Tom Blyth and Emily Bader talk friends-to-lovers and whether they’d ever reprise their roles.

People We Meet on Vacation stars break down Poppy’s big romantic gesture: ‘It’s so simple’

Tom Blyth and Emily Bader talk friends-to-lovers and whether they'd ever reprise their roles.

By Ashley Boucher

Ashley Boucher is a senior TV editor at **. She has been working at EW for four years.

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January 10, 2026 9:00 a.m. ET

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Emily Bader, Tom Blyth. Credit:

Daniel Escale/Netflix

Sometimes you need a vacation to realize just how much you love home.

In Netflix's new romcom *People We Meet on Vacation*, starring Emily Bader and Tom Blyth, that message comes to life in what Blyth calls the "most romantic gesture" of the movie.

The movie, based on the popular Emily Henry novel of the same name, follows unlikely college besties Poppy and Alex, who keep their friendship up through annual summer vacations together. But an ill-fated trip to Tuscany leaves a rift between them that lasts for two years, until they reunite for Alex's brother's wedding in Barcelona.

There, Alex and Poppy finally confess their love for each other, but when Poppy, a travel magazine writer who hates their Ohio hometown, can't commit to settling down, it seems like no amount of love can make their different lifestyles work.

Tom Blyth, Emily Bader.

Daniel Escale/Netflix

This brings us to that big romantic gesture: After realizing she can't live without him, Poppy quits her job in New York and travels to Linfield, Ohio, to tell Alex that *he* is her home. She attempts to knock on his front door, but he's out for a run. Poppy spots him as he runs past, but his noise-cancelling headphones keep him from noticing her. A chase through town ensues before Poppy — who has repeatedly stated how much she hates running — catches up to him and they share a steamy kiss.

"What I love about it is it's not a huge thing, like she's just running through the streets, but it's so simple," Blyth tells **. "You just heard this girl throughout the whole film say how much she hates running, and she's with this guy who's an avid runner, and the fact that she has to — you know, she could totally just wait on his porch for him to get back. Like she totally could. But the urgency with which she feels she has to tell him that she actually does love him and wants to be with him makes her run through town after him and basically become a runner for him."

The *Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes* actor adds that the moment is "the ultimate metaphor for these little compromises in life that we have to make to be with someone."

Daniel Escale/Netflix

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It's also a way to turn the friends-to-lovers trope on its head. "I love that it's the girl running after the guy, because so often it's the other way around," Blyth continues. "I think there's a lot of things like that in this movie. Like often in popular culture, it's the guy who doesn't want to settle down and who is kind of unanchored and untetherable, and the woman who wants to settle down and have kids, and that's kind of the trope. But I love that this film, hence the nuance of life, which is that, actually, it goes both ways."

Bader notes that seeing Poppy and Alex as true friends before they fall in love is "essential" to the romantic payoff. "Friends to lovers is a trickier romance trope than maybe enemies to lovers because it's a much finer line to cross," she says.

Emily Bader, Tom Blyth.

Daniel Escale/Netflix

While Alex and Poppy start platonically (Blyth notes they even "find each other kind of irritating" at first), they still do plenty of romantic things for each other well before they confess their love. Bader points to the moment when Alex skips going to Norway to take care of Poppy, who can't make the trip because she's too sick, as an example.

While they are "repressing these very obvious to the rest of the world, real feelings," Bader finds Poppy and Alex's inability to recognize their romantic love for each other right away "realistic."

"It's scary to feel like you can lose something," she says. "I think it's very difficult, that leap you have to take with the most important person in your life, if you are best friends and you want to take it to that other place." lol

Daniel Escale/Netflix

As in the book, Poppy and Alex manage to make that leap and compromise on a more rooted life in New York City. While they get their happily-ever-after, readers of Henry's books have spotted Easter eggs that hint at other characters soon to be seen on screen interacting with Poppy and Alex, potentially leaving room to see what they get up to in the future.

When asked if he would be interested in reprising the role of Alex for another Henry-verse project, Blyth says "yes" — with one caveat. "As long as I got to do some karaoke," he says. Bader agrees. "I am open to anything," she says. "It's all up to the brilliant mind of Emily Henry, but I love her and working with her, and this was a dream."

*People We Meet on Vacation* is streaming now on Netflix.

- Romantic Comedy

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Source: “EW Romantic”