AUSTIN, Texas – As progressive as society’s attitudes to relationships seem these days, a large age gap still raises eyebrows – especially when the woman is older.

Debuting on Prime Video on May 2, the romantic comedy The Idea Of You explores this with a story about Solene (Anne Hathaway), a 40-year-old single mother who falls for 24-year-old Hayes (Nicholas Galitzine), the lead singer in a famous boy band.

On top of the age difference, Solene – a divorcee with a teenage daughter – also has to contend with Hayes’ celebrity, a combination that is more than she bargained for.

At the movie’s premiere at the South by Southwest film festival in Austin, Texas, earlier in 2024, Hathaway, 41, explains why she was drawn to this unusual role, which sees her share many romantic scenes with Galitzine, a 29-year-old English actor.

“I wanted to make this because it’s a great part and a fun premise,” says the American star, who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her turn in the musical movie Les Miserables (2012). She also appeared in comedy-drama The Devil Wears Prada (2006) and science-fiction blockbuster Interstellar (2014).

“For some reason, we talk about coming-of-age stories as something that happens in the earlier part of your life – and I don’t know about you, but I feel like I keep blooming.

“I want us to look at each other and see each other in a constant bloom, and I thought this movie had the ability to do that,” adds Hathaway, who is married to American businessman Adam Shulman, 43. They have sons aged eight and four.

Commenting on an observation a character in the movie makes – that “people hate happy women” – American film producer Cathy Schulman, 59, says: “It gets to the root of why we did this (film) in the first place.

“We really wanted to make a movie about the possibilities for women to feel love at every age and stage, and to have the courage to go back and do it again.”

Schulman – who won a Best Picture Oscar as a producer on the crime drama Crash (2004) – says that society seems to think “that once you’re a mum, you’re sort of done”.

“And guess what? We’re not done,” she says. “I think what the character was saying is that it’s too much for people to accept that a woman could be more than a mum, or to have a continued connection to her own passion, sensuality and sexuality.

“And we wanted to make a movie about a woman who had the courage to try again.”

American actress Gabrielle Union was a co-producer on the film alongside Schulman and Hathaway.

But the 51-year-old performer – who starred in the Think Like A Man romantic comedy franchise (2012 to 2014) and the drama series Being Mary Jane (2013 to 2019) – also had a special connection to the story.

She is friends with 49-year-old American actress Robinne Lee, who wrote the 2017 novel of the same name that the movie is adapted from.

They played sisters in the 2003 romcom Deliver Us From Eva and bonded over their love of American boy bands.

“She was a fan of New Kids On The Block and I was into New Edition.

“And, when she wrote the book, she allowed us to read it ahead of time and, on vacation, we passed it around – my husband and all the guys read it, and me and all the girls read it.

“Everyone had a wildly different reaction to the book, and I said, ‘Oh, this is a movie. Robinne, please let me option this (for a film).’”

Union is also married to a younger and famous man: American former professional basketball player Dwyane Wade, 42.

“I live it every day. And people question our family, they question our love and they wonder what you deserve,” says the actress, who has a five-year-old daughter with Wade.

“But it really came down to wanting to be a friend to Robinne and watching her characters come to life. And I’m more than pleased.”

• The Idea Of You premieres on Prime Video on May 2.