We finally have our first look at Emily Bader as Poppy Wright in “People We Meet on Vacation”. Harper’s Bazaar unveiled the first promotional stills of the book adaptation as well an interview with Emily, Tom Blyth, writer Emily Henry and director Brett Haley . Check them out:

Emily Bader just might have been destined to portray Poppy Wright.

The 28-year-old actress, who has previously starred in the series My Lady Jane, was spending time with her childhood best friend last year when she was first introduced to the literary world of Emily Henry. Describing the author as popular would be a severe understatement. You can’t walk into a bookstore, cruise through the airport, or scroll through BookTok without coming into contact with her witty romance novels. Their realistic—but also comical—view of modern-day love and dating has built a massive legion of loyal readers—but Bader hadn’t yet joined the club at the time.

“I was about to go on summer vacation and my best friend was grilling me on Emily Henry’s stuff and People We Meet on Vacation and basically yelling at me to get my head out from under the rock,” Bader tells Harper’s Bazaar from her home in Los Angeles. “Cut to a few days later, I’m in Europe and I get this email saying that I have this meeting for this project—titled People We Meet on Vacation—and I’m like, there’s no way this is the same thing we just talked about. So I immediately call her, which I probably wasn’t supposed to do, and I’m like, ‘Is this the thing that you were talking about?’”

It was indeed the same thing. People We Meet on Vacation is Henry’s second contemporary adult novel, but her first to ever be adapted into a film. Poppy Wright is one of the author’s most beloved protagonists. Coming to Netflix in January 2026 and spearheaded by director Brett Haley, the film follows the friends-to-lovers evolution of Wright and her best friend, Alex Nilsen. While Poppy could be described as an outgoing and an ultra-impulsive extrovert, Alex is reserved, responsible, and pragmatic. Despite being polar opposites, they maintain a tight-knit friendship, and even when life takes them in different directions over the years (Poppy is a travel writer at a glossy magazine, while Alex opted to stay in his hometown after college to work as a teacher), they reunite every summer to take a trip together and see the world. Of course, in true romance novel fashion, there’s something more than friendship bubbling under the surface that eventually comes to a head.

It seemed kismet that Bader was on her own vacation when she got the call about the Netflix adaption.

“I was panicked on this road trip in the middle of Europe going into all these tiny bookstores in town, desperately looking for an English-language copy of the book to no avail. So basically I read the entire thing on my phone in a car just battling being carsick the whole time,” Bader shares. “I’ve noticed in my career that there is a kind of kindred element to all the jobs that I do with the people that I get to work with and the characters that I get to play where they do all feel meant to be. It just all happened so quickly and felt so right at the same time.”

Bader jumped at the opportunity to play an imperfect romantic lead. Readers will be the first to tell you that Poppy can be just as frustrating as she is endearing.

“Poppy’s like sunshine. She burns really hot and fast and she talks too much and she fills all the silences. She’s loud, she’s a little chaotic, but in the best ways; even in the way that she dresses and the career path that she’s taken, she’s always imagining the next amazing thing that she’s going to be doing even when she’s already in an amazing experience,” explains Bader. “She’s simultaneously exhausting and addicting as a person—and I love that. I love a character that sometimes feels a little bit too much, but that’s just who she is.”

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Fans have been waiting with bated breath for their first look at the film, but they should rest assured knowing that Emily Henry herself is obsessed with the final product. Within 20 minutes of watching the first cut of the movie, she immediately felt not just at ease, but also relieved.

“I know how much the readers are really attached to this story and I’ve just always wanted to make sure that whatever the end product was, it was something that they would be thrilled with, and it was so clear to me [after that first watch] that they would be,” says Henry. “By the end, I felt so emotional and I even cried a little bit. I’ve just kind of existed in that state of peace and excitement since then.”

It helped that Henry along with the entire cast and crew of the film—and especially director Brett Haley—all had the same creative goal in mind when it came to adapting this story: make a rom-com worthy of the readers. Henry herself had When Harry Met Sally in the back of her mind when she originally wrote the novel and both Bader and Blyth credit the 1989 film as the ultimate holy grail of rom-coms that they could only hope to live up to. That joint love of romantic comedies is why Henry also opted to turn her bestselling book into a film rather than a series, though she understands it could have worked in either format.

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When it comes to crafting a proper rom-com, chemistry is crucial, and both Henry and Haley had no doubts that they had found their Poppy and Alex after Bader and Blyth’s first script read (via Zoom!) together.

“When they had settled on Tom and Emily as Alex and Poppy, Brett wanted me to see the chemistry read because I wasn’t super familiar with either of them yet; I was immediately really, really blown away,” says Henry. “You’re watching these two people who don’t know each other yet and in this bizarre situation of being online, on camera, in two separate cities—but they were already so good and so electric together. The way that they played off of each other as far as the humor was just perfect and in a way that felt really, really accurate to the characters. I was pretty much instantly smitten at that point, and then every time I’ve gotten to see them act together since then, my love and adoration has only deepened.”

Haley describes the film’s two leads as “an absolute dream” to work with and has no doubt that audiences will connect with their portrayals of two of Henry’s most adored characters.

“They’re both so incredibly talented, and I can’t wait for audiences to see them as Poppy and Alex. They’re true stars—professional, committed, and magnetic—and the collaboration between the three of us was such a joy,” he says. “Their chemistry is undeniable, and shaping these characters together made for one of the most fulfilling experiences of my career.”

Bader and Blyth speak highly of each other as well. The two became great friends on set which, according to the actress, made portraying longtime best friends all the easier.

“Tom is such a special actor in the way he’s able to transform himself into any role. After I read the book, I was like, oh, this makes so much sense. And when we met, it was on this blurry Zoom chemistry read and I was sweating and terrified. Even in that scenario, which is always uncomfortable, we connected pretty much instantly. So I thought, okay, now I’m just going to cross my fingers and toes and hope that when we meet in person, this amorphous thing still exists,” says Bader. “Pretty much right away we became such good friends and it was easy to do that because basically this entire process was just being on actual vacation. I mean, traveling to places I’d never been before, seeing things I’d never seen. Hiking on beautiful coasts and walking through Bourbon Street in New Orleans and being able to do that together. Poppy and Alex were friends first, so the fact that we were able to be such good friends throughout the process of this made all of it so much better.”

And if you ask Blyth to describe his costar? He immediately breaks out in praise of Bader.

“She is unreal at comedy and such a good improviser. She’s such a dear friend now and I genuinely think this is the beginning of the Emily Bader domination era,” he says. “Brett called me after we did the first chemistry read, and I was like, well you can’t get better than that. You never know what your costar is going to be like, but she’s one of a kind.”

Both Bader and Blyth hope that the upcoming film will serve as a balm for those navigating their own complicated love journeys—whether or not they’ve read the original source material a dozen times over or if they’re entering Poppy and Alex’s world for the very first time.

“I really want this to be a safe movie for people to go back and watch time and time and time again. I would love for it to be one of those things that you just always have in the back of your mind and when you’re feeling sad or you get fired from work or your friend being an asshole—that is the comfort movie that you go back to,” says Bader. “We need that and we don’t have as much of it as we used to.”

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People We Meet on Vacation will be available to stream on Netflix on January 9, 2026.

To read the full interview, click here.