Colleen Hoover and Michael Showalter on How Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson Made ‘Verity’ More Erotic, ‘It Ends With Us’ Drama and Sex in Movies - Variety

JayNot gonna lie, this one caught me off guard: Colleen Hoover and Michael Showalter on How Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson Made ‘Verity’ More Erotic, ‘It Ends With Us’ Drama and Sex in Movies. What's your first reaction?

NinaYou’re calling a chat about movie nudity "off-guard," but we’ve both written enough words to know that making sex feel dangerous usually takes less effort than making it feel romantic. It’s a bit much to pretend you didn’t see that coming. Just tell me what you think makes Verity work when everyone expects a love story.

JayThirty-five million copies isn't a typo; that’s a cultural footprint bigger than most studio budgets combined. When Hathaway steps into that role, she’s walking straight onto a landmine that every reader has already defused in their head. That tension between the book’s known danger and the screen’s unknown execution is where the real craft lives.

NinaThirty-five million books doesn’t mean anyone knows how to act out a scene without smiling too hard. That’s the actual problem with casting Hathaway here; she’s got twenty years of training specifically to avoid looking like she’s in trouble.

JayPicture a dinner party where someone keeps checking their phone mid-sentence; Hathaway brings that polished, detached energy to a character supposed to be unraveling right in front of us. We aren't watching a woman lose control, we're watching a performance artist try to look comfortable while standing on a ledge. That gap between the audience’s panic and her calm face is actually the whole point of erotic thrills, though I doubt the script explains why.

NinaPicture a guy who orders a steak medium-rare at every restaurant he visits; when he finally tries it well-done, nobody notices because he still chews exactly the same way. That’s the risk with Hathaway—her technique is so consistent it might flatten out the chaos the book promised. Showalter better rely on the camera doing the screaming for her.

JayThe camera can scream all night long; Hathaway just needs to stop chewing like she’s auditioning for a commercial. Showalter should trust his actors, not his lenses.

NinaYou’re spot on that the lens won’t save a flat performance, though the real gamble isn’t Hathaway’s range—it’s whether Showalter will let the audience sit in the discomfort without cutting away to a close-up of her eyes. Most directors treat tension like a timer they rush to beat, rather than a room they refuse to leave.

JayLeaving the frame wide does force the viewer to do the emotional labor themselves, which is the hardest part to get right. But here’s the kicker: the book’s heat comes from internal monologue, not physical contact, so Showalter has to translate private shame into public exposure without a single word of dialogue. That’s a much steeper climb than just holding a shot longer.

NinaTranslating inner thoughts is basically asking an actor to mime a grocery list; if she looks too focused, the whole scene collapses into awkward staring. Showalter’s best bet is letting the silence do the talking, provided he stops cutting to her face every three seconds.

JayForget the director for a second; Dakota Johnson is the one actually carrying the body language weight since she’s been typecast as the girl getting hurt in these romances. She has to break that specific pattern now, or the audience just sees another iteration of Lily Bloom flinching before she even gets hit.

NinaJohnson playing the victim is her default setting, but breaking it requires more than a scowl. Showalter needs to make her look dangerous, not just bruised.

JayMaking her look dangerous means dropping the flinch entirely; if she stands there steady while everyone else panics, the power shift happens without a single raised hand. Showalter has to catch that stillness before the editing room decides to soften it.

NinaSteady isn't enough to make her dangerous; it just makes her boring until the script gives her a reason to snap. Showalter has to find the moment where that calm cracks into something ugly, otherwise we're just watching a statue hold its breath.

JayA statue holds its breath because nobody gave it lungs; the crack doesn’t come from the script, it comes from the audience realizing the danger was quiet the whole time. That’s the actual erotic charge in Verity, and Showalter better not smooth over the jagged edges to make us comfortable.

NinaQuiet danger works on paper, but audiences still want a visible payoff before they stop checking their phones. Showalter can’t rely on subtle dread alone when It Ends With Us trained half of them to expect blood before the credits roll. He either commits fully to the slow burn or he’ll lose the very viewers he spent years cultivating.

JayYou’re betting against the audience’s own conditioning, which is exactly why Showalter will likely compromise. Until he proves he can sustain that tension without a single drop of blood, the slow burn remains just a theory waiting to be tested against thirty-five million copies of prior expectations.