For lovers of a steamy romance drama, The Last Sunrise (now on Prime Video) is the latest movie release in the genre, based on the novel by Anna Todd. Set in the breathtaking landscape of Mallorca, the film, starring Maia Reficco, Fernando Lindez and Eva Longoria, and directed by Carlson Young, will have you longing for a passionate summer escape.
In The Last Sunrise, Oriah “Ry” (Reficco) travels to the Spanish island with her mother, Isolde (Longoria), who is working to close a deal to open a new resort. Ry has a genetic condition, tuberous sclerosis, which causes noncancerous tumors to grow in parts of the body, such as the brain, kidneys, heart or lungs. It’s something she initially keeps secret from Julián (Fernando Lindez), a charming local she unexpectedly falls for.
As Ry’s condition gets worse, she has to navigate what’s best for her health, while also wanting to live her life to the fullest.
‘As complex as one can really fathom’
Something Todd is particularly proud of as an executive producer on the film is the casting.
“I feel like that’s my thing. … I just get this immediate gut feeling,” Todd told Yahoo Canada. “I keep getting really lucky with all of the people that I want, before we even start the real process.”
“I think it’s also because I am such a consumer of this genre, … so … as soon as I get that feeling in my gut, I’m like, this is it. … I’m so proud of my casting. Sometimes I’m like, should I just be a casting director? And now I have friends who are producers who ask me about their films, that I have nothing to do with, about what I think of the leads.”
And with those strong casting choices came not just the core romantic connection between Ry and Julián, but a dynamic mother-daughter relationship between Ry and Isolde.
“It was a ridiculous privilege to get to work with [Eva Longoria] and get to know her, and most of all, … learn from her as a person and as a professional,” Reficco said. “I was going through a particular time personally, and she had the best advice. And we would go and get drinks, and we would chat.”
“I think in regards to our characters, there was a lot of work that we did … to make this dynamic complex in the way that it needed to be. .. Mother-daughter relationships are inherently complex, and when you add something like a health situation that’s so intertwined with love and worry and care, and this anxiety … over the awareness of time, I think everything … becomes as complex as one can really fathom.”
Meanwhile, Julián’s journey throughout the film is one of vulnerability.
“I think at the beginning, Julián is a guy who’s very confident, he likes to have everything under control, but I think there is something more underneath,” Lindez said. “There is a very … vulnerable guy with a very soft heart.”
“I think he has trouble expressing his emotions, but he feels things very deeply, and you can see that through the whole movie.”
Maia Reficco (Ry) and Fernando Lindez (Julian) in THE LAST SUNRISE (Lucia Faraig / Prime)
Anna Todd: Someone with a chronic illness can have a happy ending
Ry’s tuberous sclerosis isn’t just a storytelling tool Todd used, her son has the same condition, which means that so much of the film, including how Ry’s mother navigates having a child with a chronic illness, is incredibly personal for the author.
“Because of the unique way that we kind of reverse-engineered this film, where I was writing the novel while the script was being developed, … I went through a lot of phases where, in the beginning, I was writing and I was like, ‘Oh, steamy romance, summer fun.’ But she has the condition my son has,” Todd said. “My main goal was hopeful. It was not to show that every person with chronic illness doesn’t get a happy ending, it was to show people fall in love and they can have these great experiences without a tragedy always occurring.”
“But there was a point where I had to take a little bit of a break. … I had my son at 21. … Until literally writing this book, I had never taken the time to kind of unpack all of the, I don’t want to say trauma lightly, but it was really hard. It’s still really hard every day. … I kept being like, oh, Isolde, Ry’s mom feels this way. But then I was like, wait, I feel this way.”
While writing the book, Todd also underwent genetic testing, which confirmed that she carried the gene.
“There’s this guilt and there’s this uncertainty. … And I did genetic testing while writing it, which I regret doing that for sure because I was like, OK, I need a break because now I know for sure the gene came from me,” she shared. “But I’m so grateful that I did it because I feel like it brought me closer to myself.”
“It’s devastating, but at the same time, I got to be a little proud of how much work I’ve done to make my son’s life better.”
For Reficco, the actor noted that she felt a sense of responsibility in portraying a character with tuberous sclerosis, but trusted Todd and the team behind the film.
“At the end of the day, I was really leaning on Carlson, our director, and … my acting coach. We really just made sure to tell this story as accurately as we could and as informed as possible,” she said. “These stories, if not told correctly, or if not told with care and information to back it, they can become quite obsolete, and it kind of loses the purpose of what we’re trying to do.”
“And I think the fine line for me was not letting this … define the entirety of her existence, but at the same time understanding that something of that nature does trickle into a lot of aspects of one’s life. Especially the ability of hoping and the ability of projecting into the future, and looking forward to life.”
Maia Reficco, Anna Todd and Fernando Lindez of “The Last Sunrise” at Obsessed Fest held at nya Studios on June 27, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images)
‘I love these lines, but as a producer, this isn’t working’
While this isn’t Todd’s first time as an executive producer, also holding the role for the adaptation of her After series, and the movie Regretting You, based on the novel by Colleen Hoover, Todd identified that she now has a better understanding of how to balance core elements that fans of the books deem important with what’s best for an on-screen telling of a story.
“For the After series, I was just sort of thrown into producing. … It started as a set visit, and then suddenly it was like, actually, we need you here the whole time, and we need your opinion on this and this and this. … I had no idea what I was doing, but I realized the more I followed my gut, it just kept working out,” Todd said. “I feel like I’ve evolved in that way to where now I can also let things go a little bit easier when it comes to adapting. Like with the After series, there was so much pressure on certain quotes and certain things, and the fanbase. … And then as I started leaning more into producing and actually being able to take the time to learn how to do a lot of these things, or learn what certain words meant, … it’s so fun and so fulfilling in such a different way.”
“[The] biggest thing I think I’ve learned as a romance lover, as a producer, as a writer is, just because you think you want it as an audience member and as a fan, you don’t always want it. Even when I produced Regretting You by Colleen Hoover, there was a fine line of some of the fan-favourite lines and some of the fan-favourite scenes. I was like, as a reader, I love these lines, but as a producer, this isn’t working. So it’s an interesting dynamic of having all the hats on.”