In ‘One Day,’ a new Emma and Dexter bring angst and yearning (again and again)
Long before Netflix hooked viewers with a premise that tested whether a love connection could be formed in a matter of days in a “pod” with a glowing blue wall on the reality show Love Is Blind,a
fictional duo had hopeful romantics yearning for a different kind of connection – a beautifully torturous 20-year slow burn.
One Day, David Nicholls’s bestselling novel, is a melancholic, angst-ridden portrait of a friendship between two young people that deepens and matures into a romance separated by time and timing. It was adapted for the big screen in 2011 with Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess. Now, the love story has been refashioned into a 14-episode Netflix series by lead writer Nicole Taylor that was released last week. (Nicholls is an executive producer on the series.)
Emma, played by Ambika Mod (This Is Going to Hurt),
is smart and witty, but insecure and stubborn; Dexter, played by Leo Woodall (The White Lotus), is privileged and unworried, but emotionally tortured. The pair spend the night together after their college graduation in 1988 – they talk, they drink, they remove clothing, but their one-night stand doesn’t lead to sex. It sets their foundation.
From there, the series checks in with them over the next 20 years on the same day (July 15) and chronicles their evolving relationship and lives as they navigate the pull of their tormented chemistry.
In a late-January Zoom conversation across time zones – Woodall and Mod joined in from their respective homes in London – the duo talked about chemistry reads, fans who enjoy the yearn, and how things end for Emma and Dexter.
How familiar were you with David Nicholls and before you started shooting?
One Day
Mod: I was very familiar. I had read the book... I think when it came out. I was maybe 13 or 14. It’s always been one of my favorite books. It kind of felt really surreal to be playing this part in this adaptation because I just love the story so much.
Woodall: When I first got the audition, I watched the movie. After that, I started reading the book. But I’m a very slow reader, so I did do some of it on Audible. When it came to the final round of auditions, or scenes from the last episode in there, I had to kind of shimmy ahead. We’ve seen David countless times on set and just in general, and he’s such a humble, sweet, gentle man.
When the show was announced, it was interesting seeing the reaction on social media of people being like, “I can’t wait to be in pain.” Why do you think we’re so drawn to the angst and the yearning?
Mod: I think so many people hold a special place in
their heart for this book and this story. What I will say about the series is – as much as the ending is very sad, as much as there is all that longing, [and] there is all that angst, it’s also a very joyful story and very joyful series. It’s really nostalgic.
I think, especially as we get older, especially in terms of our friendships, we all have a relationship like Emma and Dexter’s, where you meet someone and you could never have guessed so many years later how they might have impacted your life and what role they’d suddenly play in your life decades later.
The chemistry between Emma and Dex is so crucial
to the magic of their story and how it develops over time. Tell me about the chemistry read. What were the scenes that you had to do? What do you remember about meeting each other?
Mod: We met at the chemistry reads. I read with two or three other Dexters that day, you read with a few different Emmas that day. And chemistry reads are always weird because, by that point, anyone who has been called to that round could play the part. It’s just about chemistry and that’s just not in your control. It’s so hard to be aware of whether or not it’s present because you’ll know that’s being tested for.
Woodall: What were the scenes? There was the wedding scene...
Mod: Yeah, the wedding scene, the Primrose Hill scene, and the bedroom scene from Episode 1.
Woodall: It is very weird. Like Ambika said, it is out of your control whether you have chemistry with someone or not. Maybe it’s a bit of a lottery, I don’t know. But we both were just playing our parts as truthfully as we could and hoped that that would work.
I forced a couple of chemistry moments – I told Ambika that I really liked her shoes. It didn’t quite land as like, “Oh, these two are really vibing.”
Mod: Did you get in trouble for that?
Woodall: I did kind of get into trouble for that. I can say it now. But, yeah, I remember hearing that I should focus a bit more.
Mod: You do, though, try and force banter in those situations. It’s like, we need to be twins separated at birth. This needs to be perfect. So, of course, you force that stuff, especially when you’re not in the scene and you just want to do everything in your favor. Chemistry is either there or it’s not. You can’t build it. You can’t fake it.
Woodall: Do you remember in the maze scene, they hug and there’s a moment where they’re so close to each other, and we had just met –
Mod: And they kiss in the scene, but in the chemistry read, they were like, “Don’t kiss!” So we just had to be really, really close to each other. And it was a bit weird because we just met.
How do you feel about how the story their story ends?
– –
Woodall: They’re kind of one and the same, at least for Dexter. I thought the ending of the show was so beautiful because it’s maybe easy to feel a little bit robbed that they finally get together and she dies and it could just be a very just sad ending. But it’s not.
You are reminded of all the joy and all the good things that they did for each other and gave to each other. And Dex – you see him go through his stages of grief and it’s relatable. Grief like that, you don’t just get over it. But you do start to move on a bit.
His relationship with Jasmine, his daughter, is really getting back on track and it feels almost just a bit hopeful that things are going to be OK. Emma will never be forgotten, she’ll always be this... symbol in his life and other people’s lives.
Mod: The thing that’s so heartbreaking about the ending is not just the fact that she dies, but the way that it’s written in the book and the way that it plays out in the final episode, is that you are given this contrast between present-day and then the day that they first met.
What’s really heartbreaking to me is the juxtaposition of all these hopes, dreams and ambitions that you have when you’re young versus how life actually turns out – and the realities, disappointments, pains and obstacles that come with growing up.
What I love so much about the final episode is that speech that Emma does coming down the hill; the fact that we didn’t see it before, it really unlocked so much about their friendship.
At the beginning of the series, you just think she’s madly in love with him, but actually she had so much agency in forming this friendship, you actually had so much responsibility and creating this union between them, in hindsight, is a really special thing for Dexter to look back on. And then for us to also discover. It’s just very sad.