Emily Henry’s Beach Read is officially headed for the big screen, and the first major casting drop has fans… feeling a lot of feelings.
Patrick Schwarzenegger announced today that he’ll be playing Gus Everett in the film adaptation of Emily Henry’s 2020 bestselling romance Beach Read, sharing the news in an Instagram post tagging his co-star Phoebe Dynevor, who’ll play January Andrews.
“I’m so excited for this!!!” he wrote, thanking Henry “for the opportunity” and promising, “I will do everything possible to make the fans happy and proud and bring your brilliant writing to life”.
He also shouted out Dynevor, telling her, “I can’t wait to bring these characters to life with you. It was a pleasure working opposite you through these chemistry reads”.
Within hours, his comments section turned into a live focus group no studio asked for. One person wrote, “Break a leg!! (Literally) (drop the role) (quit) (decline),” while another begged, “I don’t even mean this in a rude way but pls don’t do this.” A third simply said, “Ruined my favourite book”.
Fans are split between cngratulations and full meltdown
Not everyone came armed with pitchforks. Some readers were delighted, with one fan screaming, “CONGRATS KING, YOURE GOING TO CRUSH IT!!!!” and another celebrating, “Big win for the girls (i’m the girls)”. Schwarzenegger’s famous mates also rolled through to back him, with Taylor Lautner commenting “I LIKE THIS”.
Over on Reddit, the vibe is slightly more measured than the Instagram frontlines. One user noted that Schwarzenegger was described in the Deadline report as a “dark horse candidate and an unexpected choice”, but pointed out his tape and chemistry read “blew away filmmakers and the studio”, adding they’re choosing to “have faith and trust EmHen to have had some sort of say in this casting”.
Another community reminder post gently asked fans to keep their critiques away from the actual actors and creative team, saying that flooding their comments “does nothing but spread negativity”. Someone else put it more bluntly, calling the harassment “embarrassing and despicable” and warning that “the casting hasn’t ruined the movie yet, but hate absolutely will”.
Maybe we should all remember that this is in fact a work of fiction and hair dye exists for the “messy, dark hair” we were promised.
Beach Read is being directed by Yulin Kuang, who also adapted Henry’s People We Meet on Vacation for Netflix and has been deep in the Emily Henry trenches for a while. Kuang has already said she “really enjoy[s] writing Gus in Beach Read“, and described Emily Henry’s books as sharing a thread that “feels like a warm hug”, even if they’re “very different books” tonally.
On social media, Kuang explained why Schwarzenegger ultimately landed the role after a six‑month search. “‘Patrick is a slow burn’, is what I wrote in my notes after meeting him for the first time,” she shared, adding that “we saw a lot of men for this role” and that she’s “always maintained that we are not casting a character, but a relationship”.
Once Phoebe Dynevor was locked in as of January, the focus shifted to who worked best opposite her, leading to in-person director sessions and chemistry reads. “The moment Patrick sat across from her, there was something electric in the room with us,” Kuang wrote, later adding, “‘There’s magic to chase here,’ I wrote in my notes afterwards,” and recalling that Dynevor told her, “It’s obviously Patrick, isn’t it?”
What is Beach Read about?
For anyone who hasn’t dog‑eared their copy, Beach Read follows romance writer January Andrews and literary author Augustus Everett, two polar-opposite writers with creative block who end up spending a summer in neighbouring Michigan beach houses. They agree to swap genres — he’ll write something happy, she’ll chase the “Great American Novel” — while he drags her to interview surviving members of a cult and she drags him to places that scream romance, only to find themselves falling in love in the process.
Beach Read is just one piece of the growing Emily Henry cinematic universe, with adaptations of Book Lovers, Funny Story and Happy Place also in development, and People We Meet on Vacation already streaming on Netflix. As for whether Schwarzenegger’s Gus will win over the readers currently rage‑refreshing Instagram… we’ll have to wait and see if the on‑screen chemistry hits the same way the book did.
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