Romantic comedies thrive on chemistry — and in Office Romance, the captivating onscreen pull between Jennifer Lopez and Brett Goldstein absolutely emanates off the screen. The film, premiering June 5, centers on Jackie Cruz (Lopez), the driven airline CEO of AirCruz, and Daniel Blanchflower (Goldstein), a company lawyer who’s tapped to help the airline weather a major legal crisis. Daniel instantly falls for Jackie the moment he sees her — and Goldstein always intended to have Lopez (and only Lopez) in the role of the “glowing” executive, as he calls her in the trailer.  

Goldstein co-wrote the script with his Ted Lasso collaborator Joe Kelly. While filming Ted Lasso Season 3, Goldstein and Kelly took a three-hour train ride between the comedy’s Manchester set and London. Both are huge fans of “old school rom-coms” and the conversations eventually drifted to penning their own with Lopez in the lead, Goldstein explains.   

“We felt like we hadn’t seen a great one in a long time,” the actor and writer says. “We were both like, ‘Who’s your dream person to make a rom-com with?’ Without hesitation, we were both like, ‘J.Lo, because she’s the best rom-com actor.’ So we decided to write one for her.” 

Still, even after completing the script, Goldstein thought nabbing Lopez — the queen of rom-coms — might just be a pipe dream. “We thought this was never going to happen. We had never met Jennifer — as far as I was concerned, she was a mythical creature,” he explains. “But we could write it as a dream. So we sent it to her with a note that said, ‘We wrote this for you. You’re at the top of our list. It’s a list of one. If you don’t do this, we’re not going to make this film, but no pressure. Hope you enjoy it!’”

What he didn’t know? Lopez was already a huge admirer of Goldstein’s work. “I was a fan of his. People know that I’m obsessed with Ted Lasso,” Lopez says. In fact, her favorite character is Roy Kent, who just so happens to be portrayed by Goldstein. She even has a special place in her heart for Roy’s courtship of Keeley Jones (Juno Temple). “When he sent the script, I was just like, ‘They wrote this for me?’ It was great,” Lopez adds. 

Lopez was additionally drawn to the script because it gave her the chance to do something completely fresh within the rom-com genre she knows so well. “Office Romance is the first time I’m the boss. I’m not playing someone with all these aspirations, who’s the maid or the wedding planner working for the rich people,” she says. “Jackie built this company. It’s usually the woman who is hoping to be saved in romantic comedies. But that isn’t the case at all here. Jackie is very powerful. She has her own life. She’s not really looking for love. She’s a very different kind of character for me to play.”

As Goldstein quips, “Thank God, it turned out she did actually like it.” 

Of course, with a rom-com, enjoying a script is only one piece of the puzzle. You never really know if the chemistry will work until the cameras start rolling. “Brett owns the screen next to Jennifer, and when you see the two of them together on camera, you’re just like, ‘Wow!’” says director Ol Parker. “The great romantic comedy genius Richard Curtis (Love Actually, Four Weddings and a Funeral) told me, ‘You can write the best script in the world, but if people don’t want to see them kiss, it doesn’t matter.’ It’s nice to watch these two kiss!”

For all his careful planning in the script he wrote, Goldstein ultimately realized there’s an intangible je ne sais quoi to onscreen connection that can’t be manufactured — thankfully, between Goldstein and Lopez, it didn’t have to be. “I’ve got a hot new theory on how chemistry works: It’s magic. Sometimes it works with someone, and sometimes it doesn’t,” says Goldstein. “It’s about being intensely present with each other and admiring your co-star in the moment while you’re filming. If you’re both connected like that, you get chemistry.” 

Lopez readily concurs. “You just don’t know until you meet and you start working together. Because you could really get along with somebody and even really like them, but it doesn’t always work on camera. But when we were filming Office Romance, you could see that there was something magical happening,” she says. “When something’s meant to be, it’s meant to be.”

See the magic for yourself when Office Romance debuts on June 5, only on Netflix. 

Romantic Comedies To Stream NowFrom Always Be My Maybe to All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, fall in love with these movies.