Where Was ‘The Idea of You’ Filmed? Discover the Filming Locations for Anne Hathaway’s New Movie

If you love romance and you haven’t yet streamed The Idea of You on Prime Video, you need to rectify that oversight ASAP. This swoon-worthy new drama starring Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine is the kind of high-quality fan-fiction movie we deserve.

Though the movie invokes the feeling of a really good fanfiction, it is not, in fact, based on one. Instead, director Michael Showalter and his co-writer Jennifer Westfeldt adapted the 2017 novel by Robinne Lee, albeit with a few key changes. Hathaway stars as a 40-year-old single mom, Solène, who hits it off with the 24-year-old frontman, Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitzine) of her daughter’s favorite boyband. Look, it’s not Solène’s fault that her dirtbag ex flaked on taking their daughter to Coachella, and it’s also not her fault that she thought Hayes’s trailer was the bathroom!

It might sound cheesy and ridiculous, but Hathaway and Galitzine have an electric chemistry that will keep you hooked from beginning to end. Showalter goes above and beyond to keep this escapist, far-fetched fantasy grounded in reality. That includes making sure the Idea of You filming locations looked real, even though The Idea of You didn’t film in the same locations where the movie is set.

Where was The Idea of You filmed?

Even though much of The Idea of You takes place in Los Angeles, The Idea of You was actually filmed in Georgia—in Atlanta, Savannah, and the surrounding area. That’s movie magic for you!

As director Michael Showalter explained in an interview for The Idea of You press notes, “We shot this movie in Atlanta and Savannah, but the action unfolds in Los Angeles, New York, Copenhagen, London, Saint-Tropez … and Amy was able to bring all of that to this story.”

By “Amy,” Showalter is referring to The Idea of You production designer Amy Williams, who had the daunting task of recreating familiar California scenes—like the famed musical festival, Coachella—from scratch. In that same press notes interview, Williams explained how she did it: “We pulled a lot of youthful pastels and iridescent colors. There are light sculptures and big art installations and loads of tents, food trucks, porta-potties, trailers and a massive stage. We worked with the visual effects company Nimblist to create the stage and lighting design, so it was a huge collaboration between many departments to bring this together.”

The team even built a working stage for August Moon to perform on. As producer Cathy Schulman explained, “We designed the full stage and lighting setup and the background video and recorded it all live. We had backup tracks, but we also did the full performance, time after time, and it’s kinetic and exciting.”

That same stage was then given a fresh re-design to double as the stage for the concerts on the European tour. “We flipped the stage, changed up the lighting and backgrounds and suddenly we’re in Europe,” Williams said. “We used different color palettes, set pieces and stage elements, like adding or removing catwalks or bringing in light-up stairs, or sparks and fire. The European tour is huge.”

For Solène’s Silver Lake house, the production team transformed an existing house in Georgia, and gave it a more California feel. “The house has an eclectic mix of styles, some mid-century modern, some bohemian touches, lots of different textures and colors, with a richness that really evokes the Craftsman house vibe of Silver Lake,” said Showalter.

So there you have it! The Idea of You was filmed entirely in the state of Georgia. But thanks to the hard work of the production team, the movie managed to take viewers around the world. Don’t you just love cinema?