manuscript found by Lowen Ashleigh, Verity writes about being jealous of the love and attention Jeremy gave Chastin and Harper during her pregnancy and after they were born. As the manuscript continues, Verity describes bonding with Chastin but not Harper and blaming Harper when Chastin dies from a fatal reaction to peanuts.Six months after Chastin dies, Harper drowns—with the manuscript noting Verity took Harper and Crew out in a canoe, tipped the boat to kill Harper and saved only Crew.So, while Chastin was a big part of the book, Hoover defends not including her in the movie."I remember them asking us to remove one of the children because it felt different due to the time allotted on film, and it gave the story a different vibe that was almost too dark and unrealistic," she told Variety. "I was nervous about that, but when I read the next version of the script I was like, oh, that's the best change we could have made."
Also left out in the movie is Lowen (Dakota Johnson) being a sleepwalker—a detail from Lowen's childhood that's resurfaced in the book after she mysteriously ends up in Verity's bed."It's a very important storyline in the book that helps you understand Lowen's character, and we actually shot a lot of that stuff," director Michael Showalter explained to Variety. "Those scenes are wonderful and Dakota's acting is incredible, but what you learn during the process of making a movie is how important it is to keep the focus and the momentum. You don't have time to go on some of the diversions that you can in a book."
But the movie isn’t only different in terms of what it omitted from the book. It also gives the story its own twist by adding parts that were not in the novel at all.One example fans got to see in the trailer is when Lowen fantasizes about making out with Jeremy but then he turns into Verity.
"That was one I was nervous about because it wasn't in the book and I didn't know how it was going to play out or how it was going to fit in," Hoover admitted to Variety, "but it ended up being one of my favorite scenes—and made for a really fun trailer, too! So, I was relieved."
While readers see Lowen take on Verity's book series, develop a romantic relationship with Jeremy and bond with Crew, Showalter hints the movie takes this encroachment on her world to a whole new level."Something new that we added was this 'All About Eve' thing that's happening with Lowen [and Verity]," he told Variety, referencing the 1950 movie about an aspiring actress taking over the life and career of an older Broadway star. "That's not in the book."
Stop reading here if you don't want to know the ending.In the final chapters of the novel, it’s revealed that Verity isn’t actually in a coma. Having read her autobiography manuscript, Jeremy confronts her and he and Lowen kill her.As Jeremy and a now-pregnant Lowen set out to start a new life together and clear out the Crawford home, she discovers a letter Verity wrote to Jeremy stating that the manuscript was actually a form of “antagonistic journaling” she did as a writing exercise and that Harper’s death was an accident.Verity then writes that Jeremy abused her and was responsible for the car crash—adding she had been in a coma but pretended to keep being in one to protect herself as she plotted her escape with Crew.So, readers are left to decide whether the letter is true and Verity’s manuscript was just a writing exercise, or if the letter is a form of manipulation and she is the villain the manuscript described.
While Hoover has shared her take before, she noted the movie gave her “food for thought.” "I thought a certain way for so long after writing the book, that seeing the movie and seeing how Michael dove into every point of view, I started to find myself feeling sorry for the character I thought was more evil in the book,” she told E!. “Not that the movie shifts you in one direction or another. I think it was just really fun seeing everyone's opinions of the truth.”
Showalter notes “there were different ways that we tried ending the movie.” And while fans will just have to see how the film concludes, the director says he tried to incorporate the perspectives of Verity, Lowen and Jeremy."You get three different versions of the story," he explained to E!. "I found myself not taking sides. I found myself wanting to honor each individual of our performers' realities, to honor that in the filmmaking, so that we weren't tipping the hat one way or the other."