Romantic comedies have always thrived on grand gestures, chance encounters and impossibly perfect timing, but Finding Emily is more interested in the messy uncertainty that exists between those moments. Produced by Working Title Films, the warm and disarmingly sincere new film follows sensitive musician Owen (Spike Fearn), whose attempt to reconnect with a girl he met during one chaotic night at Manchester City University spirals into an unexpectedly emotional search for connection, identity and purpose. Along the way, he collides with Emily (Angourie Rice), an American psychology student who initially views Owen’s romantic desperation as thesis material before finding herself swept into the chaos alongside him.
Directed by Alicia MacDonald, the film channels the spirit of classic romantic comedies like When Harry Met Sally…, while grounding itself in the awkwardness, loneliness and performative anxiety of modern student life. It’s funny, deeply sweet, and refreshingly compassionate toward its characters – particularly Owen, whose softness and sincerity feel increasingly rare in male protagonists.
When our Peter Gray spoke with Fearn and Rice ahead of the film’s Australian release, they discussed romantic comedy couples that definitely wouldn’t have survived, filming emotionally freeing dance scenes, building chemistry through wildly different acting processes, the strange vulnerability of playing a musician, and why sincerity might actually be the most radical thing a romantic comedy can offer audiences right now.
I was saying to Alicia that it’s so nice to have a romantic comedy on the big screen where I feel they deserve to be seen. And I wanted to ask you both, in terms of the history of romantic comedies, is there a couple you believe would still be together today?
Spike Fearn: Oh, that’s such a great question. Such a great question.
Angourie Rice: That is a great question. I don’t know the names of their characters, but the two from Four Weddings and a Funeral (Hugh Grant’s Charles and Andie MacDowell’s Carrie), I don’t think they’re still together. I don’t know if they stuck it out.
Alicia and I were saying that Harry and Sally had to still be together.
Angourie Rice: I mean, the way the way the movie ends with the little interview and they’re describing their wedding and she’s talking about the cake…
Spike Fearn: I’ll say them then.
Alicia was saying how she wanted authenticity rather than glossy perfection with this film. I wanted to ask you first, Spike, did that free you up to lean into the uncomfortable or uncool aspects of Owen?
Spike Fearn: Was I not cool, man? (Laughs). Yeah, I guess so. I think what’s really cool about the film is that it’s not like Owen is this kind of guy with sweat dripping off his body, you know? He’s just this sweet, weird…like a weird Labrador, in a way. He’s puppy dog-eyed in love, and he’s just chasing it. I think that’s really nice.
It was really fun to play that, and Alicia gave us the freedom. You could just joke around, and some of those moments made the film, and others didn’t (laughs). She probably made all the right choices.
Angourie, same sentiment. Were there messy or uncomfortable aspects of Emily that you really wanted to preserve as well?
Angourie Rice: Yeah, absolutely. When I think about being offered so much freedom, the scene where Emily’s best friend brings her out of her melancholy by getting her up to dance. That was filmed in such an interesting way. It was me, Cora (Kirk), who plays Anna, Rachel Clark, our DOP on a handheld camera, and Alicia hiding in the corner, behind the kitchen bench, because we needed a 360 (degree) view of the room, and we played the song out loud. You don’t always get that. It was just so much fun. I think we did it, gosh, maybe 20 times? I could have kept going. I loved it. It was so much fun.
As you said, Spike, that Owen is like a Labrador. There’s such a sweetness to him that feels increasingly rare in male protagonists. Were you conscious of protecting his softness?
Spike Fearn: No, not really. That was never something I consciously thought about. I was really just working from what was on the page, I guess, and that’s how it naturally came out. I was actually speaking to Jack (Riddiford) last night – who plays Matt, the brother – and we were talking about how, when you first watch the film, you notice things like, “Oh, they picked that take,” or, “Oh, they cut that moment,” because there’s obviously a lot of that in the edit process. But the sweetness of it was always there in the script. It wasn’t something I was actively trying to engineer or protect too much. I was mostly just trying to stay present in the scenes and respond honestly in the moment.
And obviously chemistry is such a massive part of the success of a romantic comedy. I know that Angourie you described Spike as bringing energy and gusto in scenes, whilst you approach things more analytically. Did your very different acting styles end up helping the chemistry?
Angourie Rice: Ooh, that’s a good question.
Spike Fearn: I learned a lot from Angourie. You probably didn’t learn much from me.
Angourie Rice: I learned so much from you! (And) what I loved about working with you is that, even if we had different approaches to acting or character, the end goal is the same. I think that always means things will work out. I’m someone who likes to run lines the day before, or the weekend before, just so that I know them, and when I get (on set) I don’t have to think about it. Spike was just so generous with his time, because I would be like, “Hey, do you want to come and run the lines with me?” It’s so nice when someone is willing to do that.
Spike Fearn: You’d always make really nice cups of tea.
Angourie Rice: And you had your guitar.
I wanted to ask about identity, becauase Emily’s identity in Manchester creates this outsider perspective, where she’s observing British student culture, almost anthropologically. Did that displacement become important to how you played her?
Angourie Rice: Yeah, for sure. Even though Emily’s American, there was definitely a parallel there for me personally. I’m not from Manchester, so coming to Manchester, learning about the city and meeting people there felt very familiar to what Emily’s going through. And because I’ve worked overseas a lot – I mean, the last movie I did in Australia was almost 10 years ago now – I’m constantly in that mindset of, “Okay, I’ve got to learn the slang, I’ve got to understand what everybody’s talking about, I’ve got to watch the right things and say the right things.”
I also think it takes a certain kind of person to completely uproot their life and move across the world. There’s a resilience, strength and independence that comes with that, and I think that naturally comes through in who Emily is as a character.
Spike, you mentioned the guitar before. I know that you trained musically for this role, but I’m curious whether performing Owen’s songs changed your understanding of him psychologically? Did the music reveal something that the script didn’t?
Spike Fearn: Yeah, a little bit, but not massively. What really drew me in was the fact that he was a musician – and a proper, all-in musician. I think people like that are the coolest, especially the ones who do it really well. I pulled a lot from Jake Bugg, actually. When he was younger, he used to do these podcasts and interviews, and I watched loads of them. That was definitely something I was drawing from at the time.
But musically, I wasn’t overthinking it too much while we were filming. It almost felt like two separate processes. The music became its own thing – we spent a long time recording it, and getting to record at Abbey Road Studios was incredibly cool. That whole side of it had its own path, but it fit naturally into the world of the film.
Then when we were actually on set, there wasn’t a huge amount of musical stuff happening day to day. It was more about living in the scenes and the relationships. Although there definitely was some karaoke going on at times.
Well, I feel like a great romantic comedy either caps off with outtakes or a musical sequence, and we get a musical sequence here. It’s so joyous. Thank you both for taking the time out to chat. It’s so nice to go to the movies to see something sweet and hopeful.
Spike Fearn: Thank you, man
Angourie Rice: Thank you so much.
Finding Emily is screening in Australian theatres from May 21st, 2026, before opening in the United Kingdom on May 22nd. Finding Emily is scheduled for a release in the United States on August 28th, 2026.
