Bustle Exclusive
Olive & Adam Have A Delightfully Awkward Fake Date In New Love Hypothesis Clip
Bustle has an exclusive look at the romantic comedy.
Prime Video’s highly anticipated adaptation of The Love Hypothesis is officially a week away — but you don’t need to wait a minute longer to see Olive and Adam on a hilariously cringe-filled fake date.
Based on Ali Hazelwood’s viral novel of the same name, The Love Hypothesis follows grad student Olive (Lili Reinhart) and professor Adam Carlsen (Tom Bateman) as they enter into a mutually beneficial fake-dating scheme: Olive wants to convince her best friend Anh (Rachel Marsh) that she’s happily coupled up to encourage her to pursue her own romantic interest, while Adam hopes to boost his career prospects by showing the university he’s the committed type.
As seen in the exclusive clip below, one of the couple’s early outings is a trip to the coffee shop. Olive asks Adam to act “natural and normal” — a tall order for the stiff academic — when she realizes her skeptical pals, Anh and roomie Malcolm (Jaboukie Young-White), are coming up to say hello.
Suffice to say, Adam doesn’t make the best impression as Olive’s beau. In fact, he lives up to his reputation as “Dr. Evil” when he tells Malcolm, his student, that his last submissions were “subpar.” He tries a kinder approach with Anh, noting that he’s heard wonderful things about her — but Olive’s bestie isn’t quite sure how to react, mumbling a response as she’s befuddled by the whole situation.
Adam giving Olive a forehead kiss goodbye prompts particularly disturbed expressions from Anh and Malcolm, who watch along speechlessly — before scrambling into seats to get the tea as soon as Adam leaves.
While things are off to a bumpy start, expect Olive and Adam’s fake relationship to deliver real swoon as the film goes on. After all, the team behind The Love Hypothesis is united by their love for the genre. As Bateman recently told Bustle, “You’re not going to change the world with a rom-com, but you might change a person, and that person might change another person.” And reflecting on the pair’s grumpy-sunshine dynamic, he explained: “If you just forget everything — where you come from, where they come from — and you just look another human being in the eye and properly listen to their point of view, you can’t help but love them.”
Fans can stream The Love Hypothesis in full when it makes its Prime Video debut on Sept. 23.
