Out to find “The One”? Lucy’s here to help, but she’s got a dilemma of her own as she’s torn between a perfect match and her imperfect ex in the new Celine Song romance, Materialists. Playing the role of the perfect match is Pedro Pascal, who plays the handsome, charming, and extremely rich Harry.

Materialists is the story of Lucy (Dakota Johnson), a successful matchmaker responsible for multiple success stories ending in marriages. The tables turn when she meets Harry (Pedro Pascal), a man who ticks all her boxes in terms of a perfect catch. Things get even more complicated with an unexpected encounter with her ex, John (Chris Evans), who is broke, but shared a deep history with Lucy.

Director Celine Song was in an unrelated conversation with Pedro Pascal, when she realised she was standing in front of the perfect Harry. “Pedro I’ve known and loved for a while, but one day we were having a conversation that went very deep about the holiness of love — and the insane difficulty of love, love as a challenge — and I just realized then and there that I was talking to Harry.”

Pascal recalls his inspiration for playing the charming character, drawing from classic romcoms. “I thought a lot about Harrison Ford in Working Girl, the George Clooney of the last 30 years, even as far back as Carey Grant,” Pascall recalls.

For Song, it was vital that Harry is likeable, with the audience wanting to fall in love with him, too. “It was really important for Harry to not be a villain, or for him to not be a joke,” she says. “So I needed somebody who is completely lovable. Because with somebody who is Mr. Perfect, the truth is that we’re going to hate that guy. But the fact that Pedro is playing this character so vulnerably, we can't help but be charmed by and love. He’s like an open wound.”

Fall in love as Materialists opens in Philippine cinemas on August 6.