David Corenswet Is Again Lucy Boynton’s Dead Beau in ‘The Greatest Hits’

[Editor’s note: The following contains some major spoilers for The Greatest Hits.]

The Big Picture

• ‘The Greatest Hits’ explores how music connects to our emotions in moments of grief, love, and friendship.
• Lucy Boynton discusses her connection to the story, importance of music in her life, and working with Nelly Furtado.
• Harriet’s journey from past grief to hope for the future is catalyzed by meeting David and letting go of the past.

From writer/director Ned Benson, the romantic drama The Greatest Hits explores how music helps us connect to our emotions, whether it’s in grief, love, friendship or celebration. After the death of her boyfriend Max (David Corenswet), Harriet (Lucy Boynton) learns that listening to the songs they shared actually take her back to the scene of the moment, time traveling into the relationship she can no longer experience but so desperately wants to change the fate of. But being so consumed with the past doesn’t help in the present, and when she meets and connects with David (Justin H. Min), she wonders if she should choose a different path for her future.

During this one-on-one interview with Collider, Boynton shared why she was so gripped by the story of The Greatest Hits, what sold her on the time travel aspect, how this was not the first time Corenswet has played her dead boyfriend, the importance of music in her own life, how a Nelly Furtado song and cameo worked its way into the movie, what makes Harriet want to move on with her life, and the new appreciation she got for L.A. during this shoot. She also talked about playing Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Great Britain in 1955, in the upcoming four-part miniseries A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story.

Lucy Boynton Deeply Connected To the Time Travel Romance of ‘The Greatest Hits’

Collider: As somebody who loves music as much as I do, I loved the concept of this movie. When this came your way and someone says to you, “This is a story of love, loss, and time travel,” what was your reaction to that?

LUCY BOYNTON: Hell, yes! It has all the elements and more. I was immediately gripped by it. It’s such a new way to tell a love story. I was looking for something like a love story. I was really mindful, at the time, of the kind of material I want to put out into the world, and this hit all the right notes. That’s such an awful cliché to say with a music film, but it did. Even if you take out the sci-fi element of it, this could just be a psychological investigation into our relationship with music and how it’s such a nostalgia machine. It definitely resonated with me as such.

At the same time, did you have a lot of questions about the concept or how it would be portrayed? Did you have conversations with writer/director Ned Benson about how that would all work?

BOYNTON: Yeah. In our initial conversation, it was really important for me to establish how the time travel would work and I was so thrilled by his answer, which was that it was all gonna be practical. If it’s all a CGI element, it removes you, as the actor, from the experience a little bit and possibly takes the audience away, or just changes the tone of what I was reading. But to hear that they were planning it all practically and to hear some of the ideas for the transitions, it was another way that the film was just so grounded and rooted in honesty and reality. Just in terms of acting in that, it allowed me to contribute to that and collaborate with that. It is just so satisfying, getting to do something real and tangible.

What was it like for you, as an actor, to find this character? You get flashbacks and backstory about this character in a way that’s very different than you would with anything else you might do. How did that inform and shape the character for you?

BOYNTON: It was understanding analytically what she’s going through and where that came from with Ned, and then it was more going on the emotional journey of it. It really helped, oddly, that David Corenswet and I had worked together before, and he’d played my dead boyfriend before, because I have a relationship with his face, grieving him, and the loss of him. It was a gift to get to pick up where we left off, in that sense. And then, I watched a lot of heartbreaking films, read books like Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking and this book The Lesser Bohemians by Eimear McBride, which has all that feeling of yearning for someone who isn’t quite in your grasp. And then, music was a huge vehicle, obviously, in terms of just cutting straight to the core and getting into that headspace. It was all a much more emotional preparation period than analytical.

Beyond ‘The Greatest Hits,’ Music Plays an Important Role in Lucy Boyton’s Own Life

Music plays different roles in the story. Music helps Harriet process grief, her best friend uses it as a DJ, and we even have a moment in the car where you’re singing along to music. What role does music play in your own life? Is it something that’s always in the background? Do you use it to make playlists for characters? Is it something that you use according to your mood?

BOYNTON: Across the board, I use it in every different way. I’ve always used it for work. It hasn’t been so much to find a character, whereas in this, it really was. The playlist was so specific to tell the story of who Harriet is and who Max was. In my job, I’ve used it just to get to the feeling of a scene. I’m usually pretty chuffed to be on set, so when the scene is much more mellow and melancholy, I’ve always used music to get me there the quickest. Throughout my whole life, it’s been there for manipulating your mood and bringing you up when you need it or matching your calm. It’s the ultimate tool.

Was there a first song or band or album that you emotionally connected with in a way that made you look at all music differently after that?

BOYNTON: My dad has such a great music and vinyl collection. He’s always tried to impress good taste upon me, but I was adamant that I was going to listen to Busted and all of these slightly questionable teenage boy bands. And then, I remember being in my late teens and listening to [Bob] Dylan and suddenly the lyrics just clicked. Suddenly it was that thing that I’d read so much about him, that people felt that he articulated everything they were feeling. It suddenly happened for me. That was an open door. I hadn’t really connected to music in the same way without being an angsty teen who thinks that they understand the great pains of the world. I really finally understood this feeling that this musician was conveying. That changed the lens with which I perceived it all through.

Who picked “I’m Like a Bird” as the song you’d sing in the car? Were there other songs considered, or was it always that song?

BOYNTON: Ned got all of us – me, David, Justin [H. Min], and Austin [Crute] – to write down guilty pleasure songs, and the songs we were addicted to when we were younger and in the present, and he was gonna see if there were any overlapping. I don’t know if that did overlap for all of us, but it was immediately the perfect choice because we didn’t have to relisten to that song or learn that song. We already knew all the words. It was the song of our youth, so it was great. It was perfect for that scene and this beautiful bonding moment. I loved it. And it was amazing having Nelly [Furtado] in the film after that. That was just wild.

Nelly Furtado Sent Lucy Boynton a Note of Encouragement Before Working Together on ‘The Greatest Hits’

What was it like to shoot a scene with Nelly Furtado?

BOYNTON: It was really intimidating because we were obviously in a music studio, so it’s her environment and I’m spewing all this technical jargon that I don’t understand as much as she obviously does. But she was so kind and generous and really enthusiastic about being part of the film. She really threw herself into it and wanted to be a part of it with everyone. She was also very kind, the day that we were doing that driving scene. She sent Justin and I a voice note of encouragement. She’s amazing. She’s everything that you would want her to be and more.

What do you think it is that gets Harriet to this place where she can finally walk away from Max and change her mind about the way to save him?

BOYNTON: When we meet her at the beginning of the film, she’s already reaching this fork in the road. She’d never acknowledge the full thought, but she’s coming to the point where she knows that she can’t continue like this, which keeps being echoed by Morris, who has been her most patient ally throughout all of this grieving period. And then, it’s meeting David because he’s going through something similar. He’s also grieving, so she’s able to be completely vulnerable with him. It’s the first time she’s spending time with someone who doesn’t have expectations about how far along in her grieving process she should be. It’s suddenly just, “You are enough as you are.” It offers an insight into how she could live, present tense and future, and this glimmer of hope that maybe there is a world that she could be happy in where Max is gone. That’s a really difficult place to reach when you’re grieving someone because it can so often feel like a betrayal of them. It’s the first time she acknowledges that moving forward would be honoring herself and therefore him. So, I think Justin’s character is the real catalyst for that thinking.

I love romantic stories like this, where it feels like the characters are still living when we leave them. What would you like to think happened with Harriet after we leave her at this Roxy Music concert standing next to David?

BOYNTON: I don’t know. I just wanna leave it for the audience to decide. It’s definitely happened to me when I’ve met people and there’s this instant familiarity. You can’t explain it, but there’s just an ease. And so, I like the idea that there’s this magnetism that will keep bringing them together. There’s something safe in believing in a meant-to-be and a fate. It’s just great to see her electric and lit up again and in her full force again.

Were you at a real Roxy Music concert?

BOYNTON: I wish. They went to a real Roxy Music concert and filmed it, and then we were in a studio, unfortunately. Sorry to burst that bubble. If only.

Making ‘The Greatest Hits’ Gave Lucy Boynton a New Perspective on Los Angeles

Ned Benson has talked about how he wanted to depict L.A. in a less obvious way, highlighting things off the beaten path. Did that give you a different perspective of Los Angeles while you were making this?

BOYNTON: Completely. I’ve spent a lot of time here. I’ve lived here, on and off, for a few years, so I felt like I knew it. But then, getting the perspective of someone like Ned and Justin, it feels like a different version of home. I’ve always associated L.A. with the film industry, but it’s such a hub and center point for music and live music. It was great to see this earthier side of it and such a cool side of L.A. I hope audiences, whether they’re familiar with L.A. or not, get this new insight into it.

You have also played Ruth Ellis for a miniseries, called A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story. What was it like to take that on and to dig into her life?

BOYNTON: It was the heaviest experience I’ve had. I’ve never prepared more for a role than I did that. Playing a real person is an immense responsibility unto itself, but especially because we hadn’t really visited the entirety of her story before. A lot of the information about her case was kept from the public and has only really started to filter into awareness in the last few decades, so this is the first piece that really is able to look at the full picture. I really just wanted to honor that and the truth of it. Rather than trying to make her a hero or a villain, it’s just presenting her as a person. It was really heavy and a really intense educational experience, from an acting point of view and also just as a person learning about her case.

The Greatest Hits is available to stream on Hulu. Check out the trailer:

Watch on Hulu