Spoiler alert for anyone who hasn’t read one of 2015’s most popular books.

When Paula Hawkins' novel The Girl on the Train hit stores in February 2015, it was an instant success, rocketing to the top of the New York Times Fiction Best Sellers list and staying there for 13 weeks. So it came as little surprise when, in May 2015, Universal announced it was adapting it for the screen, with The Help's Tate Taylor directing.

The narrative backbone of Hawkins' book remains intact throughout Erin Cressida Wilson's screenplay. The film still revolves around Rachel (Emily Blunt) and the deeply unhealthy relationship she has with alcohol; her ex-husband, Tom (Justin Theroux); his new wife, Anna (Rebecca Ferguson); their nanny, Megan (Haley Bennett); and Megan's question mark of a husband, Scott (Luke Evans). But the film does divert from the book in several noteworthy ways.

BuzzFeed News spoke on the phone with Erin Cressida Wilson about the scenes she cut, the characters she added, and the two sex scenes you almost saw.

Universal

The book was set in England, so why was the movie set in New York?

In the book, Rachel takes the train into London every day. In the film, the action has shifted to Manhattan. But Wilson says the story truly lives in Rachel's mind.

“I always thought that the location of this film was on the train and inside her imagination, and her loneliness and her gaze out the window,” she told BuzzFeed News. “Although it was set in England, it didn't feel to me like an overly English book. In terms of the use of cultural references, it was not extreme, so it was very simple to go from England to America in the adaptation.”

Wilson added that her primary focus in the adaptation was to translate the book's core themes of alcoholism, voyeurism, and women's issues, and then to — as the mystery novel had — “put them on a platter that was very popular and easy for wide audiences.”

Universal

What is accomplished by actually having Rachel be a member of Alcoholics Anonymous?

A particularly emotional scene features Rachel at an AA meeting, talking about how she woke up covered in blood and bruises the morning after Megan went missing. In the book, Rachel talks about — but never goes to — an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.

For Wilson, incorporating AA into the movie provided an opportunity to give life to Rachel's mind-set. “I really needed to dramatize and clarify that she was taking strides towards her own healing and her own sobriety — and that she was actually thoroughly frightened about what she may have done,” she said. “This was something that was so beautifully done in the book through inner monologue, but I couldn't just have a whole film filled with inner monologues. So going to Alcoholics Anonymous was a very simple solution to that problem.”

Additionally, Wilson felt the film should not only deal with alcoholism, but with how one loses grip on their sobriety. “I think that what most of us know about alcoholism is that it's a disease that creeps up on you,” she said, adding that the day someone stops drinking is often quite clear, but it's less obvious when someone slips. “Sometimes you look at someone and it's like, 'I thought you quit drinking! I thought you worked the steps?' That's what I wanted to do with her: have her quit and then show how she starts again. Because, really, it's not so simple. It takes more to find sobriety.”

Universal

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