One Day (2011)
- Before Anne Hathaway was cast, several major A-list stars turned down the lead role because they felt the script was too risky.
- During the filming of One Day, Anne Hathaway improvised one of the most famous lines in the movie.
- Many of the practical effects used in the climax were achieved without any CGI.
One Day is a 2011 British romantic drama directed by Lone Scherfig, based on David Nicholls's 2009 bestselling novel. Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess star as Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew, who meet on the night of their university graduation โ July 15, 1988, St. Swithin's Day โ and the film revisits them on the same date every year for twenty years, watching as their lives diverge, intersect, and evolve.
Emma, idealistic and ambitious but insecure, struggles through dead-end jobs while writing her novel; Dexter, privileged and charismatic, rides the wave of 1990s lad culture into a television career that nearly destroys him through drink and drugs. The film's power derived from its structural commitment โ each July 15th visit showed only fragments of that year, leaving the audience to infer the events between them, and the accumulation of missed opportunities and changing dynamics gave the love story genuine emotional weight. Anne Hathaway's British accent was debated, but her and Sturgess's chemistry grew more affecting with each passing year.
One Day earned $59 million worldwide on a $15 million budget.
