The Scene Drift

​There is an intoxicating vibrancy to northern England that British cinema rarely captures with pure, unabashed romance. Too often, contemporary rom-coms retreat into glossy, airbrushed London townhouses or high-concept Hollywood tropes. With Finding Emily, director Alicia MacDonald roots her story in the rain-slicked canal walkways, bustling student unions, and red-brick lecture halls of Manchester, turning the city into the beating heart of a fresh, modern love story.

​Ahead of the film’s release, The Scene Drift sat down with MacDonald to discuss directorial hurdles, avoiding genre clichés, and crafting a romance that feels genuinely alive.

​Manchester as the Ultimate Canvas

​For MacDonald, setting the film in Manchester was not merely a logistical choice; it was the entire creative foundation.

​"Manchester is an incredible city with so much heart, soul, texture, and history," MacDonald explains. "It’s vibrating through every brick in that place. It’s so rarely on screen for these kinds of films; it’s always London or New York. When Harry Met Sally has New York, Finding Emily has Manchester, and we were going to treat it with that exact reverence."

​MacDonald was equally drawn to the rarely explored space of British university life, bridging the gap between high school coming-of-age stories and late-twenties career dramas.

​"University is so rarely depicted on screen as an experience, which baffles me because it’s so ripe for exploring. You jump straight from teen movies to working in media in your late twenties, with nothing in between."

Director Alicia MacDonald, Angourie Rice and Amber Grappy (Universal Pictures)

​Balancing Digital Chaos and Comedy as a Science

​The catalyst for the film's romance kicks off when an errant email gets blasted to every single Emily on campus, setting off a wild chain reaction. Balancing digital chaos with classic romance required precision in the edit suite.

​"It always is a balance," MacDonald notes. "We just tried different things out in the edit. You have this mad emailing storyline, people falling in love, the coming-of-age element, and almost a political thriller aspect to the campus dynamic."

​For MacDonald, comedy functions as an exact science designed to anchor audience investment.

​"I look at comedy almost as a science. If you can make someone laugh in that moment, you have their undivided attention and they lean in. I always wanted to put a joke where people would not expect it so they keep paying attention."

    

Spike Fearn and Angourie Rice (Universal Pictures)

 

​Spike Fearn’s Accidental Rock Stardom

​At the center of Finding Emily is the undeniable charm of Spike Fearn (Alien: Romulus), who plays Owen: a lovable student engineer navigating grief, creative longing, and an accidental campus-wide email frenzy. One of the film's standout moments is Fearn's performance of the original track "Catch You Up."

​As MacDonald reveals, Fearn’s musical journey on screen was an elaborate act of sheer bravado.

​"He conned me into it!" MacDonald laughs. "I asked all the actors to send in a tape of them singing and playing guitar. In his tape, Spike pretended to be Owen writing a song; he’d strum a few chords, hum, and write in a notebook. I thought, ‘That’s so clever, he did it in character!’ I didn’t even question if he could play. It turned out he couldn't play guitar or sing! We put him into band boot camp, and he was fantastic."

​The production even ran into surreal, real-world obstacles due to Fearn's rising profile during production. While shooting on the streets of Manchester, double-decker buses kept rolling past plastered with giant promo posters of Fearn for Alien: Romulus.

​"We could not have a bus in the background with Alien going past when we were shooting a scene!" MacDonald laughs. "It was too meta; the worlds were morphing together."

   

Spike Fearn and Angourie Rice (Universal Pictures)

Angourie Rice and the Art of Vulnerability

​Opposite Fearn is Angourie Rice (Every Day, Spider-Man Homecoming, Mean Girls), who brings sharp intelligence and quiet depth to Emily, an American psychology student whose clinical detachment is challenged by the simple act of falling in love.

​MacDonald and Rice worked meticulously to build the character’s emotional layers from the ground up:

​"Angourie is such an interesting actor. She has this comic sensibility from films like The Nice Guys, but she’s also a deeply proper actor who does all the research. We went to psychology lectures in Manchester together. She was making character playlists and journaling as Emily. She was so dedicated to showing that fish-out-of-water feeling, even down to Emily's stress-eating habits."

 

   

Angourie Rice in Finding Emily (Universal Pictures) 

Rewriting the Stoller Hall Finale

​One of the film's defining triumphs is its climactic ending at Manchester’s Stoller Hall. While early drafts pointed toward a standard rom-com public speech, MacDonald knew her characters demanded a more authentic resolution.

​"The scene on the bridge at the end wasn't originally scripted," MacDonald reveals. "It was meant to end inside Stoller Hall with her speech on stage. But as we started shooting, I realized there was no way it ends in public in front of everyone. That’s a trope. She would never do that, and Owen would never kiss her like that."

​Instead, MacDonald crafted an intimate reconciliation outside on the walkway, leaning heavily on Rice's emotional restraint and an improvised punchline from Fearn.

​"Angourie played it so real. In real life, delivering a massive declaration of love is awkward and uncomfortable; you feel all of that hesitation, but you also feel her absolute adoration for him. And that final line from Owen, ‘Chill out, I’m just here because of a message from your dad’... that was Spike’s idea on the day."

  

Minnie Driver and Prasanna Puwanarajah (Universal Pictures)

​The Chemistry Test: An Ultimate Rom-Com Game Night

​That instinct for character dynamics extends beyond the script. When asked how Owen and Emily would hold up against the wider rom-com pantheon at an ultimate game night, MacDonald envisioned a chaotic battle of wits and local flavors.

​"I’d want Kat and Patrick from 10 Things I Hate About You, Cher from Clueless, and Harry and Sally," MacDonald says. "We would have to play Manchester Monopoly, order in local crispy-base Manchester pizza and beers, or maybe get Owen to cook a jalfrezi curry. As for who wins? Definitely Harry and Sally. They’ve got the most life experience; they are pretty wily when it comes to mortgages and hotels!"

 

Advice for the Next Generation of Feature Filmmakers

​Making the leap from award-winning short director to feature filmmaker is notoriously difficult, but MacDonald’s parting advice to aspiring indie directors is simple: hold nothing back.

​"With your first feature, you don’t get it back. Throw everything at it. All the big ideas: do it all. Put yourself, your heart, and your soul into it. The nuance and the specificity are what will make it great."

​With Finding Emily, Alicia MacDonald has delivered both one of the year’s sharpest romantic comedies and a love letter to northern spirit that resonates far beyond Manchester.

​Finding Emily is in theaters nationwide on August 28th.