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You new guilty pleasure is wheel-spinning onto streaming platform Prime Video just in time for Valentine’s Day. For the silly name because big-city romance My Fault: London, a UK-set redo of a smash-hit 2023 Spanish film called My Fault, is full of Fight Club-style brawling, Fast 5-esque drag races and a smouldering central love story that’s anything but smooth.
It could be this year’s answer to Red, White & Royal Blue: beautiful people in a timeless cultural-clash romance – only with more smoking tyres.
What is My Fault: London?
‘There was just this fun, adventurous, alluring, sexy, thrilling and romantic feeling that drew us in,’ Charlotte Fassler, the film’s co-director with Dani Girdwood, tells Time Out.
And the plot? Teenage girl Noah (Asha Banks) is forced to move from Florida to London, when her mother Ella (Eve Macklin) marries William (Ray Fearon). Arriving in the English capital, she meets, and quickly falls for, her new stepbrother Nick (The Buccaneers’ Matthew Broome). Over the course of the summer they become closer and closer… until a figure from Noah’s past arrives in London to threaten their future.
Where was My Fault: London filmed?
The filmmakers wanted to show a ‘high-octane and sexier’ London that still felt real. ‘We wanted the city to feel like a character,’ says Girdwood. ‘It has to have a sense of wish-fulfilment and excitement. There are so many films that shoot in very generic or vague locations. We wanted ours to feel authentic.’
William and Nick’s home is in Highwood, Mill Hill
It’s not specified where William and Nick live in London, but their home, which Noah and Ella move into at the start of the film, needed to have the feel of Regent’s Park but still be practical to shoot in. They found the house in Highwood, Mill Hill, a leafy corner of north London. ‘We wanted something massive and imposing,’ says Girdwood, ‘to knock the audiences’ socks off’.’
Noah’s first London ball was filmed at Burlington House, Mayfair
Soon after Noah arrives in London, she’s whisked off to a star-studded gala where she learns that Nick isn’t just a spoiled rich-kid, but instead made his own money by developing an app. ‘This is a crucial scene because it’s the first time you see Noah out and about in London,’ explains Girdwood. ‘The location needed to feel impressive.’
So many films shoot in generic London locations. We wanted ours to feel authentic
Mayfair’s Burlington House, built in the late 1600s, was used for the exterior where Nick poses for the paparazzi. ‘We wanted him to drive straight in so you could see its impressive architecture. It felt really important that we were right in the centre of London,’ says Girdwood.
The interiors were filmed in Plaisterers’ Hall, an events space located in Barbican. ‘It [also] had this stately feel,’ says Girdwood. ‘It felt distinctly un-American, so it gives her character a culture shock.
Shortly after the gala sequence, Noah follows Nick after he abandons her on Albert Bridge and confronts him at a party. This soirée was shot at MC Motors, another event space in Dalston.
Noah and Nick’s first kiss takes place in a Stratford car park
Noah and Nick get close when she joins him at an underground car chase, which begins at a multi-storey car park. Noah tags along after discovering that her boyfriend in Florida has cheated on her with her bestie.
Enter Nick with a cunning plan to make Noah’s boyfriend jealous: that Noah should send him pictures of them kissing. He takes her up to the roof of the car park, where they kiss, all against a stunning backdrop of the London skyline. ‘We wanted something that felt urban,’ says Fassler. ‘It had to have a completely different texture to what we’d seen at the family home or the gala.’
We wanted to keep it grounded so that people knew we were still in London
Queen Elizabeth Car Park, built for the 2012 Olympics, hit the spot. ‘It was important to have that glimmer of London in the background when they kiss,’ says Girdwood. ‘Because even though we were in this different location, we wanted to keep it grounded so that people knew we were still in London.’
The racing scenes were shot at Brands Hatch
My Fault: London’s car-racing sequences were shot at the famous racing circuit at Brands Hatch in Kent. The cast and filmmakers were given the lowdown on the track’s historic place in British motor-racing history. ‘I remember driving around the track in our scout van and it just put a smile on all of our faces,’ says Fassler.
Nick and Noah’s Ibiza holiday was shot in Tenerife
Looking to get away from the prying eyes of their parents, Nick, Noah and their friends decide to take a weekend trip to Ibiza so they can let loose. Rather than going to that specific island for filming, Girdwood admits that they traveled to Tenerife so they could shoot in a ‘little bit of warm weather and give it that flavour’. This was required as My Fault: London was shot in the winter, but it unfolds in the summer.
While they were in Tenerife, Girdwood and Fassler also decided to film My Fault: London’s opening scenes, which are set in Florida, since it was much easier to recreate that aesthetic in Spain than in wintery Britain.
The final shootout was shot in Union Street, Southwark
At the end of My Fault: London, Noah is kidnapped by her evil, estranged dad Travis (Jason Flemyng). A car chase unfolds that starts at White Waltham, an airfield outside of London, then down the M1, before ending up in central London.
‘For all of the car chases we had to weave together different locations on separate shooting days,’ says Girdwood. The final shootout of the film took place on Union Street, near Southwark, as they wanted to make sure there was a view of The Shard in the background.
My Fault: London launches on Prime Video Feb 13.