Who is Nora in ‘Red, White & Royal Blue?’

We know, we know. It is hard to focus on anything when you have Nicholas Galitzine and Taylor Zakhar Perez playing the most adorable (and electrifyingly enticing) lovebirds in Red, White & Royal Blue. But the Prime Video offering is catching many eyes for a lot more than just Henry and Alex’s love-wins-all storyline, and one such wonder is the character of Nora.

Yes, Alex and Henry are busy jumping from detesting each other’s company to practically devouring each other the second they lay eyes on each other to finally finding “the one” in each other, but there is also a lot happening in the rest of the story. And that’s where Nora comes in. But we totally understand if everyone else was practically background noise for you in your first viewing of the film.

Where do we see Nora in Red, White & Royal Blue?

Well, if you manage to tear your eyes away from Alex and Henry when you sit down to watch it for the second (or sixteenth) time, you will notice that Nora is a constant presence in the film, and quite an important one. 

Played by Rachel Hilson (Good Wife, This is Us, and Love, Victor) with just the right amount of cheekiness and charm, Nora is Alex’s best friend and confidante — a role originally fulfilled by the latter’s sister, June Claremont-Diaz, in the book, but the character was completely scrapped from the film, presumably in an attempt to focus more on the core love story. Nora is the granddaughter of Vice President Mike Holleran, and attends the celebration of Prince Phillip’s wedding with Alex.

But she is not merely a big part of Alex’s life as she also works for his mother, Ellen Claremont’s — the United States’ first female President — election campaign. Based on the information during her and Alex’s interactions, she analyzes the data and works to get more “female-identifying candidates elected to Congress.”

From the very beginning, it is apparent that Alex relies on her for sound advice — whether it is ditching the royal party, or dating the prince he once found intolerable — and that he trusts her completely, to the point where she is the first one he tells about Henry. Turns out, she knew about Henry “fancying” Alex long before her best friend learned about it. A classic true best friend symptom — knowing us before we are even aware that there is something to know.