You, Me & Tuscany, Halle Bailey Interview

"My first thought when I read the script was 'Wow, what a beautiful journey of this young girl who is experiencing life and trauma and heartbreak and disappointment and not being so sure of herself and her future, but also she has such dreams and passions and excitement for what she loves to do, which is be a chef and cook, and her journey of missing her mother'. I just was really struck by how beautiful of a story it was and how she ended up finding her way. 

Anna's relationship with Michael starts off very funny because he has a stank attitude when they first meet and she's like 'Hold up'. In Italy, you don't see like a lot of black people, so when you see another black person you're like 'Oh, wow, cool'. And so I think she expected them to be like, to get along right away at the gastronomia, but when they didn't she was like 'What is his problem?' and 'Oh my goodness, no, he needs to go somewhere'. It's a very interesting dynamic with the love triangle because Anna has caught herself in this great big lie, saying that she's marrying Matteo, and then Matteo starts to go along with it. 

So to the world and to their family, they're supposed to look like a united front. But then here comes Michael, like somebody she actually is really falling for and she's like 'Uh oh, what do I do?'. Because I know if I fall for him in front of people, I'm gonna look like a terrible person, like I'm gonna look like I'm doing Matteo wrong, even though people don't know that this is not real. So it was really funny having to navigate that. So working with Regé has been so much fun. I actually was very excited to work with him because I had been a really big fan of him, like everybody else, watching him on Bridgerton. 

And so getting a chance to meet him and work with him, he's a very, very talented individual. He's very like about his stuff, he's on it, very precise, and I think that was something that was really cool to learn about him meeting him is learning his personality and his way of being. So I think he's awesome and really talented and it was very fun to work with him. Filming in Italy has been amazing. I feel like Italy is just really kind of like a safe haven for me in a way. We were in Rome for the majority of filming, but then be here in Tuscany. I've never been to Tuscany before and I am honestly blown away by the beauty of the vineyards, of the fields, of just the land. It's just incredible and the people are so kind and it's just a very peaceful little town. So I'm having a great time, but I think it really adds and enhances a lot to the film. 

Anna does go on this really interesting journey of finding herself through going to Italy and finally going for what she wants and her passion. And even though it seems very impulsive at the beginning, you understand why she needed to be there for her spirit, for her soul, for her passion. You know, being young women I think we all can relate to kind of feeling lost sometimes and not knowing where exactly we're supposed to go or if we're making the right turn here. And I think the big message that I feel like I learned through Anna was as long as you feed what makes your soul happy, like your passions, and you persevere no matter how hard it may get, she let her dream overtake everything else that may have been self-doubt or whatever else. She followed after her heart."