How Verity’s ending was changed after test screenings

The thriller starring Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson was supposed to end in a much more twisted way. But the test screenings convinced Michael Showalter to change his mind… with the approval of Colleen Hoover.

The end Verity could have been very different.

While the thriller with Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson strongly divides critics, its director Michael Showalter reveals that several endings were considered before test screenings encouraged him to reconsider his first choice.

Adapted from the best-selling book by Colleen Hoover, the film follows Lowen Ashleigh (Johnson), a young author hired by Jeremy (Josh Hartnett), the husband of Verity Crawford (Hathaway), to complete his wife’s famous series of novels. Since an accident, Verity has been paralyzed and unable to speak. But when Lowen discovers a hidden manuscript, she realizes that her model is much more monstrous than she imagined.

Showalter took several liberties with the novel, including removing one of Verity’s dead children, a change Hoover considers “the best change we could make”. But the director hesitated for a long time over the conclusion.

In the film, Lowen discovers that Verity is faking her paralysis. She eventually falls in love with Jeremy, and when he realizes the truth, he strangles Verity before throwing her body into the lake. Six months later, Lowen, pregnant, discovers a letter claiming that the famous manuscript was only a writing exercise and that Jeremy had tried to kill Verity. Doubt therefore remains about what really happened. The film finally ends with Lowen and Jeremy leaving the house. But Showalter had planned a much more twisted ending.

“We tried 100 million different ways to end this movie. Figuring out how to finish the film was the biggest challenge, and it was the last thing we did“, he explains to Variety.

In an early version, Lowen understood that she would never know who to believe: “I don’t know who to believe. One thing is certain: Verity was a master manipulator.” She then put on sunglasses with a predatory look, before the film revealed that Verity was still alive, her eyes opening as she sank into the lake.

“The idea was for Lowen to be the real big bad. (…) It was this incredible moment where we said to ourselves: ‘Oh shit! Was Lowen the manipulator all along?“

But the test projections changed the situation. The studio held several sessions with spectators, some who had read the novel and others who had not. And their reactions helped Showalter understand what wasn’t working.

“What we understood was that they wanted Lowen to remain in a zone of uncertainty at the end of the film.” The public was not ready to follow Lowen in her transformation into a great manipulator.

“Lowen had this moment where she put on the sunglasses and was like, ‘I don’t give a fuck,’ and the audience wasn’t ready to go there with her. The audience wanted it to be more like, ‘What the fuck did I do?’ We understood that the audience was Lowen and he wasn’t ready to put on those glasses.”

Colleen Hoover says she is in any case satisfied with the final result: “I couldn’t be happier. I have the impression that we leave the film with the same feelings as leaving the book, and that’s what I ultimately hoped for. These screenings really helped us.”

Verity could therefore have ended with a huge revelation, with Verity ready to resurface. The spectators ultimately preferred to leave with a doubt.