Is ‘The Idea Of You’ Based On Harry Styles?

The trailer for The Idea Of You was unveiled today (March 6), and one thing that viewers might notice is the male lead, who’s a young pop star and a member of a beloved boy band. Sound familiar

The movie is based on Robinne Lee’s novel of the same name, and the character (named Hayes) has drawn a ton of Styles comparisons previously. Lee has addressed them herself: In a GoodReads Q&A, Lee explained, “Hayes is very different from Harry Styles. I think people who are aware of Harry and/or want to picture Harry will. And that’s completely fair, as the most successful British boy band of the last ten years is One Direction. And if you’re going to create a twenty-something popstar, you may want to start with a good head of hair and dimples, because why not But so much of who I wanted Hayes to be — his persona, his lineage, his upbringing, his education, his experiences, his cadence, his speech, his sense of self — is very specific, and not at all like Harry.”

She also said in a 2020 Vogue interview, “This was never supposed to be a book about Harry Styles. It was supposed to be a story about a woman approaching 40 and reclaiming her sexuality and rediscovering herself, just at the point that society traditionally writes women off as desirable and viable and whole.”

Not to mention, in a 2017 interview, Lee said, “A few years ago, my husband was away on business and I was up late surfing music videos on YouTube when I came across the face of a boy I’d never seen in a band I’d never paid attention to, and it was so aesthetically perfect it took me by surprise. It was like… art. I spent a good hour or so Googling and trying to figure out who this kid was and in doing so I discovered that he often dated older women, and so the seed was planted.”