The Idea of You book is even more explicit than the Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine movie.

The Idea of You may be one of the hottest movies of 2024 so far but they actually cut a lot of the sex scenes from the book.

Ever since Robinne Lee’s original The Idea of You book came out in 2017, fans have been obsessed with the story’s central romance between art gallery owner Solène Marchand and boyband singer Hayes Campbell. Now, Prime’s film adaptation starring Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine is introducing a whole new audience to Solène and Hayes’ story.

For the most part, The Idea of You movie stays true to the book but fans have noticed that several sex scenes are missing.

While The Idea of You is hot and sexy just like the book it’s based on, there’s less of an emphasis on sex scenes. In fact, the book is much more graphic and, while the movie opts for sexy montages, the book explores Solène and Hayes’ sex life in much further depth.

One scene both the book and movie keep is the scene where Hayes makes Solène orgasm while she’s still fully clothed but the book then explores the fact that Hayes really enjoys giving Solène oral sex and is far better at it than her ex-husband ever was.

On top of that, there’s also a scene where Hayes and Solène have unprotected sex for the first time on Solène’s kitchen table.

As it stands, the team behind The Idea of You are yet to explain why they toned down the sex scenes in the movie.

However, Anne Hathaway has said that it was important for them to still capture the essence of the book’s sex scenes in the film. Speaking to Variety, Anne said: “In the book, Robinne describes intimate acts with the most unbelievable energy. In their first physical sexual connection, Hayes brings Solène to orgasm while [she is fully] clothed.”

She added: “That became our North Star in terms of expressing cinematic sex in a way that makes it about her pleasure, while also making the point that a huge part of pleasure is giving someone else pleasure.”