Why Dr. Adam Carlsen From The Love Hypothesis Looks So Familiar

Many of you reading this may know that Ali Hazelwood's 2021 romantic comedy novel "The Love Hypothesis" began its life as a piece of "Star Wars" fan fiction that centered on an imagined romance between Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) from the "Star Wars" sequel trilogy. Indeed, even the lead characters in the cover illustration for Hazelwood's book were made to look like those "Star Wars" characters. With a few literary tweaks, however, the author was able to transform Rey and Kylo (or, if you prefer, Ben Solo) into modern-day humans — named Olive and Adam — and throw them into a whimsical romantic plot that has delighted lots of readers.

"The Love Hypothesis" takes place at Stanford University. There, the insecure grad student Olive Smith aims to impress her friend, Anh Pham, by claiming that she is dating a hunky biology professor named Dr. Adam Carlsen. She isn't, of course, and thereafter has to ask Adam to pretend to date her to keep up appearances. As one might predict, putting on the clothing of romance instigates the real thing, and Adam and Olive begin to fall in love for real.

Hazelwood's novel has now been adapted into a movie produced by Amazon MGM Studios. Lili Reinhart (who came to fame starring in The CW's "Twin Peaks"-y Archie Comics TV show "Riverdale") plays Olive, while Tom Bateman plays Adam. Bateman is a British actor who, in an amazing coincidence, happens to be married to Ridley. The two met while working on Kenneth Branagh's 2017 film version of "Murder on the Orient Express," in which Bateman plays Bouc, a close friend of the famed detective Hercule Poirot (Branagh). Bateman returned as Bouc in Branagh's 2022 "Death on the Nile" movie adaptation, but he has an impressive resume besides.

One of Tom Bateman's earliest movie credits was playing the hapless lover Claudio in a 2011 filmed production of William Shakespeare's play "Much Ado About Nothing" (with David Tennant and Catherine Tate starring as lead characters Benedick and Beatrice). He soon thereafter joined Kenneth Branagh's repertory company at the Garrick Theater, as Bateman explained to The Scotsman in 2018. This was how he landed the role of Bouc in "Murder on the Orient Express."

Of course, Bateman had found plenty of work elsewhere by then, having already appeared in the historical TV series "Da Vinci's Demons" and the crime drama show "The Tunnel." He also gave a very impressive performance playing both of the titular parts in the 2015 ITV series "Jekyll and Hyde" and secured a role in the 2017 Hollywood comedy film "Snatched" starring Goldie Hawn and Amy Schumer. Bateman quickly proved reliable and pliable.

The actor's other previous roles include the character Crawley in a 2018 miniseries adaptation of "Vanity Fair," lead Tom Beecham in Gurinder Chadha's series "Beecham House," and a part in the 2019 Liam Neeson-fronted thriller "Cold Pursuit." Moreover, in 2024, he wrote Sam Yates' "Magpie," a bleak noir-ish thriller film that served as a vehicle for Bateman's wife and "Orient Express" co-star Daisy Ridley (who starred opposite Shazad Latif).

More recently, Bateman appeared in Nia DeCosta's critically celebrated film "Hedda," a modernization of Herik Ibesen's play "Hedda Gabler." And just before that, he played the perhaps-criminal center of the Kaley Cuoco series "Based on a True Story," a comedy show about a crime podcast that gets a little out of hand. So, yeah, Bateman has been around.

"The Love Hypothesis" is now streaming on Prime Video.