I thought nothing of seeing a dead body in the street

ROBERTO SENDOYA ESCOBAR TELLS HANNAH STEPHENSON ABOUT GROWING UP IN THE SHADOW OF HIS BIRTH FATHER – DRUGS LORD PABLO ESCOBAR

LILI REINHART is enjoying a bagel. It’s still breakfast time in Los Angeles and she’s getting her food in while she can. The actress, best know for her role as Betty Cooper in Riverdale, is used to making the most of quiet moments. It was during a day off from the hit teen drama that she read a book that would launch her first lead role in a movie.

That book was Krystal Sutherland’s 2016 debut novel Our Chemical Hearts, which follows two people grappling their way toward adulthood, while navigating grief, trauma and mental health issues. In the film version, Chemical Hearts, Lili plays elusive transfer student Grace Town, who has suffered a horrific tragedy, leaving her with a disability, and becomes the subject of desire for a hopelessly romantic teenage boy, Henry Page. “The book had such a beautiful message, it was a beautiful story,”

Lili remembers. “I really loved seeing this young love story from Henry’s point of view, because I think often teenage love stories are told from the woman’s perspective, so to see a young teen guy, trying to figure this out and navigate his feelings for a girl was such an interesting new perspective.

“I remember reading it in bed on a day off and when I finished it, it sat with me, it sat in my heart and I could feel it. “It just touched me, in a way, and I thought this would be such a beautiful film to show this very real love story, that is like life, because we have all experienced losing a love and grief in one form or another.” Pain and grief weave their way wistfully through the whole film and there is a scene where Grace seems to lay out the whole message at the heart of the movie – the sheer agony of youth.

Standing in the school library, leaning on the crutch she needs to walk after a car accident, she says: “Being young is so painful, it’s almost too much to feel.” Lili , who at 23 seems wise far beyond her years and who has spoken openly about her own experiences with depression

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