Author of 'The Idea of You,' Robinne Lee, Didn't Fully Love the Film's Ending

Actress Robinne Lee spent two decades doing what every actress does…auditioning and existing at the mercy of producers and directors. Lee got a lot of roles, meaning she was mostly a working actress instead of the more common category of unemployed actress, and her acting career encompasses everything from Deliver Us from Eva (2003) to a standout recurring character in the series Being Mary Jane (2014), and arguably one of the only sane characters in the 50 Shades of Grey movie sequels.  But, like many actresses aging towards 40, Lee decided to take her creative life into her own hands, so she wrote her debut novel, The Idea Of You, which was released in 2017 by St. Martin's Press. Lee’s heroine is 40-year-old Solène Marchand, a recently divorced mother of a teenage daughter and an esteemed art gallery owner in Los Angeles. She accidentally meets a very hot 20-year-old boy band singer at a music festival where they have chemistry. Soon after, they begin a torrid but deeply intimate affair that makes everyone clutch their pearls.  A mass-market paperback release, The Idea Of You never made it on the New York Times bestseller list. But because so many readers mentally fan cast Harry Styles into the part of singer Hayes Campbell, the novel became a grower, achieving consistent waves of renewed passion during the pandemic, as a BookTok sensation and as an ongoing Styles fandom group fantasy read.  Now The Idea Of You is a movie (now streaming on Prime) starring Anne Hathaway as Solène and singer Nicholas Galitzine as a slightly aged-up 24-year-old Campbell. It’s being marketed as a straight-up rom-com with legendary comedian-turned-director Michael Showalter (The Big Sick) at the helm. (Showalter also wrote the screenplay alongside Jennifer Westfeldt.) But the meat at the heart of Lee’s book is about a woman finding bittersweet agency in mid-life, while the rest of the observing world gets big mad at the old lady stealing their sex fantasy out from under them.  To find out what Lee thinks of this next stage for her book’s existence, I got on a Zoom with her from her Paris abode where she’s relocated with her husband and kids, to get her perspective on how The Idea Of You has evolved beyond her laptop. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.  JEZEBEL: It’s been seven years since The Idea Of You hit shelves and it already feels like it’s had many lives. What has surprised you the most in the last few years?   ROBINNE LEE: Oh, goodness, I don't even know what I was expecting. I was just writing as fast as I could, I had a lot to say. I wanted to say it eloquently and wanted it to be out there in a timely manner. I thought some women would like this and appreciate it, some may not. I also thought some would appreciate it superficially, who don't see and get and really appreciate the deeper meaning of the social commentary. And there are others who will. If the light-hearted [aspects] and the fluff part speak to you, wonderful. But I'm really writing for women like me, who are looking for deeper reads who can appreciate some escapism and some fantasy but also want to delve into something a little bit more profound. Also, something that explores all the things they're going through and thinking about as we get older.  There's a lot that comes after the happily ever after, like sometimes it's not happily ever after. You continue to grow and evolve as a human being. Life just gets more…