Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson are both well-known book adaptation veterans. From The Princess Diaries, The Devil Wears Prada and Les Misérables to Fifty Shades of Grey, The Lost Daughter and Persuasion, both actresses have plenty of experience bringing popular books to the big screen.

Now, they’ve collaborated for the first time on the film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s popular romantic thriller novel Verity, released in 2018 and widely considered to be the author’s best work.

While there’s undoubtedly plenty of pressure to adapt such popular source material, Hathaway told PEDESTRIAN.TV ahead of the film's release that she approached the process through a fan's lens. 

“I imagine sitting down with the world's biggest fan of the book and explaining why certain things couldn't make it, and when that fan would be like, ‘I understand’, and when that fan would be like, ‘Then don't make it’,” she shared.

“That really came in handy with The Idea of You; it came in handy with this one. There are certain things that are just essential to the DNA of the piece, and if it's not there, people are going to feel cheated.”

The 7 biggest book changes in Verity

Verity officially hit cinemas this week, and although most details remain faithful to the book, there are a few tweaks that readers may have noticed. In case you didn’t, we’ve rounded up seven of the biggest changes Verity made from the novel — and yes, there are spoilers ahead!

1. Lowen’s sleepwalking

In the novel, Lowen (Johnson) is a chronic sleepwalker, which represents her fear of control and adds an eerie atmosphere to the Crawford house. She asks Jeremy (Josh Hartnett) to install a lock on her bedroom door, and at one point she even wakes up next to Verity (Hathaway) in bed.

The movie completely cuts this storyline, although Johnson — who also served as an executive producer on the project — revealed to P.TV that they did film scenes of her sleepwalking.

“I think there's one thing that we both missed, which is Lowen's sleepwalking, which is very alive in the book, and it's so much of her psychological background and what is going on with her internally,” she said. “But to watch someone sleepwalk isn't really that interesting.”

Hathaway remarked that what Johnson did on set was “amazing”, and she’s hopeful that fans will eventually be able to watch a “deleted scene” of her “waking up in the middle of the field in the snow”.

“It was wild. I had so much fun doing it, but it’s a weird…” Johnson continued. “When you read it, you’re like, ‘Oh, I can see this because I'm imagining all these different details’, but then it's hard to put that in because it's silent. There’s nothing.”

2. The third child

The film noticeably erases one of Verity and Jeremy’s children from the book, which is a classic Hollywood trick to condense multiple storylines.

In the book, the couple have twin daughters, Chastin and Harper, and a five-year-old son, Crew, whereas the movie ignores Chastin and makes Harper and Crew twins. What moviegoers miss from the story is that just a few weeks before Harper drowned in the lake, Chastin also died from a severe allergic reaction after ingesting peanuts during a sleepover, which adds to the family’s tragic backstory.

3. Verity’s abortion attempt

Trigger warning on this next one. The film features the moment Verity attempts to suffocate her daughter Harper as a newborn, but doesn’t include one of the book’s most disturbing plot points: when she uses a wire coat hanger to try and abort her twins in the womb.

The failed attempt is revealed through Verity’s autobiography manuscript, and is explained to be the reason why one of her daughters has a scar on her face. The event is a major source of contention for readers who question whether the scar is physical proof that the manuscript was real and the letter was actually fake.

4. Lowen’s dinner with Jeremy’s son

The novel featured a scene of Jeremy, Lowen and his son Crew eating dinner together at a diner, which helps soft-launch the couple's romance in a non-romantic setting and allows Lowen to get to know his son.

The film completely changes this by making their first dinner together at a fancy restaurant on her birthday without Crew, making Jeremy’s romantic intentions very clear. The pair also celebrate Lowen's birthday the day after it happens, whereas in the book, she tells him about her birthday the day before.

5. Lowen’s name change

Fans of the novel would remember that Jeremy helps Lowen come up with the pen name Laura Chase by combining her childhood street address (Laura Lane) with the name of her first pet (Chase).

He then refers to Lowen as Laura in front of Crew and Verity’s nurse, April, so she doesn’t become too attached to the book series and can avoid doing press, but this plot detail is removed from the film.

6. Call Her Daddy and Hot Ones

It shouldn’t be too surprising that the book doesn't feature cameo appearances from Alex Cooper and Sean Evans. Readers may have gotten a bit of a jump scare when the film saw Verity appear as a guest on the real-life podcast Call Her Daddy and viral online series Hot Ones, as the book featured very little about the character doing promotion for her books.

These scenes were likely added to help establish just how popular Verity is as an author, while also giving Hathaway more scenes than she has in the book — as she deserves.

7. The ending

Finally, the ending of the film is slightly different to the book. While both feature Jeremy suffocating Verity to death as he believes she purposely drowned their daughter Harper in the lake, the book doesn't deal with any of the aftermath and jumps to Jeremy and Lowen’s life together seven months later.

In the film, however, things take a slightly darker turn as Jeremy decides to drop Verity’s dead body in the lake — replicating how their daughter died. There’s also an added scene where Jeremy and Lowen tearfully speak to the police after they recover her body from the water.

So basically, if you enjoyed the book, prepare for some new details in the movie — and if you loved the film, you can read some extra context in the novel! 

Verity is in cinemas now