With two Netflix rom-coms, Noah Centineo is having a moment
LOS ANGELES (AP) — If you have a Netflix account, chances are you recognize actor Noah Centineo. Although, like the best teen heartthrobs of generations past, you’d be forgiven if you only know him by his character’s name: Peter Kavinsky, the high school lacrosse-playing romantic from “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.” And yes, like Jake Ryan (“Sixteen Candles”) and Jordan Catalano (“My SoCalled Life”) before him, both names are required.
Since “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” hit the 125-million subscriber streaming service on Aug. 17, Peter Kavinsky has become a mini phenomenon, inspiring memes, tweets and think pieces from every corner of the internet about why Peter Kavinsky and his woke, pocket-twirling ways is the boyfriend we need right now. Centineo, 22, got over 1 million new Instagram followers in a day. He’ll grace the small screen again as Netflix drops another high school rom-com, “Sierra Burgess is a Loser” into the homes of newly minted Centineo fans. “Luckily Twitter exists on a two-dimensional plane,” laughed Centineo on a recent afternoon at Netflix’s headquarters in Los Angeles. “It’s not like I have 6 million plus people walking around with me every day. That would be insane.”
The “instant” stardom has been a long-time coming for Centineo, a Florida-native who decided he wanted to act at age 8. At 15, after appearing on the Disney Channel’s “Austin & Ally,” he convinced his family to move out to Los Angeles full-time. When he arrived, he was always working and auditioning, but it was, as he describes it, “a slow climb.”
In fact, right before he was cast on the Freeform show “The Fosters” at age 18, he had a crisis of confidence wondering if he should even be an actor. He wasn’t able to book jobs or go out on auditions for six months because of a Disney pilot that never ended up going to series and felt that he’d lost his sense of purpose.
“It got dark,” Centineo said. “I’m like what am I doing with my life? Who cares if I’m an actor? Who cares if I’m successful? And as soon as I realized yeah this isn’t for me...my life, my career, everything I do should be for others, there should be a deeper purpose outside of wanting to get money and be famous and live my own passion, that’s when ‘The Fosters’ hit and I don’t believe in coincidence.”
And then came one-two punch of “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” and “Sierra Burgess is a Loser,” both via the same casting director.
“What I love about Jamey is how he’s goofy and he’s a jock and he’s like ‘Yo, we are allowed to be both sides of the spectrum in one human being,” Centineo said. “I like Peter K because the boy is an egomaniac. He’s definitely not as smart as Jamey, but he’s sensitive, and a bit more extreme but still really loving and protective.”
Centineo almost sabotaged his “To All The Boys...” audition by arriving late to the chemistry read with Lana Condor. He was given the wrong address, and was mortified about it. As soon as he left, he had a dozen Sprinkles cupcakes sent over to the folks in the room, including director Susan Johnson.
“He’s just charming. He can’t not be charming,” said Johnson. “I pulled him aside at the end of the shoot and said, ‘You can go wherever you want to go and do any role you want to do.