Get Ready to Be Charmed by Lana Condor

Like so many people her age, 22-year-old Lana Condor learned all about love from Disneys High School Musical trilogy. She was around 10 years old when Troy and Gabriella (the star-crossed couple played by Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens) broke up for the first time, a fissure that sent Condor into a crisis.

“That was the first time I felt heartbreak,” she said. “I was like Dad! Im dying! I dont want this in my life!”

Now, its Condors turn to break some hearts. The actress is starring in Netflixs latest romantic comedy, To All the Boys Ive Loved Before, based on Jenny Hans young-adult best-seller. Condor, whos been playing roles in action and sci-fi films since her debut in X-Men: Apocalypse as mutant Jubilee, plays Lara Jean, a smart high-schooler who pens confessional letters to each of her five biggest crushes. She hides the adoring mementos away in her room, bringing them out now and then to reflect on the depth of her emotional candor. The objects of her infatuation span a classic globe: a boy from Model U.N., another from camp, another from the homecoming dance. But shes also got a crush on Josh, her older sisters boyfriend. She buries that secret until the letters are accidentally sent out into the world, forcing Lara Jean to do serious damage control.

One of the ways she does that is by making a pact with fellow classmate Peter Kavinsky (Noah Centineo, a magnetic Jake Ryan for the Gen-Z set). They start a fake relationship, so Lara can look like shes over Josh, and so Peter can make his ex-girlfriend jealous. On-screen, Condor and Centineo have sweet chemistry, strengthened over weeks of working together. “We had chemistry the moment he walked into the room,” Condor said. Still, she was nervous until about a week before filming began. Centineo found a quick way to break down the wall: “He FaceTimed me [and] he was like Hey—wanna go to hot yoga?”

Since you cant really sweat that much in front of someone without instantly bonding, Condors jitters disappeared. The movies team grew close; the hair and makeup crew, Condor said, began calling John Corbett (who plays Lara Jeans father) “daddy” behind his back, a habit that was picked up by the rest of the cast. “He is a daddy,” Condor says with a laugh. “I dont think anyone ever called him daddy to his face, but I definitely think he wouldnt have minded.”

Condor was characteristically bubbly when speaking about her co-workers, with an exuberance amplified by her high voice. When she recorded her first narration for To All the Boys, a producer told her she sounded “like a damn Disney princess!” Since Lara Jean isnt supposed to be quite that animated, Condor modulated, dropping her voice a few octaves and slipping in a few cracks and creaks. (The final effect is the stuff of ASMR dreams.)

She sounds like the classic girl next door—a prospect that thrilled Condor, who has, up until now, only played otherworldly characters. Lara Jean is decidedly of this planet: she likes her family. She does her homework. She watches Golden Girls re-runs. Playing that kind of part was much harder than tackling a pyrotechnic mutant, Condor swears.

“When you do action stuff and sci-fi stuff, you have a lot to hide behind—the hair and the makeup and the special effects. But when you play a normal girl, its challenging because you have to trust yourself,” she said. Then her voice ticked up: “So that was awesome.”

Although action and sci-fi and superhero material is the stuff of modern movie-star dreams, Condor is doggedly determined to play more girl-next-door roles, largely because shes Asian-American and those parts dont come around very often (let alone lead parts in rom-coms). The actress was born in Vietnam, but was adopted by white American parents. “I grew up very American, but also fully Asian,” she said. Both purviews grounded her before she went to Hollywood. Its not lost on her that To All the Boys Ive Loved Before comes out the same week as Crazy Rich Asians, the glossy rom-com that is the first major Hollywood film in 25 years to feature an almost entirely Asian cast, with Asian-American actors tackling lead roles.

Condor recently saw the film and found herself crying at the end, deeply emotional over “seeing other people that look like me do this successfully.” The first time she remembers getting emotional over representation in this way was when she saw Chinese-Canadian actor Hayden Szeto playing the love interest in the teen dramedy The Edge of Seventeen. “When I first watched Edge, I was just a huge fan,” Condor says. Now she counts Szeto among her good friends, someone she can commiserate with about the language used around representation: “Ive heard people say its an exciting trend right now,” Condor said, slightly exasperated. “Were not a trend!”

She continues. “I hope its just not this summer. I hope it goes into fall and winter and spring—and forever and ever and ever.”

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