In Materialists. Dakota Johnson's matchmaker must choose between Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal. We squeeze onto a sofa with the trio to discuss love and money

Words lana Murray

Portraits Charlie Clift

GIVE ANYONE THE TASK OF NAMING THE most ineffable, charming stars of today, and odds are Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal would make that list. Who better to bring them together in a thorny love triangle, then, than director Celine Song, whose Best Picture-nominated debut, Past Lives, saw three people bound together by decades of unfulfilled desires and questions of ‘what if’?

Materialists is not quite so tragic, but is tantalising all the same. Johnson plays Lucy, a New York matchmaker skilled at pairing up demanding clients in search of someone with the height, good looks and income of their dreams. But even though she’s made a career of playing Cupid, Lucy can’t seem to find a partner of her own. When a charismatic (and unspeakably rich) prospective client named Harry (Pascal) confesses he’s more interested in her than her services, it feels like the perfect match. That is, until she’s reunited with her ex, John (Evans), and their shared history causes her to weigh up following her head or her heart. For Lucy, love is as quantifiable as primary-school maths — but her conflicting desires between John and Harry defy all calculations.

A playful subversion of the classic romcom, it exposes the ways modern dating has forced everyone to commodify themselves in the pursuit of love. And it is anchored by three leads whose chemistry amplifies the film’s tensions: Materialists investigates why simply loving each other can feel like it’s not enough to sustain a relationship.

Suitably, the trio are practically in each other’s laps when they flop down on a sofa in a London studio to speak to Empire about their collaboration. Joined together hand-inhand, they’re so comfortable with each other, it’s clear their professional collaboration has transformed into true friendship.

Let’s start from when you all read the script for the first time. To borrow from Lucy’s vernacular, what boxes did Materialists tick for you?