‘Four Weddings and a Funeral’ Star Rebecca Rittenhouse Almost Had Her Own Meet-Cute in Italy

Four Weddings and a Funeral is more than a romantic comedy; it’s a love letter to friendship. After her love life falls apart, Maya (Nathalie Emmanuel) escapes to London where her three best friends from college live. Buoying her up the most in this tumultuous time? Her ultra-glam BFF Ainsley, played by Rebecca Rittenhouse.

Rittenhouse is an American actress best known for her work in television shows like Blood & Oil and The Mindy Project. During a panel for Four Weddings and a Funeral at Summer TCA, Rittenhouse explained that as ex-pats living in London, the American quartet we follow would naturally be tighter than they would be if they had all stayed in the United States. “There’s something to be said for moving these four friends to a different location, where you get the sense that they’ve had to lean on each other more than they would have, had they been at home,” Rittenhouse said.

Decider caught up with Rittenhouse later that day to talk about what it’s like returning to the rom-com world of Mindy Kaling and if she ever had a rom-com style “meet cute” in real life.

DECIDER: I love how you mentioned during the panel that the friendship of those four people in London and how they would be drawn closer together. Can you talk about the chemistry that you guys have on set and how much fun it was to build that relationship on screen?

Rebecca Rittenhouse: Well, at the beginning obviously you don’t know each other, so you sort of have to fake it until you make it. And then as time goes on and you actually do develop a rapport, it just gets easier and easier and more and more fun to film those group scenes. And they probably are like, “Be quiet now and actually say your lines instead of just riffing.”

You and Nathalie Emmanuel have this important friendship at the core of the show, and she’s mostly done Game of Thrones and drama, but here she gets to be fun and light. What was it like working with her?

It was really fun. I think we had a good time. I think there was one day where we shot some stills where she was supposed to be passed out drunk on the couch and I was drawing mustaches on her. I actually want a copy of those. It’s one of my favorite memories of shooting. We just had a blast. It’s simple. 

This isn’t your first time working Mindy Kaling, but I wonder what is it like as an actress to be on a Mindy Kaling project? Because I feel like she’s got a very specific tone that delves into the rom-com genre, but is still sharp.

She does love all of those things and she’s very good at those things, but she’s also just whip smart and a lover of literature, and I think what is going to be fascinating to watch how she moves forward in her career as a writer and a producer and the types of things she works on because I definitely think she’s going to start to branch out.

But the main thing, for me, was transitioning from something like The Mindy Project to Four Weddings, which obviously one is a half-hour comedy and one is an hour dramedy. And so making that change was…I tried to be thoughtful about it because it’s not like you’re just setting up jokes. You really do have to invest more in the reality of the situation and also find the humor in it, so that you have the heart and you have the humor. And also just being able to play a completely different character than I played on the other show was another transition. A big honor that she gave me an opportunity to do something completely different.

I love your scenes with Zoe Boyle. Can you talk about working with her? I thought she was fantastic as Gemma.

She is fantastic. Zoe Boyle is so precise, so prepared, so professional, extremely funny. I adore her as a human being. I mean, she’s like a young Maggie Smith honestly, like I hope that her star just shoots.

So obviously Four Weddings and a Funeral was filmed on location in London. What was the most fun part about being on location there?

My neighborhood probably. I loved my neighborhood and I also loved being able to spend a significant amount of time with my English friends because I have quite a few from college and from like, Charlie Rowe from Red Band Society, and I got to see my friend Tom Bateman a bit who I did another Hulu project with. It was just nice to be somewhere else for a significant period of time and really get to experience what it was like to live there beyond vacation.

I think of all the characters Ainsley has the most defined fashion sense.

Definitely.

How important were those clothes to you and how much input did you have with the costume designer?

[Costume designer Salvador Perez] and I worked really closely together on that character, and actually that red suit that she wears in the second episode where she goes back to work after getting dumped was kind of a big jumping off point for us. It really expresses who she is, I think, the fact that it’s a suit and it’s powerful, but it’s still extremely feminine, colorful, and playful. So that was really a big inspiration for us going forward. And I also think that Sal tried to be really thoughtful about her arc. So I think that the costumes play a significant role in explaining her arc and where she is. And they’re fun.

A lot of rom-coms influence this series. Do you have a favorite rom-com in particular?

I really love Two Weeks Notice. It’s just one of my favorites. I also love How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. I also love Notting Hill. I love The Holiday. I just think Kate Winslet is so lovely in it. I mean, I could go on and on. I really love rom-coms. I spent a lot of time watching rom-coms growing up with my dad. It was sort of our thing, especially really old movies as well.

In a lot of rom-coms they have a meet-cute where people meet in a really spontaneous and romantic way. Have you ever had one of those in modern dating life?

I mean, yeah, I met this guy in Italy who basically approached me on the street and was like, “Do you want to get a coffee?” And then I had a coffee with him and…it can’t be a meet-cute because I didn’t feel any chemistry with him, but it could have been a meet-cute! Could you imagine if I did? And now I’m getting married to an Italian husband. But I just kind of was like, “Oh, I’ll be open-minded.” I told my friend that and she was like, “You could have been murdered.” But, no we were in public. It was fine. It was fine. Close but no cigar meet-cute.

The first four episodes of Four Weddings and a Funeral are now available to stream on Hulu. New episodes premiere on Wednesdays. 

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Watch Four Weddings and a Funeral on Hulu