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Emily Bader is revealing how she tapped into her role for People We Meet on Vacation.
In the upcoming Netflix adaptation of the 2021 Emily Henry novel of the same name, Bader, 29, plays Poppy, who comes together with her best friend Alex (Tom Blyth) every year for vacation. While discussing the project with PEOPLE at Elle’s Women in Hollywood event on Wednesday, Nov. 17, the actress shares that she found a lot of similarities between herself and the character.
“I think there’s a lot of me in Poppy, which is probably maybe why I got the job,” Bader admits. “She’s not good at editing in her mind, and that’s something that I work on. And I think that she just lives fully, and I think something that I also aspire to be, is to live as authentically as Poppy lives. It was an opportunity for me to just strip away insecurity and have faith in my director and Tom and the whole team and just try to be the biggest, loudest, most annoying version of myself, but in a real way.”
Michele K. Short/Netflix
When it comes to her onscreen chemistry with Blyth, 30, Bader says that also came naturally because of their real-life friendship.
“Poppy and Alex start as friends, and they are really friends,” she explains, although they end up with a friends-to-lovers arc. “It’s not that thing where it’s like, ‘Oh yeah, sure, they’re friends.’ They are, and they support each other in their own relationships. There really is this, maybe, secret little fire burning, but they’re just best, best friends.”
“I think it was about us getting to know each other and becoming friends quickly,” Bader adds. “And I think it was very easy because we shot the movie basically being on vacation on Costa Brava, on the beach swimming and eating beignets in New Orleans and doing the things that make quick friends.”
In October, Blythe gushed over the My Lady Jane star during an interview with PEOPLE, calling her “the new Meg Ryan” of rom-coms.
He further said that Bader has “that quality where she can be going off the rails and you still are just so enamored by her. She’s so endearing and she’s so playful within the language of the script, and I think she’s going to really do justice to the character.”
Daniel Escale/Netflix
Bader says this was the ultimate compliment, and although she isn’t sure she entirely agrees, appreciates the sentiment.
“He’s too nice,” Bader notes. “I was like, ‘You can’t say that.’ But I think he’s such a supporter of me and he knows how much Meg Ryan’s performances kind of impacted how I wanted to play Poppy in People We Meet on Vacation. Obviously there’s no world I’m meeting that, but I just love her. He’s from start to finish been the most supportive partner in this journey, so thanks Tom.”
People We Meet on Vacation, which is set to premiere on Netflix on Jan. 9, 2026, is the first of Henry’s five books to go into production. The streaming service released the official logline for the movie in July 2025.
“Free-spirited Poppy and routine-loving Alex have been unlikely best friends for a decade, living in different cities but spending every summer vacation together,” the synopsis reads. “The careful balance of their friendship is put to the test when they begin to question what has been obvious to everyone else: could they actually be the perfect romantic match?”
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People We Meet on Vacation will premiere on Netflix on Jan. 9, 2026.
