‘After We Collided’ Changes With R-Rating: Josephine Langford, Hero Fiennes Tiffin Tease ‘Intense’ Sequel

The biggest difference between last year’s “After” and Friday’s “After We Collided” might be the R-rating. Stars Josephine Langford and Hero Fiennes Tiffin say the age restriction gave the college romance more freedom to show young adults in their natural state.

“I think it’s just freedom to be realistic, to be completely honest,” Fiennes Tiffin told International Business Times during last year’s set visit. “Language is such a big thing. People swear all the time, especially people in that age bracket in dramatic scenarios. That has really helped with the realistic performances.”

The British actor plays bad boy Hardin Scott, and it only makes sense that the character would use vulgar language. “I love to be able to swear as this character. He needs to be able to swear,” he told IBT.

Langford, who plays Hardin’s love interest Tessa, agreed that there’s more freedom this time around and she also noticed a major change in language. “We can say the F-word. That’s great. That’s fun,” the Australian actress said. “It’s just a lot more intense. The fights are more passionate. The fights are more aggressive. The sex scenes are steamier.”

So just how steamy are those love scenes? The Hardin actor doesn’t want fans to get too excited for explicit sequences. “Obviously not being capped in sex scenes helps, but I don’t think we’re going to take it too far,” Fiennes Tiffin said in a separate interview, adding that there’s more drinking in “After We Collided” as well.

Langford revealed that the “steamier” scenes aren’t very sexy behind-the-scenes. “It’s a really boring answer, but it’s the truth. They’re just very technical,” she explained. “So even on the first one, [being uncomfortable] just wasn’t an issue. It wasn’t intimidating or difficult or anything like that. It’s obviously great because now we know each other a bit and we’re more comfortable doing it. But in general, those scenes, I personally just always find them easy.”

Author Anna Todd, who also wrote the script for “After We Collided,” said the rating increase is something readers of her book series were begging for after seeing the first film. “Language is a big, big part, which I know is something that a lot of the fan base felt like was missing, which it was, obviously. So the language is different,” she said.

Todd also alluded to some more mature twists and events in the sequel (which readers are excitedly waiting to see). “Hardin’s behavior is much more similar to the book because we’re not making twists out of being afraid of this or afraid of that, so we just really went there,” she told IBT during the set visit. “And just content as in like what happened to Hardin’s mom and that kind of stuff, we can show in this film that we didn’t really touch on last time.”

Most importantly, the R-rating means that Dylan Sprouse’s F---ing Trevor can keep his nickname. “Imagine if it was Freaking Trevor or something,” Fiennes Tiffin scoffed.

“After We Collided” will release in theaters and on digital Friday.

Additional reporting by Rachael Ellenbogen.