9 Deleted Movie Sub-Plots That Changed Everything

This is the second Lou on this list to have had their potential tragic backstory removed. 2016’s Me Before You tells the unlikely love story of a small-town girl and a recently paralysed billionaire. Based on the novel of the same name by Jojo Moyes, it stays fairly faithful to its source material - but one big detail is missing.

In the novel the explanation for why protagonist Lou is so scared to expand her horizons is that she experienced huge trauma as a teen. At a party, Lou was raped by a group of older boys, and following this she shuts her entire life down.

She struggles to trust people and structures everything around feeling safe: right from her job down to her dress-sense. It answers the question that Will ponders on why she has no interest in branching out and seeing the world.

Author and screenwriter Moyes explained that she chose to leave it out as there was no way she could comfortably translate it to screen. In the book, she explains, the rape is covered in an almost ‘throw-away’ manner - as if Lou hasn’t processed it fully and instead keeps it tucked away in her mind.

She explained:

“We almost know before Louisa knows, how much that’s affecting her,”

After trying for six months, she decided they couldn’t get the scene right. When dedicated to film, it carries a different weight and would have to be approached totally differently. It would’ve totally changed the tone of the story and done a disservice both to the character and the important subject matter, so Moyes made the smart decision to just call it quits.