Here’s how Emma Roberts and Luke Bracey built the perfect chemistry for ‘Holidate’

Emma Roberts and Luke Bracey gave off the perfect “are they friends or are they a couple?” vibe in their new Netflix rom-com “Holidate.”

This kind of chemistry was essential for the entire movie, since the two actors play strangers with a mutual disdain for the holidays.

Their characters Sloane (Emma) and Jackson (Luke) make a pact to be each other’s designated “holidate” for every festive occasion to avoid all those awkward questions that single people get when they go to family gatherings alone.

Things, however, get complicated once they find that sharing everything they hate may just prove to be something they unexpectedly love.

In quick roundtable interview over Zoom last Oct. 22, Emma and Luke said they had a blast making the movie despite it being their first on-screen pairing.

“We were besties from the jump!” Emma said.

“Yeah!” Luke said from another window.

Apparently, Emma was already familiar with her Australian costar’s work and they shared a lot of laughs during filming.

“It’s so funny because I’ve known Luke’s work, obviously, and I think he’s very talented but I’ve never seen him do comedy and I don’t think I’ve seen you play an Australian, and so seeing him in this part, I was just obsessed with him,”  she said.

“And we laughed so much when we were doing this movie and, I mean, we kind of hit it off right away, don’t you think?” Emma added, asking Luke.

“Yeah, it was like meeting an old friend when we first met,” the actor agreed.

Luke said they would even hang out sometimes and have almost the same conversations Sloan and Jackson would have in the movie!

“We go out to have a bite to eat after work, or something like that, and we’re sitting there having this conversation and we go: ‘Oh, this is so weird!’ ’cause this is kind of almost exactly the conversations that we’d be having in the film,” he said.

“It was a bit wacky but in the most perfect way,” he added.

“Holidate” is an original Netflix film directed by John Whitesell and Written by Tiffany Paulsen.

The romantic comedy also stars Andrew Bachelor, Jessica Capshaw, Manish Dayal, Alex Moffat, Jake Manley, Cynthy Wu, with Frances Fisher and Kristin Chenoweth. – RC, GMA News