Exclusive Interview

‘You, Me & Tuscany’s Lorenzo de Moor Talks Rom-Com Rivalry With Regé-Jean Page & More

You, Me & Tuscany may be centered around Anna (Halle Bailey) finding a spark with Italian vineyard owner, Michael (Regé-Jean Page), but it’s actually Anna’s encounter with Michael’s cousin that kicks off the rom-com’s primary love story. Lorenzo de Moor plays Matteo, who charms Anna in a New York hotel bar at the beginning of the movie. Before they part ways, Matteo tells Anna that he has an empty villa sitting in Tuscany, which she eventually finds herself squatting in without his permission.

When Matteo’s family discovers her, Anna pretends to be Matteo’s fiancée to save herself. Her lie complicates her growing feelings for his cousin. “[Bailey and Page] are just amazing people, you know?” de Moor told Swooon of his costars. “And it’s so refreshing, and it’s so nice to work with people with such an open heart because you can go far with them. You can explore. You can play. And I think at the end of the day, that’s what you want as an actor, as an artist, or whatever. You just want to have a playground where you’re allowed to do your research and create and be playful.”

The Italian actor spoke with Swooon the morning after the rom-com’s premiere. Though he was calling from a New York, de Moor hails from the city where the movie takes place. (“When you watch it on the screen, you’re like, is that real? And it is!” he says.) The actor told us all about starring in his first rom-com, what is was like on set, that wine barrel racing scene, and more below. (Beware of You, Me & Tuscany spoilers ahead!)

This is your first rom-com. What drew you to the project and the genre as a whole? Are you a rom-com fan? 

Lorenzo de Moor: I am a huge rom-com fan. I’ve been missing a good rom-com. I’m a kid of the ’90s. We grew up with rom-coms. It was our thing, this uncynical love and this falling in love with love. So when I read the script, I immediately knew I wanted to be a part of this. Immediately. And I think I was at a point in my life where I just needed that kind of love and that kind of just… going into something for the adventure and not for anything else. And that was the whole thing, shooting in Italy, shooting in Tuscany. And I don’t know if it’s because we shot a rom com, but we just created a family. It just happened, you know?

Giulia Parmigiani / Universal Pictures / Everett Collection

I mean, the vibes looked impeccable in the movie itself. Was it really as fun as it looked?

de Moor: It was even more fun than it looks. One, you get to shoot a movie that is just a feel-good movie about love, about finding your place in the world, and you get to do it with the backdrop of Tuscany. You’re shooting on set all day, and then once you wrap, you just meet in the town square, and you have a spritz with your coworkers who are now becoming your friends. And it feels like a dream. It’s ridiculous that you get paid to do it. It’s such a gift. So we were so grateful and so happy to share this experience together. And I think it translates in the movie. One of the most beautiful things about this experience is that I really found true friends. I found a family.

We have to talk about Matteo. He charmed me at the beginning, though we learn there’s more to him later on. Tell me about that initial scene with Halle in the hotel and developing that chemistry with her.

de Moor: I love that, at the beginning of the movie, Matteo comes in, and he’s this charming guy who’s trying to meet someone new. It’s the classic meet-cute at a bar, and they’re having this beautiful evening together, which ends the way it ends. But what I do love about that arc is that it starts with this sort of charming energy, and then the moment he comes back, he’s in a completely different state and a completely different world, right? It goes into more of a quirkiness, like I have no idea what to do with my life, I don’t know. So he starts with this being sure about himself, traveling the world, and then he’s just a human being trying to figure out how to deal with his family, how to deal with the people around him. So I do love that change from him with Anna at the beginning, and him and Anna afterward.

It could have almost gone that love triangle route, but I was kind of glad it didn’t. What was it like having to pivot the chemistry and take it in a different direction as you play Michael’s foil?

de Moor: If Anna and Matteo would end up together, it would be a mess. They don’t know what they’re doing with their lives. They’re completely lost. It would be crazy. You just know that the right match is her and Michael. But I do love that all these characters really need each other, even if they don’t realize that. But they do. Matteo needs Anna to deal with his past, deal with his family, and try to figure out a way to make everything coexist. Anna needs Matteo to follow her passion. Michael needs Anna to start believing in himself again, and she needs him to fulfill that passion. So I love that no matter how all these characters feel far away from each other, they are so crucial for each other’s growth. And I think that’s life, no? When you least expect it, you meet someone, or you have a life experience that shows you where you need to go, and if you keep your eyes open and your heart open, then you get to grow. Some way, somehow.

So we’re not Team Matteo, we’re Team Michael and Anna…

de Moor: For their health, we are. For their mental health. We might have been a fun thing, but definitely not a long thing.

And I have to ask about the wine barrel racing scene, of course. I know you grew up in Tuscany, so did you have any experience doing that at all?

de Moor: I’ve never done that personally, but I grew up around it. You know, we’re surrounded by so much history and so much tradition. You know, we have the Palio di Siena, which is the horse race. We have the barrel race. It’s a real thing. These things happen around in Tuscany. We have so much history and so much beauty surrounding us, and these things are taken seriously, like the whole year revolves around these moments. So we shot this scene under the Tuscan sun. It was boiling hot. And we shot that scene in one day, which was crazy. So me and Regé were just going back and forth, back and forth, with these barrels. I felt like that was one of the days where we really bonded under the heat and the exhaustion of it all. It was just such a fun day.

Giulia Parmigiani / Universal Pictures / Everett Collection

How many times did you guys have to execute that to get it right?

de Moor: All day, all day. We started early in the morning, probably around 6 a.m., and we ended in the evening. And they had two units. The one unit was shooting the family, one unit was with us on the hills outside, running back and forth. We were doing all the passages. It was crazy, but it was also so much fun. And those things are heavy, so they’re hard to control. It was a lot of comedic moments, for sure.

Do you think you would be better at [wine barrel racing] if you actually tried your full potential? I know your characters had to butt heads.

de Moor: We had to butt heads a little bit. I think we could have won. I think we could have won if we were not so angry with each other all the time… And in the movie, Michael says we’ve done it all our lives, and usually we win. So maybe that fire helps somehow. It didn’t help this time, but maybe in the past years it did.

Maybe in a sequel, you guys could try again.

de Moor: Exactly.

Also, I wanted to ask about the fight scene with Regé. That’s another major point. Did you guys try out a few things before landing on that final version? It’s tense, but it’s still a little bit funny.

de Moor: We spent quite a bit of time with the stunt director, Emiliano Novelli, from Italy. Great stunt coordinator. And we were trying things out. We had many different versions of it. Some were a little bit too violent, some were a little bit too dark. We had to find the right place in between. What we wanted to give away was that they’ve been fighting all their life. It’s boys. And when I see that scene, I feel like we both become kids, and then it’s a kid fight. It’s not a scary fight. We landed on the one that felt the most innocent in a way. How two boys of, I don’t know, eight years old would do it.

And they’re in a better place by the end of the movie.

de Moor: There’s the one scene at the end where the whole family comes together, and then we’re dancing and eating. We were doing this one long shot, and I was looking at Regé from the other side of the room, and I think they need a hug. So I specifically found the moment and I went in and I gave him a hug. I told him, “I love you.” And then I went back to Kat and I said, “Did you get that? Because I think we need it. I think we need these two guys to feel like it’s okay now. We’ve all found our place, and it’s good.”

We need that in a rom-com, for sure. And Kat Coiro [the director] said that there were moments of spontaneity and jokes that were thrown in. Do you did you contribute any of those? Or do you remember any improv moments that stand out?

de Moor: Oh, my God, there were so many, so many. I remember when we were doing the first scene with Halle, and we’re at the bar, and I remember the moment I say this one thing in Italian to charm her… and she responded, “Those who know food, know life.” And I was like, “Oh, you know Italian,” and she’s like, “Not good.” And then there was that line, it was, “You know it just enough to ruin my pickup line.” That was a moment that just came and Kat liked it and decided to keep it in. It’s easy to do when you have such a great script to work with, you know? So this is all thanks to the writers because if you don’t have the base upon which you can build, then it’s that much harder, but they give you such a great base. So, as an actor, you can really find your way.

I was also curious about the Italian authenticity of it all. The setting is so important to a movie like this. Being from Tuscany, do you feel like this movie has that authenticity that maybe some other American movies set in Italy don’t?

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de Moor: One hundred percent, yes. Going into it, one of my biggest concerns was I wish for this film to not take the superficial things of Italy and make them bigger. I hope that it can find authenticity within the story, and it can tell that story using Italy in the right way. And it did, and that was thanks to Kat. She actively made sure that this was not a mockery of Italy, but it was an homage and a love letter to it. I think she managed to do that, and that was a wonderful gift.

Did you guys touch base on that and consult each other about accuracy?

de Moor: Yes, and that’s what I appreciated so much about her as well because she was so open, and it was a very important thing for her. It was very important for her that this wasn’t just a set piece, but that it really talked truth about what this place is and what it brings into the world and the story.

Would you ever want to do another rom-com or lead one after this?

de Moor: I would love to. Sign me up. I would love to.

Get some notes from Regé, maybe.

de Moor: Get some notes from Regé, get some notes from Halle. Why not? Oh, that would be amazing.

Maybe another Italian rom-com.

de Moor: Maybe Italian, maybe not. Maybe we go somewhere else. Maybe we fly over, I don’t know, find out a new place.

Maybe even a Matteo spinoff, who knows? I guess with the childhood friend [Isabella, played by Desirée Pöpper], there could be something, even though she’s kind of not the good girl in the situation.

de Moor: Exactly, exactly, exactly. Who knows? That could be a funny, messy movie.

You, Me, & Tuscany, In Theaters Now