‘To All the Boys’ connects with fans in Netflix sequel
LOS ANGELES — Bestselling author Jenny Han had just flown cross-country from New York to meet up with Lana Condor, the star of her hit “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” movies, when the actress turned to her with an urgent query: “Do you think I’m like Kitty or Lara Jean or Margot in real life?”
Han took the serious question under serious consideration. After all, Condor skyrocketed to fame overnight playing bookish teen heroine Lara Jean Song Covey, the romance-obsessed protagonist of the 2018 film adapted from Han’s bestselling novel and its new sequel, “To All The Boys: P.S. I Still Love You” (now streaming on Netflix).
And as fans know, Lara Jean and her sisters Kitty (Anna Cathcart) and Margot (Janel Parrish) are as different from one another as Condor’s onscreen beaus: Peter Kavinsky (Noah Centineo), the jock Lara Jean fell for at the end of the first movie, and sensitive musician John Ambrose McClaren (Jordan Fisher), the old flame who complicates Lara Jean’s love life as the second film picks up.
“That’s tricky,” Han said after a beat. “I’d put you as more of a … Chris,” naming Lara Jean’s unconventional but loyal best friend.
“Yes!” screamed Condor, and they both burst out laughing.
After making “To All the Boys” and two back-to-back sequels together — becoming close friends over long conversations, foodie obsessions and spa days — the pair share not just their cinematic vision of Lara Jean, the character at the heart of one of Netflix’s most-talkedabout romantic-comedies and a rare Asian American heroine, but a sisterly bond.
Han, 39, lives in New York City and Condor, 22, recently moved to Seattle. Cozying up in a conference room inside the Netflix headquarters in Hollywood, they instantly began catching up, chattering a mile a minute. Often the two just end up talking.
“We FaceTimed the other night for 4½ hours!” said Han.
But there’s more to their friendship than simpatico personalities. “I’m very protective of the character, the world and also over Lana, honestly,” said Han, who first noticed Condor when she was cast in a small role in “X-Men: Apocalypse” and advocated early for her to play Lara Jean.
“There is no movie without Lana,” she said of Condor, who was 19 when she was cast. “It all hinges on her shoulders — and that’s a lot of responsibility, a lot of attention. I wanted to keep checking in to make sure she was OK.”
Following Han’s 2014 New York Times bestselling young adult novel, the first film’s cutesy premise finds introverted Lara Jean forced out of her shell after her old love letters are mailed out to five former crushes. Agreeing to pose with the outgoing Peter as a couple to make his ex jealous, she accidentally falls in love.
The film turned Condor and Centineo into stars, boosting her social media following to 7 million fans virtually overnight. Condor remembered how different life was just a few years ago when, during the audition process for the first “To All the Boys,” she gave herself a stern pep talk.
“I remember sitting in my car and I said to myself: ‘You cannot let anyone take this away from you,’ ” said Condor, a trained ballerina who was born in Vietnam and grew up in Chicago, Washington state and New York. “‘You have to do this role. You were meant to do this.’ ”
In “P.S. I Still Love You,” on which Han is an executive producer, Lara Jean and Peter have officially become boyfriend and girlfriend, but her insecurities and unrealistic expectations start to get in the way. Poring over romance novels and ’80s teen movies has made Lara Jean, the daydreaming middle daughter of a widowed dad, emotionally unprepared for her first relationship.
She stress bakes — a personal touch taken straight out of Han’s life, which is also how Han says she got through the writing of her books. Missing her late mother and her older sister Margot, Lara Jean turns to new and old female friendships as she begins to wonder if she’s really meant for someone more like her. Enter John Ambrose McClaren.
It was a twist Condor didn’t see coming. She hadn’t picked up the second novel until she finished filming the first movie, and when she read it she texted Han immediately. “I was like, ‘Jenny, why would you do this to me! He’s so perfect!’ ”
John Ambrose is the male version of Lara Jean, said Condor. “He’s soft and charming, and he too has a lot going on in his head that he might not say out loud.”
That also made it a challenge to cast. Singer, actor and Broadway star Jordan Fisher won the role by making it his own, say Han and Condor, unlike others who came imitating big Centineo energy.
One of the more surprising indications that viewers were tuning in and connecting with “To All the Boys” came when the film led to a boom in sales of Yakult, a Japanese fermented yogurt drink that was part of Han’s childhood.
“Bringing it to school as a kid, people were like, ‘What’s that?’ ” she explained. “Being able to really own that, and seeing people discover the greatness of Yakult … hopefully for kids to take that to school now and no one is embarrassing them or making them feel bad, that to me was a big moment.”