Taylor Zakhar Perez Spills on 'Red, White & Royal Blue' Sequel
Justin French
Coat, shirt, Balmain.
For decades, families with talented children have come together to jam out, whether on the global stage, like the Jackson 5 or Haim, or in a more humble manner, like Taylor Zakhar Perez's family of 10. Surrounded by the barn cats that roamed the family's property, Zakhar Perez and his siblings would put on sing-alongs, playing classic tracks from movies or sketch comedy shows. He would play the piano, his sister the violin, and his brother the guitar. With this, Zakhar Perez says, his hunger to perform began: 'It was something I couldn't shake off.'
While Zakhar Perez's parents encouraged his artistic bent, he took his own route to Hollywood. His parents ran an auto body shop, while his mother took acting classes on the side. He didn't have any connections in the industry or a breakout childhood role; he had to build his résumé brick by brick. 'Hollywood loves to put people in a box,' he says. 'If you do one thing successfully, then they want you just to do it over, and over, and over again. And so I've been really conscious with my team of making choices that keep me evolving rather than getting typecast.'
Zakhar Perez's fight to make it began when he turned down a swimming scholarship at Fordham University to attend UCLA. An excellent swimmer in high school, he took a risk in coming to Los Angeles, pivoting from what had long seemed to be his plan. 'It's an industry where people are always looking for validation, and I think I just had to say, 'I believe in myself, and I can do this, and I'm going to do this,'' he says. 'I just had complete and utter belief.'
After starring in smaller 'hot guy' roles in television shows, he earned his first big gig in
The Kissing Booth 2
on Netflix, costarring with Jacob Elordi and Joey King. He reappeared in the franchise's third film, and then the HBO series
Minx
.
But the cosmos shifted and his career reached a whole other level when he landed the role of Alex Claremont-Diaz in the Prime Video adaptation of Casey McQuiston's novel
Red, White & Royal Blue
. Zakhar Perez starred as the son of the president of the United States, who falls in love with a prince of England, played by Nicholas Galitzine.
Justin French
Sweater, shirt, Gucci.
The steamy novel is beloved as one of the first big breakout queer romantic comedies, and gained a rabid community on BookTok. 'I read the book when I had the first meeting...I had no idea what it was,' he says. 'People were like, 'This is huge on TikTok. People are talking about this,' and I said, 'Okay, I'm not on there.' I mean, I have videos, but I haven't posted in so long, because it's just this endless pit of entertainment.'
'I want a career that I'm proud of, not one that just checks all the right boxes.'
The frenzy began well before the movie premiered; after Zakhar Perez was cast as Alex, fans began stitching together clips of his and Galitzine's past roles to form a love story. 'I travel around the world quite often...and I have never been stopped more than I was for that film,' he says. 'People lined up outside of a hotel in Paris to get a picture, because they loved Alex Claremont-Diaz so much. That speaks volumes about what these two characters mean to those who watch it.'
He notes that the story was especially impactful among the Latin and queer communities. 'I'm very particular about projects I do, because I want to do films and TV that have something [to say]. Being able to do a romantic comedy that fit that bill was really special,' he says. 'People in their 60s and 70s tell me...they wish they had this kind of movie when they were younger. So this isn't a project I take for granted.'
Justin French
Coat, shirt, Balmain. Trousers, Dsquared2. Watch, Cartier. Socks, Falke. Loafers, Ferragamo.
Red, White & Royal Blue
was released on Prime without the planned press tour, because of the SAG-AFTRA strike, but it nevertheless shot to number one and stayed there for three weeks. According to Amazon, it is still one of their top three most-viewed romantic comedies. Now, two years later, a sequel is on the horizon. Both Zakhar Perez and Galitzine are set to return, but by design, he knows next to nothing about the project so far. 'I purposefully said, 'Please do not share with me anything until we are ready to prep it, because I want plausible deniability,'' Zakhar Perez jokes. 'I have not read a script, but I hear it's very good.'
Meanwhile, he's also been dipping a toe in the fashion world, sitting in the front row during fashion weeks and recently starring in a viral Lacoste underwear campaign (for those wondering, he spends about an hour in the gym a day, seldom drinks, and thinks twice about the food he puts in his body). Moving forward in his career, he plans on being selective with his projects, hopes to experiment in other film genres, and has plans to foray behind the camera. 'I just got the life rights to somebody that I'm very excited about. I'm flexing a different muscle,' he says. 'I want a career that I'm proud of, not one that just checks all the right boxes.'
Hair by Sami Knight for Rehab
; makeup by Alexandra French at Forward Artists; manicure by Jolene Brodeur at the Wall Group; produced by Anthony Federici at Petty Cash Production; photographed at Malibu Creek Ranch.
A version of this story appears in the Summer 2025 issue of ELLE.
Related Stories
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time Magazine
an hour ago
- Time Magazine
The History of Music Copyright—Before (Taylor's Version)
Taylor Swift wrote a letter to her fans announcing that she had finally secured ownership of the original master recordings for her entire catalog. It's the culmination of her efforts to gain full control of the copyright in her work. Rights to her catalog—including hugely successful albums like Fearless, Red, and 1989 —were purchased by a music industry mogul without her consent in June 2019. Although her legal team was unable to stop the sale, Swift won the high ground in the court of public opinion by arguing that such an action was morally wrong. In the process, she has achieved something unique in the history of American popular music. The pop star's efforts to control her master recordings has been an element of her ongoing advocacy for artist rights. The intricacies of publishing, licensing, and rights ownership in the modern music industry are quite complex. Though copyright may be law in one sense, public perception and popular opinion effect how the law is enforced in practice. The history of American popular music shows that the degree of agency an unsigned artist has to negotiate terms with industry representation can be profoundly affected by their class, race, and gender. Very few artists will ever reach the level of popularity and profitability that Swift enjoys, but by raising public discourse about music copyright she has helped to reinvigorate conversations about the value of music. Copyright protection for 'Authors and Inventors' is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, which highlights the importance the framers placed upon encouraging creativity and innovation. Congress passed the first copyright act in 1790 protecting any 'map, chart, book, or books,' which allowed authors the sole right to profit from the sale of their work for a limited time after which it would enter the public domain. Congress expanded copyright in 1802 to account for new advances in print technology and visual mediums. Interestingly, sheet music, which had existed for centuries, was not added to the list of protectable mediums until 1831. In truth, there was relatively little music generating revenue for copyright to protect in early America. That began to change when a 20-year-old Stephen Foster composed 'Oh! Susanna' in the late 1840s. The song was an unprecedented hit, selling well over 100,000 copies in multiple editions. Foster failed to properly register and protect his interests and made next to nothing off the song. Despite enjoying numerous fair and favorable contracts throughout his career. Foster never learned how to capitalize financially on the public success of his songs and he died penniless in 1864. The popularity of Foster's songs demonstrated that there was money to be made in American music, and publishing houses observed how songwriters could be easily taken advantage of in the process. Beginning with Tin Pan Alley at the turn of the 20th century, the music industry professionalized rapidly. Composers and songwriters, despite creating the product that generated income, became increasingly separated from the business of music. Record label executives, music publishers, lawyers, agents, and other professionals handled the paperwork and managed the money. While some songwriters like Irving Berlin also learned the business side of music, such cases were the exception, not the rule. Consider the career of Berlin's contemporary Woody Guthrie. Guthrie did not have access to the kinds of industry support more mainstream artists had, but he did have access to his local library. In 1937, he researched the copyright registration process on his own, sent in the required documentation along with a one-dollar fee to register 'California!,' and even asked the Copyright Office to send guidance about registration best practices. The Copyright Office responded promptly with an official registration certificate for 'California!,' several blank application cards, and instructions for how to optimize future registrations. This process was time consuming, however. Guthrie's transient lifestyle and prolific output meant that much of his catalog was not registered or managed properly. The copyright claim in Guthrie's most famous song, ' This Land is Your Land,' has been contested by artists and content creators looking to use the song in new ways. Rather than to maximize profitability, Guthrie's heirs have used copyright primarily to keep the song from being appropriated by commercial and political interests that are in direct opposition to his worldview. The key ethical question of copyright, like so many areas of the law, is not just about what rights are granted. It is about how the power granted by those rights gets wielded in practice. Over the course of the 20th century, many popular musicians like Chuck Berry and John Fogerty signed away their rights early in their careers, missing the full financial rewards when they later made it big. For many, accepting unfavorable terms had been their only option to break into the industry. Fogerty was famously sued by his former label and bandmates for sounding too much like himself when he went solo in 1972. Fogerty recently announced that, at the age of 80, he will be recording a (John's Version) album of his Greatest Hits, in a nod to Swift's success with the strategy. Before Swift's triumph, Prince is probably the artist who most skillfully used cultural influence to leverage their rights. When his label claimed a trademark in the rights to his name and all music marketed under it, he changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol until his contract with them expired in 2000. Similarly, much of Swift's success has come from relying more on public relations than litigation to assert her ownership. Inspired by a viral social media post from Kelly Clarkson, Swift began the process of rerecording her early work in November 2020. But that strategy only worked because she was also able to motivate her fans to choose (Taylor's Version) albums on streaming platforms and even to repurchase her rerecorded work on CD, cassette, and vinyl. Including bonus material and other incentives was certainly part of the strategy, but the level of fan involvement in policing the (Taylor's Version) transition has reached levels that are difficult to explain by marketing tactics alone. Swift's efforts to take legal control of her songwriting catalog have significantly raised the level of discourse about copyright law in popular culture. They have also provided a high-profile challenge to the trope of the struggling artist that has creative abilities but lacks savvy business skills. Swift's management of her career has been touted as a model to reduce the structural inefficiencies in music licensing and broadcasting, to promote equity sharing with record labels, and to give artists in general more control over their creative work. After her rerecording venture was so successful, some major labels have sought to add language to future contracts preventing that outcome. But to do so, they will have to navigate the fact that artists are more aware of the value that they bring in the post-(Taylor's Version) Era. Jason Lee Guthrie is an Associate Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Clayton State University in Morrow, GA. His research explores the intersections of creativity and economics, with a focus on copyright in the creative industries.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
What Happened to Edmund White? ‘A Boy's Own Story' Author Passes Away
The death of Edmund White, acclaimed author of A Boy's Own Story, has shocked many. Widely recognized for his groundbreaking contributions to gay fiction and memoirs, White was a major figure in LGBTQ+ literature for decades. His death has led to an outpouring of tributes from fans and the literary world. Here are more details about Edmund White's death. Edmund White, the acclaimed American author who helped redefine gay literature, has died at the age of 85. According to his agent Bill Clegg, White passed away on Tuesday evening while waiting for an ambulance after suffering symptoms related to a stomach illness. White became a leading voice in LGBTQ+ literature beginning in the 1970s. He was best known for his 1982 novel A Boy's Own Story, which reflected his own experience growing up gay in mid-20th-century America. It was the first in a semi-autobiographical trilogy that also includes The Beautiful Room Is Empty and The Farewell Symphony. Born in Ohio in 1940 and raised in Illinois, White initially planned to attend Harvard but chose the University of Michigan so he could stay close to a therapist who claimed he could 'cure' homosexuality. He went on to live in New York and San Francisco, building a career in freelance journalism and magazine editing before publishing his debut novel, Forgetting Elena, in 1973. (via The Guardian) Over the years, White published more than 30 works. These include memoirs, essays, and biographies of literary figures like Jean Genet and Marcel Proust. His final memoir, The Loves of My Life, was released in 2025. White's husband, Michael Carroll, remembered him as kind, generous, and wise. He said, 'He was wise enough to be kind nearly always. He was generally beyond exasperation and was generous. I keep thinking of something to tell him before I remember.' The post What Happened to Edmund White? 'A Boy's Own Story' Author Passes Away appeared first on - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Travis Kelce Sends Strong Message After Taylor Swift's Personal Decision
Travis Kelce Sends Strong Message After Taylor Swift's Personal Decision originally appeared on Athlon Sports. Taylor Swift is arguably one of the biggest and most prominent pop stars in the world today, and therefore, it is no doubt that her relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce draws tons of attention. Advertisement A common sight on television during Chiefs games is Swift watching from a luxury box. It is something that annoys some fans, but it has also brought lots of publicity, not to mention viewership, for the NFL. On Friday, it was announced that Swift made a huge career move when she made it known that she now owns the rights to her first six albums. This should open up plenty of business opportunities for her, including the ability to receive royalties from her songs. Kelce congratulated Swift on gaining the rights to all the songs on those albums, including "I Knew You Were Trouble," a song from the album "Red" in 2012. NBA legend Shaquille O'Neal tried to sing along with the lyrics during an appearance on the "New Heights" podcast with Kelce and his brother Jason. 'Shout out to Tay-Tay, just got that song back, too. Just bought all her music back, so it's finally hers too. I appreciate that," Travis Kelce said. Until recently, the rights to those six albums were held by Shamrock Capital, which had purchased them from Ithaca Holdings. Scooter Braun's Ithaca Holdings previously bought Big Machine Label Group, which had owned the rights to the master recordings of those six albums. Advertisement According to Billboard, Swift reportedly paid around $360 million for the rights to those recordings. Pop icon Taylor Swift and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce at Arrowhead J. Rebilas-Imagn Images Travis Kelce flirted with the idea of retirement after the Chiefs lost in Super Bowl LIX to the Philadelphia Eagles. But the 35-year-old will be back for the 2025 season, which is the final season of his current contract. Related: NFL's Josh Allen Message Sparks Excitement This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 4, 2025, where it first appeared.
