Get ready to fall in love with August Moon.
The fictional boy band exists in the new Prime Video movie The Idea of You based on the book Robinne Lee, and is inspired by several boy bands from the 2000s and 2010s (hi, One Direction and BTS).
Consisting of Nicholas Galitzine as Hayes, Jaiden Anthony as Adrian, Raymond Cham Jr as Oliver, Viktor White as Simon and Dakota Adan as Rory, J-14 sat down with the members of August Moon — where they revealed their fav Anne Hathaway movie, boy band bootcamp and so much more! Keep reading for our exclusive interview.
“I had no clue until now, to be honest, how big the fan base was,” Viktor told J-14 exclusively the book’s huge fandom. “Now, with the movie being released very soon and everybody talking about it, I’m realizing the scale of it all and it’s making this whole thing way more exciting.”
Jaiden revealed he’s also been loving how the movie is promoting August Moon as a real boy band (listen to them on Spotify here).
“I think it’s super cool what they’re doing with the PR for August Moon and how they’re building it up,” the actor behind Simon said. “I think it’s cool that we’re able to provide that boy band-ness to people even though it’s not necessarily a real one.”
Real boy band or not (they’re real to me), they were all made to partake in “boy band bootcamp” for a month, which the guys say helped to build “cohesion” within the group.
“A lot of us are professional dancers by trade, and so creating the choreography was one thing, but then getting a cohesion between all of our various ways of moving and performing was a huge piece of that,” Dakota revealed. “Whether it was just coming up with the backstory of how you got into that band and what your chemistry is with your fellow bandmates, the mic technique — knowing when and where your mic needs to be placed, like a real singer — the breath technique, all of that went into creating [August Moon].”
“We wanted to make something that really felt like it was a real boy band and has existed from before this movie,” he added.
After being asked the most likely, most-asked question (was August Moon inspired by One Direction?), the boys were quick to deflect the Harry Styles-sized elephant in the room.
“I think for me, and I think I can also speak for everyone, but we looked at all of the iconic boy bands throughout the years,” Jaiden said, before explaining that the biggest takeaway from looking at those “top boy bands” were how they were able to work together so perfectly.
“It’s [all about] that camaraderie and that personality with each other,” the actor went on. “Because we really wanted to create a band separate from any other band. It was less of a ‘Let’s draw inspiration from this band, specifically,’ or versus ‘Let’s take elements from what they do and what this band may do and different things like that to kind of configure into our own.'”
In order to build that camaraderie, a lot of hotel hang-out were had — which included a lot of “spicy Uno” and Mario Kart.
“Right off the gate, it was shown to us that character and our chemistry was the priority,” Ray explained. “Instead of us walking in and then learning the steps, [choreographer] Danny [Vitale] introduced herself and then we did two truths and a lie, and it was just immediately like, ‘We’ll get to the steps, we’ll get to the music, we’ll get to that, but let’s figure us out first. Let’s build something here and then we’ll do that stuff.'”
We then asked what might be the most important question of all — what’s your favorite Anne Hathaway movie?
“My favorite is Princess Stories,” Jaiden declared (correctly), “but I think the movie that’s so prevalent in my head that I remember when I was however old watching and seeing her in it made me love her is The Devil Wears Prada. I just love her in that movie.”
Ray and Dakota say Interstellar, while Vik cites The Devil Wears Prada and The Dark Knight.
Watch the boys of August Moon “Dance Before We Walk” on Prime Video now.
Love J-14? Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for fun, exclusive videos with your favorite stars.
