‘She’s Got That Quality’ (Exclusive)

NEED TO KNOW

• Tom Blyth tells PEOPLE his People We Meet on Vacation costar Emily Bader could be the “new Meg Ryan” or rom-coms

• “She’s got that quality where she can be going off the rails and you still are just so enamored by her,” Blyth says of Bader

• Blyth and Bader star as Alex and Poppy, whose longtime but estranged friendship grows complicated when they revive their annual vacation tradition

Tom Blyth has nothing but praise for his People We Meet on Vacation costar Emily Bader.

The Billy the Kid actor, 30, told PEOPLE about working alongside Bader (My Lady Jane) in the movie adaptation of Emily Henry’s novel People We Meet on Vacation. They star as Alex Nilsson and Poppy Wright, whose longtime but estranged friendship grows complicated when they revive their annual vacation tradition.

Blyth praises Bader as “the new Meg Ryan” of rom-coms.

“She’s got that quality where she can be going off the rails and you still are just so enamored by her,” Blyth explains. “She’s so endearing and she’s so playful within the language of the script, and I think she’s going to really do justice to the character.”

Bader’s character Poppy is “free-spirited” — the opposite of Blyth’s Alex, who loves a routine. Despite their differences, the pair struck up a friendship and took yearly vacations together as “platonic travel companions,” per the trailer, until their last trip soured their connection.

People We Meet on Vacation picks up when Poppy, dissatisfied with her life without Alex, decides to push for one last trip with her old friend — and possibly find love in the process.

The star says both he and Bader are “playful actors,” especially in the context of a rom-com — and both were eager to embrace a more lighthearted project, he adds.

“I think we both did it for the reason that we wanted to do something fun and light and heartfelt. I think we just both leaned in,” Blyth says, adding, “I think I was at the time, really eager to do a rom-com. You get to do something that was a bit lighter than what I usually do, a bit more loving.”

There’s high pressure on the adaptation of the beloved novel, but Blyth does his best to ignore it, he says. To honor the original character, he has to block out any “version of it that someone else thinks it should be,” he says.

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There are moments when the magnitude of the movie becomes a “real thing” for him, though. He’s already met a few people who have asked him to sign their books.

“That’s a book this person loves, and they’re coming up to you with their hands shaking, asking your to sign it,” Blyth says. “So, yeah, that’s definitely — not pressure, but I feel like a need to honor this thing people love.”

New episodes of Billy the Kid drop Sundays on MGM+. People We Meet on Vacation is on Netflix Jan. 9.

Read the original article on People