What One Direction Fans, Experts Think of The Idea of You : Fun or Exploitation?

Ilana Kaplan
·7 min read
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Courtesy of Prime Video

When Amazon unveiled the trailer for The Idea of You in March — which became the most viewed trailer for a streaming movie ever — One Direction fans were immediately sent into a frenzy. Was dark-haired, tattoo-covered, swoon-worthy romantic interest Hayes in fact inspired by Harry Styles? Was the dashing five-piece boy band headlining Coachella supposed to be One Direction? And if so, how true-to-life would the performances be?

The Idea of You, released on Prime Video on May 2, puts an age-gap spin on the rom-com as Silver Lake art gallerist and mom Solène (Anne Hathaway) falls for the Styles-like Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitzine), the lead singer of August Moon. Beyond their age difference (she’s 40 and he’s 24) the pair face the stress and spotlight that comes with pop stardom and the impact their relationship has on her 16-year-old daughter, Izzy (Ella Rubin).

To be fair, the One Direction and Harry Styles comparisons didn’t exactly come out of nowhere. In a 2020 interview with Vogue, Robinne Lee, the author of the 2017 eponymous novel, initially described Hayes as “Prince Harry, meets Harry [Styles].” However, she recently told EW that “Harry was one of multiple people who went into creating Hayes Campbell,” but it was something that fans latched onto. She also shot down the idea that her book was “Harry Styles fan fiction.”

Despite Lee denying the notion that The Idea of You story is fan fiction, some fans couldn’t help but envision it as such. Megan Mann, a longtime fan of One Direction based in Chicago, thought The Idea of You “was like fanfic come to life.” Regardless, she found the romance steeped in reality. “It had such deeper relationship themes, and I enjoyed that,” she tells Teen Vogue.

Yet, the romance at the center of The Idea of You seemingly parallels Harry Styles’ own love life. Over the years, he’s notably dated a handful of older women, including Don't Worry Darling co-star and director Olivia Wilde as well as the late actress and Love Island host Caroline Flack.

Then, there was Hayes’ life and aesthetic. Like Styles, Hayes has dark hair and several arm tattoos. He’s seemingly the most widely popular member of August Moon and on the verge of launching his own solo career — also mirroring Styles’ career trajectory.

Dr. Louie Dean Valencia, a professor who teaches “Harry Styles and the Cult of Celebrity: Identity, the Internet, and European Pop Culture” at Texas State University, believes that these narrative and aesthetic touches are why the movie “works.” “The movie doesn’t answer the questions that fans have about his love life — dating older women or living in the spotlight — however, it does show at least a fictionalized version of what that might look like,” he says. “Things like the J.W. Anderson-inspired jumper, the tattoos, the learning to play piano and guitar, give subtle nods to 1D and Harry in particular.”

Dr. Millie Lovelock, who received her M.A. in English Literature with a field of research in One Direction fan production at Otago University in New Zealand, inferred One Direction was the inspiration behind August Moon “based purely on Hayes’ tattoos.” “Galitzine does a pretty passable Harry Styles impression,” she says.

Bella Vega, an editor and longtime One Direction fan, picked up on a range of gestures and style choices on Hayes that are a nod to Styles. “I mean, like the cardigan with the white wife beater and black pants that he wears to go to the gallery, like that's classic Harry Styles,” he said.

<h1 class="title">The Idea of You</h1><cite class="credit">Alisha Wetherill/Prime Video</cite>

The Idea of You

Alisha Wetherill/Prime Video

But there’s also the matter of August Moon’s music in The Idea of You. Songwriter/producer Savan Kotecha who worked as One Direction’s vocal coach on The X Factor and penned their early hits including “What Makes You Beautiful,” was spearheading the soundtrack alongside Carl Falk, who also worked on a slew of One Direction’s early singles. Kotecha, however, told Business Insider, “Not once did we bring up or think One Direction. So in our minds, this was just 'boy band.' This was just 'great pop songs,' or what we thought were great pop songs."

To Kotecha’s point, Valencia believes the band is a composite. “I think there were certainly some 1D and Harry-coded elements, but there were also things that could have easily been drawn from the experiences of earlier boybands such as *NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, and New Kids on the Block,” he says. “Part of what makes the movie work is the fact that it draws from pop culture more broadly.” Vega actually noted allusions to August Moon in another fake band. “August Moon reminded me more of the fictional band from Turning Red [4*TOWN],” he said.

Still, it was uncanny for some fans to see the way August Moon’s band members presented themselves and not think of One Direction. Not only did August Moon’s backstory of meeting through an audition parallel the British boybanders, but the band member's’ individual stories seemed to pay homage to each of the Directioners. “‘This one has a great smile. This one's Aussie.’ It sounds like every early 1D interview or when Harry describes Zayn as ‘the mysterious one’ in their documentary,” explains Mann.

Rachel Turley, a longtime fan of One Direction, had no doubts about August Moon being very 1D-inspired: “The second I first saw Nicholas Galitzine make an appearance in that white T-shirt and clearly tattoos from a Harry Styles moodboard I was like ‘Oh yeah, I reblogged that in 2013. I know the ‘Where We Are’ tour when I see it.’

While many 1D fans and experts were excited to see The Idea of You, not everyone was thrilled about the concept. The 1D Historian, who remains anonymous to protect their privacy, refuses to see the film because of the way they believe the film is “exploitative” to Styles. “There is this public fetish with him, his name and who he is as a person and [people] read into that and try to capitalize off of it, which is what I have a problem with,” they say. The 1D historian also takes issue with the marketing of The Idea of You. “It's very clearly being marketed in a way that demonstrates that there are parallels to Harry and One Direction and they are using the subculture of people that I belong to in the fandom as a way to make money off of [it] themselves while also keeping distance in a way that legally keeps them in the right.”

While Lovelock can see why some people might perceive the film as exploitative, she doesn’t think it does so with the details of Styles’ life. “These kinds of fan narratives come from a profound desire for intimacy and particularly for intimacy that is safe, straightforward and that allows the writer/reader/viewer to transcend what is difficult about negotiating life. It's through writing these narratives that fans are able to produce an approximation of this intimacy,” she says, adding: “I don't think it's malicious, although I can understand why it might seem strange or invasive.”

Mann believes that 1D fans shouldn’t be upset by the film considering “it’s a work of fiction:” If you can watch [After] and be fine, then you can watch this. If you can read or write 1D/HS fanfic, then you can watch this. It's really not that serious.”

Ultimately it will be up to Directioners to decide if The Idea of You is for them. But maybe, they’ll just become Moonheads anyway.

Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue

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