‘Fingernails’: See ‘The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White in New Sci-Fi Romance (Exclusive)

What if there was a test you could take to ensure that your partner was 100 percent the one for you?

That’s the premise of the upcoming sci-fi romance Fingernails, which stars The Bear‘s Jeremy Allen White and Olivier winner Jessie Buckley as Ryan and Anna, a couple whose relationship is put through the ringer when Anna starts working at The Love Institute, a facility that runs just such a test. Unfortunately, it’s an intense one.

“In this world, the way the test is run, you rip out your fingernail and it’s put in a machine,” White explains in ET’s exclusive look at the film. “It’s pretty brutal.”

“You pull out the fingernails of each person in the couple and put it in a machine and it tells you whether it’s a 100 percent match,” adds Riz Ahmed, who plays Anna’s co-worker, Amir. “If it is, then the couple is in love. If it’s 50 percent, then only one person is in love, and if it’s zero, then no one is in love.”

The Black Mirror-esque premise, from writer-director Christos Nikou, stemmed from the ubiquity of modern-day dating apps and how much that virtual disconnect affects the way people meet potential partners.

“It was really interesting. He started talking about cell phones and your relationship of your finger to your cell phone and the fingernail being part of the process of swiping right and swiping left,” White explains of meeting with Nikou about the film. “So we wanted to sort of take that out of this world — there were so many interesting details.”

While the test calls Ryan and Anna’s relationship into question, Buckley said there were no such difficulties when it came to connecting with White on set.

“Literally, day one, we were naked in a bath together, so that’s the kind of baptism in fire of whether you are going to get on with somebody or not,” she recalls with a laugh. “He just made it so easy. He’s such an amazing actor. Sometimes you come to work and it just fits and it feels really easy, and that part I felt was so important because I wanted it to be hard for Ryan and Anna to want something else.”

The film also stars Luke Wilson as Anna and Amir’s boss, Duncan, and the actor said he was drawn to the project both because of the unique premise and his talented co-stars.

“Reading the script, I just did not know what to expect at all and that is very rare,” he recalls. “And also, by the time I had read the script I knew that Riz and Jessie and Jeremy were going to be in it and all three of those people I happen to be a fan of.”

“I’m 51, so there’s a part of me where it’s like, the music I love, everybody I love is kind of older, all the actors I love are from the ’70s and ’80s,” he adds. “To see new actors that are just so interesting and so dynamic… It’s a great feeling to see younger actors that are so interesting to watch.”

The film, which was produced by Oscar winner Cate Blanchett, also stars Annie Murphy, Nina Kiri, Clare McConnell, Juno Rinaldi, Jim Watson, Varun Saranga, Christian Meer, Amanda Arcuri and Katy Breier.

Fingernails will be released in limited theaters on Oct. 27 ahead of its Apple TV+ streaming release on Nov. 3. 

All interviews were conducted prior to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, which began on July 14, 2023.

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