How Young Werther Star Douglas Booth Turned 18th Century Emo Kid Into A Romantic Antihero Straight Out Of 2024

A literary classic gets a 21st-century coat of paint with Young Werther, based on the 1774 novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther. The film loosely follows the plot of the book, but has been updated to reflect 2024 sensibilities. Douglas Booth (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) stars as the title character, an aristocratic young fop who falls in love with a young woman (Alison Pill, The Newsroom). The only problem is that she's already engaged to be married to a pretty great guy (Patrick J. Adams, Suits). Thus, Werther embarks on a quest to win his beloved's heart, whether she's interested or not.

While an inherently unlikable figure on a less-than-righteous mission, Young Werther is nonetheless an endearing story thanks to the script by writer-director José Lourenço and a winning performance by Booth, who imbues the character with an old-timey charm, quick wit, and good-natured harmlessness, even when trying to steal a woman from her fiancé.

Related Young Werther Review: Modern Rom-Coms Should Be More Like This Charming 18th-Century Book Adaptation This charming new rom-com brings a centuries-old novel to life with fun updates and interesting aesthetic choices that set it apart from modern films.

ScreenRant interviewed Douglas Booth about his work on Young Werther. He spoke about his process of finding the character in rehearsal, the anxiety that comes with the first day of shooting, and how he imaged a meeting would play out between Werther and another character played by Booth: Nikki Sixx of Mötley Crüe in The Dirt.

Douglas Booth On Playing The Delightfully Foppish Young Werther

"He makes mistakes and he acts like an idiot. But he is so damn charming and he wears his heart on his sleeve."

Close

Screen Rant: I'm a huge fan of the movie. You are so fantastic in it. It's got to be a lot of fun, but also really tough to have your character's name in the movie, number one in the call sheet, you're in almost every single scene. I know this isn't a huge, blockbuster-type movie, so how much rehearsal did you have? Did you get to soak it in before you started shooting?

Douglas Booth: Firstly, thank you so much. I'm really glad you enjoyed the movie. I think we actually had, for a film, a decent amount of time. I was in Toronto two weeks before, and me and Alison got to hang out together and develop that chemistry, which I think was important because I think our chemistry was great in the movie. I think we really got on and we enjoyed playing those two characters. Yeah, it was a huge amount of fun. On the preparation side, José's writing was quite wordy. I had a lot of words. So I was always trying to balance. We were trying to get this tone where it was very elevated, but grounded in human emotion, and at the same time, letting it exist in this slightly elevated world. And so I wanted to be able to just say all of these complicated sentences that Werther loved to string together so quickly and let them fall out as easily as possible. So it took a bit of prep.

The movie is almost like a game of Jenga. Like, if there was one piece that didn't fit perfectly, then Werther would be a terribly unlikable guy! I used the word the other day, he's like a "fop." But then I learned that's a pejorative, that's not a nice word, necessarily, but what else am I going to call him?

Douglas Booth: But he is a fop! You're right. He is a fop. And that was always the challenge, right? You read a character on paper and you should really dislike him. But the great challenge for me was to make him lovable. He makes mistakes and he acts like an idiot. But he is so damn charming and he wears his heart on his sleeve. And I think he's ultimately well intentioned, if a little naive and self-centered at times. But he really cares. He cares for Charlotte. He really believes he is in love with her. And I guess it's partly a coming of age story in that sense. I think he learns a little bit more about himself than he knew when he first arrived in Toronto on that mission to find the horse, as the movie begins.

Had you read the book? Had you studied it in school or anything?

Douglas Booth: I actually hadn't. I'd heard about it, but I hadn't read it. José, our writer, was a huge source of knowledge on that. But I think the movie stands on its own. The script stood up as its own story, the adaptation. But I enjoyed the fact that it was so popular, that it was the Twilight of its day. And Napoleon supposedly carried a copy of it into battle, over his heart, for Josephine. And then there were lots of people, heartbroken teenagers around the whole of Europe, tragically copying Werther's end from the book because they also felt heartbroken. So it caused some hysteria all over Europe when it was released.

I don't know if it really qualifies as a spoiler, but thankfully, there's a somewhat different ending in the movie.

Douglas Booth: Yes, it was a different ending, but also, classic José, he puts a quirky twist on it. But yeah, I think if we'd stuck to the same original ending as the book, it would have put a slight downer on the romantic comedy element of the film.

The character has this great moment, when he's like, "I will get a job." Like, as if that's a scheme.

Douglas Booth: I love that moment. Yeah, yes, that moment of realization that you think that anyone else would have thought of before. He thinks he's come up with the greatest idea on Earth. Can you believe it? (Laughs)

Douglas Booth On The Impeccable Style And Charm Of Young Werther

"I just had to allow myself to be silly."

You don't need me to tell you. You're a cutie. You're a good-looking young man. But tell me about elevating that with Werther. The hair is so perfect. The clothes are incredible. Like I want, I want to lose 40 pounds and then raid his closet.

Douglas Booth: I think clothes were a huge part of his personality, the way he dressed. And that was all down to our costume department. They were fantastic. It made me smile every morning when I came into the trailer, and there would be like a new outfit laid out. And Werther, he'd get excited and I'd put him on and, you know, my colorful socks and gazelles and the suit jackets and all the different combos. It was completely part of his character. He was eccentric. He was an eccentric guy, and he loved to dress. But I imagine also on the other side of it, the clothes and the way he dressed were something of a slight armor for deeper insecurities beneath the surface.

Yeah, he is a sympathetic character in that way, because most of his flaws come from ignorance, from his upbringing. There's not a malicious bone in his body, even when he's trying to steal...

Douglas Booth: Someone's fiance!

Exactly. You mentioned the writing, but that tap dancing nature of keeping him on the sunny side of himself and his friends in the movie and the audience, a big part of that comes down to your performance.

Douglas Booth: Well, yes, it was a balancing act, I guess. You have to trust the script to a degree, but as an actor, you also have to chart out where he's going at the same time and where he's going to end up. But I feel, I think he's trying to do the right thing, even if he's messing up, he's always trying, he eventually ends up trying to do the best thing. But I think you just have to, as an actor, not judge your character. I had to just imbue him with a sense of charm and a childish sense of play that allowed him to be viewed sort of favorably by the audience. But it was always a question. I would always ask the director at the end of the day, "Am I going to hate him in this film?" You know, but hopefully, I think it landed on the right side. It came from a childish place, which is why it was so fun to film. I just had to allow myself to be silly, ultimately.

Was there a learning curve to that? Were there moments where you had to really work hard to find the guy?

Douglas Booth: Yeah, 100%. You know, when I got there and I had those two weeks before shooting, I remember sitting in my apartment in Toronto thinking, how on earth am I going to play this character? I think with every character, you're always there, before you start.

Wow, that gave me anxiety just now!

Douglas Booth: Yeah, especially... Oftentimes you go through a lengthy audition process and you've auditioned for something many times, you've worked out the character, you get there and there's this sense that everyone knows what I'm going to do on the first day. But on something like this, you arrive and the first moments the camera's turning over, all the producers and all the other actors and the director, everyone's looking at the monitor going, "Well, how's he going to play this?" So it is nerve wracking, but that's part of the excitement. It's part of the pressure that makes you get creative, I guess. And every job is just slightly like being pushed to the edge of a cliff. In those weeks leading up to it, it feels like you're being pushed and there's nothing you can do, it's going to start, and there's going to come a moment when the movie's wrapped. And between now and then, you have to make a bunch of decisions and do the best you can, but that's the fun of it. That's the fun of the job.

Werther lives something of a rock star lifestyle, and you, of course, famously acted in The Dirt. I'm a huge Motley Crüe fan. How would a meeting between Nikki Sixx and Werther play out? Would Nikki just hit him over the head with his bass?

Douglas Booth: That's a very good question! You know, I think that if Nikki met Werther and saw him acting around the intellectuals like Charlotte, and trying to ingratiate himself into their world, I don't think he would give Werther the time of day. But I think Werther is the kind of person who has a great sense of fun and mischief, and would know exactly, or at least think he knows, exactly how to ingratiate himself into Nikki's world. I'm sure he could keep up. You know what he would do? He'd probably try and drink Nikki under the table, and you never know, he might be able to do it. And obviously Nikki doesn't drink anymore, but Nikki back in those days, I think Werther would just throw himself in, headfirst, and by the end of the night, he would be, you know, wearing eyeliner. I think he would just throw himself right in. And I think he could adapt quite quickly to that world. But it would be quite a funny thing to see these two characters meet, for sure.

More About Young Werther (2024)

Young Werther Hits Theaters And Streaming On December 13

Patrick J. Adams, Douglas Booth and Alison Pill star in this romantic comedy based on the classic smash hit novel of tragic romance. While on a simple errand to Toronto, a carefree and charming young writer named Werther stumbles across the love of his life only to discover that the young woman is engaged. Despite the urgings of his hypochondriac best friend, Werther turns his world upside down in a desperate, misguided and hilarious quest to win her heart.

Check back soon for our other Young Werther interview with:

Alison Pill

Young Werther is now playing in select theaters and available on Digital & On Demand.