Is it meant to be? In 2001, romantic comedy fans followed the would-or-wouldn’t-they romance of Kate Beckinsale and John Cusack‘s lovestruck characters in Serendipity.
In the classic film, the actors played Jonathan Trager and Sara Thomas, who ended up searching for one another over several years in New York City after they first met, fell in love and went their separate ways. Despite a heartbreaking parting, the pair remained convinced that their initial encounter was fated.
“As is often the case, there was a sort of central problem with the female character not necessarily being totally believable. So we had a lot of meetings about it: I didn’t want this character to be this kind of wispy fool, even though she was so interested in fate,” Beckinsale recalled of her acting process during an April 2020 interview with Vulture. “You can be like that without being this sort of ghastly supernatural person. … She’s a therapist. You don’t want her to be a bad, embarrassing therapist, but she’s also obsessed with the notion of serendipity and fate. So trying to marry those two things without making her a character who seems completely implausible. You can be a kind of whimsical, positive, open person who’s also intelligent.”
Scroll below to see what the Serendipity cast has been up to since the 2001 holiday rom-com premiered: