Nude yoga instructors, secretly married creeps, dates that refer to their romantic relationships as “collabs”: These are just a few of the absurd potential matches Natalie (Nina Dobrev) encounters in Love Hard. As ridiculous as her many bad dates may seem, it will come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the world of dating apps that these romantic horror stories were plucked directly from the lives of the film’s creators, screenwriters Rebecca Ewing and Daniel Mackey and producer Mary Viola. “Pretty much everything in the movie’s happened to one of the three of us,” Viola tells Tudum. 

Much like the legions of their fellow online daters, the three friends and creative partners often texted one another about their bad-date stories and the ridiculous profiles they stumbled upon. And as the trio swapped experiences, they all found themselves consistently discussing the possibility of “catfishing,” which, of course, became the premise of their film. 

“It's unfortunate, but a lot of times people do not look like their photos, not even remotely,” Viola explains. “I think the filter is the death of online dating. It’s not about being shallow, it’s just that you're expecting to meet one person and then somebody completely different shows up. Then you’re left with the confusion of ‘Wait, is that them? Or is that their father?’” 

Like Natalie, Mackey, Ewing and Viola have all three been ghosted right when they were supposed to be hanging out with a match. “I was meeting someone for coffee, and I got a series of texts from her saying, ‘I'm here,’ ‘I'm parking,’ ‘I'm walking up,’ ‘I’m walking in’ and then nothing ever again,” Mackey shares. “Either the girl walked in, saw me, and was like, ‘Nah,’ or it was some dude who just gets off on getting other guys to go to coffee shops and sit around. It was really bizarre.” Viola and Ewing have nearly identical stories, and it’s likely that if you’ve ever been set up on a blind date or swiped on a dating app, you can relate. Or, perhaps you’ve even been that last-minute ghoster. 

As demoralizing as being stood up or ghosted can be, it might actually be preferable than having to sit through one of Viola’s worst dates, which didn’t end up making it into the film. For one of her very first online dates, the producer met someone for dinner. Unfortunately, though, they had an unexpected guest join them. “About halfway through the dinner, his mom showed up, claiming she had to give him a house key,” Viola says. “She sat with us and, basically, interviewed me for like 20 minutes. I remember thinking that it was either the cutest thing or the weirdest thing. Then, when I saw White Lotus, I was like, ‘I dodged the biggest bullet with that.’”  Most of Ewing’s worst dates have involved spending time with excruciatingly boring people, like the guy who talked her ear off about the history of the belt buckle for nearly two hours. Then there was the guy who was convinced Ewing was lying to him about not having children after he found a sippy cup that belonged to one of her friends’ kids in the cupholder of her car.

Though Mackey says he wouldn’t necessarily classify any of his dates as horrific, he did once go out with someone who had used really misleading photos on her profile. “I was, again, at a coffee shop waiting to meet someone, and a girl came up and said, ‘Hey.’ I looked up and said, ‘Oh, I’m sorry, I'm waiting for someone.’ Then she said, ‘No, it's me.’ ” 

As shocking as those moments can be, Ewing offers some perspective on the situation: Everyone is guilty of catfishing to some degree. “It’s not like we’re saints,” she says. “I’ve definitely booted up the Facetune quite a few times to try and just smooth out the edges a little bit.” The screenwriter is also first to admit she’s gone too far with the tuning a time or two. And, really, who hasn’t? 

As the filmmakers point out, this exact issue is touched on in the scene where Natalie and Josh (Jimmy O. Yang) help senior citizens set up their online dating profiles. “You want to use your best picture and you want to write the funniest, most clever bio or maybe tweak a few things here and there, but if you do it enough, then you become a completely different person,” Mackey observes. “Then, you don’t even know you’re catfishing someone.” 

Ewing also explains that the potential to inadvertently catfish someone doesn’t stop with photos. “Catfishing is not just your appearance. It’s all the girls who pretend to love fantasy football or hiking,” she shares. “People forget catfishing can occur with your personality.” And they specifically touch upon this in Love Hard, when Natalie is confronted by Tag (Darren Barnet) after spending most of the movie trying to woo him by pretending to enjoy rock climbing, red meat, and (gasp) Henry David Thoreau.

Even with all the energy that online daters put into making sure their profiles are as appealing as possible, sometimes — or, perhaps, a lot of the time — crossing into catfishing territory is almost inevitable. And it’s become practically formulaic. Viola, Ewing and Mackey, in fact, all noticed the formula in how many straight men curate the photos on their profiles. 

“The runner in the movie where we’re shown Josh’s dating profile pictures, that is 100% real,” Viola says. “Every guy has a bathroom selfie, and girls are like, ‘Why? We don’t need it!’ There’s the bathroom selfie, the gym selfie, and the driving-in-the-car-with-a-seatbelt-on selfie. Always.” Ewing agrees. “And every guy apparently hangs out with lions and every girl just tromps around the earth in their bikini,” she says. “There are clichés on both sides.” 

Despite all the hard (pun intended) dates that the Love Hard creators drew inspiration from, Ewing has also had some really sweet dating experiences that became bits in the film as well. “I dated this guy briefly who sent me a photo of himself with this giant, 40-foot-long penis sculpture in Vegas,” Ewing shares. “I responded, saying, ‘I knew it was just a matter of time before you sent me a dick pic.’” Just as Natalie and Josh do in the film as they get to know one another via text, the two sent “dick pics” back and forth for quite a while. And by dick pics, they meant snaps of Richard Nixon, Dick Van Dyke and Andy Dick. 

And that’s the thing about online dating: As wild as it can sometimes be, with fake profiles and matches that disagree with Die Hard being the greatest holiday movie of all time (another significant plotline), it can also lead to wonderful moments. Or, at the very least, plenty of hilarious fodder that one day lands you a Nina Dobrev–led holiday movie.