He was a boy. She was a house sitter from New York who broke into his cousin’s Tuscan villa and pretended to be engaged to him after being unable to take off the engagement ring she found in his dresser drawer. Can I make it any more obvious?
You, Me, & Tuscany (2026) tells the story of Anna (Halle Bailey), a once-aspiring chef and current house sitter in New York who, yes, meets an Italian man, flies to Tuscany the next night, shows up to his house, and is forced to concoct an elaborate lie when his mother and grandmother find her in said house wearing an engagement ring. While keeping up the lie and desperately trying to escape his family, Anna falls for Michael (Regé-Jean Page), her alleged fiancée’s cousin.
Ahead of the film’s release, the Voice had the opportunity to chat with Bailey, Page, and other student journalists to discuss the film and why this story matters now more than ever.
Both actors were inspired to emulate rom-coms they grew up watching. Bailey spoke about wanting to embody the magic of “innocent and whimsical” films like 13 Going on 30 (2004) to the screen, and Page echoed this, saying that he wanted to make a carefree movie in a time where current events can feel suffocating.
“I think we spoke a lot about very consciously making this an uncynical rom-com,” he explained. “This is a rom-com that is absolutely committed to joy, committed to aspiration, and doesn’t need to undercut that.”
“I think we haven’t seen that on the big screen for a while, that I think we haven’t had the opportunity to share that communally in theaters for quite a long time, and we certainly haven’t seen that movie with Halle in the lead,” Page added.
Much attention has also been paid to Bailey and Page’s positionality as two Black leads of a rom-com with a theatrical release. The rom-com genre struggles particularly with diversity, with a 2022 study finding that around 90% of leads in romantic comedies are white. While there are iconic Black rom-coms like Love & Basketball (2000), Brown Sugar (2002), and The Best Man (1999) that mainly came during a renaissance of sorts in the ‘90s and early 2000s, they rarely receive the same resources and attention from production companies and advertisers.
The leads acknowledged that their identities add depth to the story and the release—but both agree that their presence onscreen shouldn’t be exceptional.
“It’s so important. It shouldn’t be out of the ordinary, two Black leads in a rom com,” Bailey said. “I want everybody to bring everybody—their girlfriend, their boyfriends, their family, because that’s what it’s about. It’s about family and love and showing that we deserve to be in these spaces. And it’s so important. So I’m grateful, and I’m just happy to be here.”
“If it’s normal in real life, it should be normal on screen. If you expect to fall in love someday, you should expect to see us fall in love on screen,” Page added.
Both Page and Bailey starred in major film adaptations—Bridgerton (2020-present), adapted from the book series of the same name, and The Little Mermaid (2023), a live action remake of the 1989 animated film, respectively. Now in an original film, they spoke about the privilege in getting to create their own characters.
Bailey, who has been acting and singing in the public eye since her teens, appreciated the chance to play a character who matched her age and experiences.
“With all the other roles that I’ve played before, this is the first one where I feel I’m getting to play like a grown woman. I’m 26 now, I have a baby, I feel like I’m really entering the meat of my womanhood, and Anna is the same,” she said. “She’s figuring it out, but she’s grown, she’s making her own life decisions and getting her life in order. And I was excited to do that as Halle, because I felt like I was learning with her, and we were in it together.”
The movie was filmed on location in Tuscany, which both said allowed them to ground the story in the place they lived in. The cast and crew took cooking classes with local families and tried to integrate themselves into the community as much as possible.
“I love the fact that the setting and where we were really influenced the story. It helped us work together,” Bailey said. “The theme of Italy is love and family and taking care of you, and food does all of that, as well as the people.”
The easy, playful relationship between Bailey and Page was evident even in the interview room. While they both said they were intentional about creating that chemistry, Page also said it came naturally when embarking on such a big project.
“I think that chemistry is just a byproduct of trust. I think when you trust your co-star, particularly in romances or romantic comedies, essentially, you’re taking this emotional trust fall every day. You just have to know the other person will catch you. And I think we both learned that about each other very early,” Page said.
You, Me, & Tuscany is releasing in theaters nationwide, a rare feat when many films, especially rom-coms, go straight to streaming. Both stars said they hope the film will be a communal experience and an opportunity for people to turn off their devices and connect.
To Page, telling a story about characters taking chances and intentionally finding joy is vital in our current environment.
“The parts of Italy we were shooting in are that beautiful. We woke up in that country every day, and we enjoyed that very same real beauty. It’s not a made up version of Italy, it’s the version that we lived,” Page said. “I’m personally very invested in aspirational movies, or in escapist movies. And this is both—that you reflect the world both as it is, and as it could be.”
