HER ‘VICTOR-Y’
NYU alum Hilson goes back to HS for ‘Love’
With her New York University degree in hand, Rachel Hilson is all set to begin high school.
The 2018 graduate is now one of the leads in Hulu’s new “Love, Victor” series, which follows the title character as he attempts to fit in and struggles to explore his sexual orientation after moving to a new high school in Atlanta.
Hilson, 24, stars as Mia Brooks, a kindhearted and popular student at Creekwood High School, whom Victor, played by Michael Cimino, begins to date, despite questioning whether his feelings for her are actually romantic.
“Victor’s story in a lot of ways is universal,” Hilson told the Daily News. “All of us at some point are just figuring ourselves out, or maybe constantly. I think the writers really gave audience members things to relate to and connect to . ... There’s kind of something for everybody.”
The show, which debuts
Wednesday y on Hulu, is a spinoff of the acclaimed 2018 movie “Love, Simon,” which told the coming-of-age story of a gay student at that same fictional high school.
Hilson was a fan of the original movie before she joined the new series. She was quickly drawn to the complex role of Mia, whose life is enviable on the surface but difficult behind the scenes.
“She’s incredibly kind and compassionate and artistic, and she’s strong,” Hilson said. “She’s dealing with a lot in her home and family life, and feels as though g she has to maybe mask that at school.
“I think that’s always interesting,” she explained. “We’re always kind of putting on versions of ourselves, and I think that’s the work of being a human and being a teenager, trying to find the balance of being ourselves and not caring so much what people think.”
The series marks the latest prominent role for Hilson, who also plays the collegeaged version of Beth on NBC’s “This Is Us.”
Hilson, who started acting in high school, attended the celebrated Baltimore School for the Arts. She appeared in multiple projects while at NYU, including the series “The Good Wife” and the 2017 movie “Kings.”
“I lived in Baltimore, so going to New York was a big deal for me because I would finally kind of be in it,” Hilson said. “I went to Gallatin, which is the School of Individualized Study [at NYU]. I did a lot of theater in Gallatin, but I think NYU, and being a part of an interdisciplinary program, just made me a more well-rounded human, and I think that inevitably makes you a better actor.”
The new series also stars George Sear as Benji, a boy whom Victor secretly grapples with feelings for.
Hilson believes the representation in “Love, Victor,” especially during LGBTQ Pride Month, is “incredibly powerful.”
“We haven’t really seen the exploration phase,” Hilson said. “That is part of a lot of people’s stories, kind of just trying to figure out what you like . ... I think that part of this story is represented well in our show.”