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We finally have our Gus Everett. The Beach Read movie will be here before we know it, and after 20th Century confirmed that we'd see Bridgerton's Phoebe Dynevor as our leading lady January Andrews, everyone was wondering who would play opposite her. Well on April 14, we finally got confirmation that White Lotus star Patrick Schwarzenegger would play the romantic leading man. Fans of the book had...a lot of thoughts, and author Emily Henry just opened up about what she thinks.
Here's everything we know about Patrick Schwarzenegger's role as Gus Everett in Beach Read.
Patrick Schwarzenegger will star opposite Phoebe Dynevor in 'Beach Read.'
Director Yulin Kuang announced Patrick Schwarzenegger's role as Gus with an Instagram post on April 14. "'Patrick is a slow burn,' is what I wrote in my notes after meeting him for the first time. There was something about the way he talked about his feelings on love and romance that I couldn’t forget," she says in the post. "But I was unconvinced we’d found our Gus, because I knew we had to be exhaustive in our efforts, given how important this character is to readers."
She continues that they went through a sixth-month casting period for the role, and "once we knew Phoebe would be our January, my efforts became more focused and specific - not on who would play the best Gus according to the text, but who would play the best Gus opposite our specific January. That meant in-person director sessions and chemistry reads with Phoebe."
"The moment Patrick sat across from her, there was something electric in the room with us. 'There’s magic to chase here,' I wrote in my notes afterwards. I checked in with Phoebe after the reads and she said, 'It’s obviously Patrick, isn’t it?' and I thought to myself, ‘So she feels it too.’"
I've always imagined someone like Dev Patel or Lewis Pullman, but if both Phoebe and Yulin believed it should be Patrick, I'm definitely intrigued. Some fans have already decided they don't like the casting (a lot of the comments on our video reporting the casting were just different iterations of "not good"), but Emily Henry finally opened up about it all.
“I also have to sit back and let it unfold,” Henry says. ”It is our baby — the readers' and my baby — but it's also the filmmakers' baby and the studio's baby, and I'm along for the ride with the readers and we just have to trust the vision.”
She continues that writer-director Yulin Kuang “is so brilliant and I know she's gonna do an amazing job." The author also revealed that they start filming soon, and that more casting news is on the way. “I also just keep getting emails about everyone else that they're locking in, which is not public news yet, so I can't share, but I'm getting really excited."
And you can see Gus Everett and January Andrews onscreen soon!
Amazon
Beach Read is reportedly coming to theaters May 7, 2027.
What is Beach Read about?
Liam Daniel/Netflix
Beach Read is about a romance novelist named January Andrews (played by Phoebe Dynevor), who is preparing to sell her late father's Michigan beach house. But as she unearths secrets about her family, she also confronts her writer's block head-on.
Drawn to her next door neighbor Gus, who also happens to be her college rival and a "very serious" writer, January and Gus decide to strike up a deal: they'll switch genres and see what stories they can come up with.
What do you think about Patrick Schwarzenegger as Gus? Stay tuned for more movie updates!
This post has been updated.
