The plot of Love Hard, frankly, sounds like a nightmare. Natalie (Nina Dobrev), a Los Angeles dating columnist, attempts to pull herself out of an endless cycle of dating horror stories by flying across the country to surprise the dreamy guy she’s been talking to online, whose only fault in her eyes is that his favorite Christmas movie is Love Actually. (Hers is Die Hard, hence the Netflix film’s title.)
However, when she reaches New York, she finds “Josh” is not at all who he said he was—and he definitely doesn’t have the face of Darren Barnet. Yes, this is the story of a catfisher. The face Natalie fell for actually belongs to a guy named Tag (Barnet), but the person behind the late-night texts is his childhood friend Josh (Jimmy O. Yang), a guy who designs “candles for men” and lives in his parents’ basement. Happy holidays!
The rest of the story, of course, is pure holiday rom-com. What follows when Natalie is forced to remain with her catfisher for her column is a mashup of all your favorite tropes. To impress Josh’s parents, the pair enter into a fake relationship while Josh acts as Natalie’s very own Cyrano de Bergerac to help her land her “true” crush, Tag. Who’s the catfisher now?
In the end, Josh’s own brand of charm—I mean, it’s Jimmy O. Yang!—wins out over his initial lie. “Even though he catfished her, he was only dishonest with one aspect,” Dobrev says. “The person she was talking to is a real person, and that’s who she had the most genuine connection with. They had common interests, he made her laugh, and she made him laugh. When it comes to the core of a human being, she fell in love with who he was, not the shell on the outside.”
A lot of misunderstandings, a clever reimagining of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” and one grand gesture straight out of Love Actually later, and the movie is sitting pretty in the number one spot on Netflix’s Top 10 List.
Nina Dobrev spoke to Glamour about what drew her to the holiday rom-com, whether or not Die Hard is a Christmas movie, and her own Love Hard–esque dating nightmare.
Glamour: What drew you to this script?
Nina Dobrev: I thought it was a really beautiful concept with a wonderful theme, and it was funny and had me laughing. Of course, I read this last year in 2020 in the middle of pandemic and knew that I needed laughter and, more so, that the world needed laughter. And so it just felt like the right fit at the time.
You said you were drawn to the theme. What was that theme, specifically?
There’s two that I gravitate to the most. One of them is the idea of searching for perfection in another human being—and that’s what my character does at the beginning of the movie. It takes the whole film for her to realize that not only does perfection not exist in another person, but it also doesn’t exist within herself. She has to accept her flaws and also accept the flaws in others.
Then, there’s just honesty. Being truly who you are, whatever that may look like and whatever personality or traits that comes in. If you are your authentic self, you will always succeed, and you will always attract the people who are meant to be in your life. Unfortunately, Natalie gets catfished and then makes the mistake of unintentionally catfishing someone else. It takes the journey of the film for her to learn a lot of lessons.
I feel like catfishing has remained one of the top dating app and internet crimes you can commit. How did you feel about the catfisher winning out in the end?
Initially if you were to get catfished, your instinct is to run, but in this case, she was forced to stay. Because she was forced to stay, she had the time to get to know him better and in doing so, fell in love with him. My mom told me once, “Beauty fades, but dumb is forever.” If you’re with the wrong match, the beauty will be gone at some point, and then you’ll be stuck.
Not to say that Josh isn’t beautiful. What’s so great about this movie and so different than other rom-coms is that you really don’t know until the very end who she’s going to end up with, because they’re both great catches. One may be a catfish catch, but the other one is the wrong match for her.
Every character in this movie has very strong feelings about Christmas movies. What’s your favorite?
I’m a weirdo. I love The Grinch. Something about it just gets me in the Christmas mode. And then, of course, my first favorite Christmas movie is The Nightmare Before Christmas. I’m obsessed with that movie.
So you fall on the Christmas side of that debate over the Halloween side.
It can be both and should be watched twice a year.
The big movie debate in Love Hard is whether or not Die Hard is a Christmas movie. What do you think?
I disagree with my character. I don’t think it is. There are Christmas elements to it, but when I think of Die Hard, I think of Bruce [Willis] being shot at and shooting at people and, like, evading death. It doesn’t remind me of Christmas at all.
Natalie is a disaster dating columnist. Do you have any dating horror stories of your own?
If I do, I’ve made a real effort to block them out. Wait, I just thought of one.
I had someone fly from a different continent to come see me because we’d had what I call a vacation romance. Then I went home and this person came to visit me, and I realized when he arrived that it should have just been a vacation romance and I was not interested anymore. He booked a two-week plane ticket, so I was stuck with him for two weeks, but I was not into the relationship anymore.
What did you do?
We talked a lot and hung out. I was working at the same time, so I was on set a lot. It was very stressful because I was juggling a lot at the time.
I respect that you stuck it out. I once had a guy drive a very long way to see me, but I realized immediately I was no longer into it. I pretended to be sick and made him go home.
Oh, my God.
There are two types of people! I actually forgot I did that until right now.
Right? You block these things out.
Love Hard is available to watch on Netflix. Emily Tannenbaum is an entertainment editor, critic, and screenwriter living in Los Angeles. Follow her on Twitter.
