Everyone is Netflix and chillin’ with Noah Centineo. And who can blame them?
He’s playing the new teen heart-throb for a new teen generation: still buff and beautiful (that hair!) but somewhat woke and super sensitive. He’s starring in his second Netflix drama of the summer, Sierra Burgess Is A Loser (To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before dropped last month). In both films, he’s the hot jock who wants to get the girl but circumstances conspire to divert him from the woman he wants to the one he needs.
It’s a tale as old as time and, honestly, neither of these movies bring anything new to the genre. Love, Simon and Sixteen Candles they ain’t. Both follow predictable formats and timetables and feel like a Hallmark Christmas movie sans gaudy decorations.
But Noah is different, and sat down for a Cocktail Convo about reinventing the stereotype.
Hunky Hearthrob
While both his summer Netflix films seem similar, he insists he’s playing two very distinct characters in two very distinct movies. “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is endearing,” he told us. “First of all. And I think really written smartly for being a young adult romantic comedy. The properties in it that were super attractive were Lara Jean was terrified to love.”
For his turn in this weekend’s “Loser,” Noah accidentally gets catfished by Sierra (Shannon Purser), in a Cyrano-esque plot. “In Sierra Burgess is A Loser, you watch the film. You understand that. It challenges society’s norms. It challenges how culture defines beauty to be, and says screw that.”
In both films he is the object of affection from unlikely dating candidates. “Throw that away man. It’s been around for way too long. Let’s revolutionize the world a little bit.” And he does throw it away. This summer, he’s (eventually) returning their affection. Sometimes the “popular” girls don’t get the hunk! And that resonated with Noah, who hopes his boys see these movies too. “I feel very fortunate to be a part of a movement that is more conscious and being more aware, emotionally, for men.”
Noah’s Story Arc
The key, Noah says, is to look beyond yourself. “Even if you are jockish, if you are brutish. It’s very important to have an understanding but to have an intuition when it comes to picking up on social cues. Picking up on if someone’s comfortable around you or not, and if you’re doing something to make them uncomfortable.”
But now that he’s established himself as the good boy next door, would he be willing to break out and be a bad boy? “I’m lucky that the writers put him in that way, you know what I’m sayin’? If it was written a different way I’d do it a different way.”
As for his love life? Well people have been shipping him and his To All The Boys co-star, Lana Condor. But she’s attached and he’s single. But he’s hopeful.. make that ‘hopeless.’ “I am like a hopeless romantic and hopeful romantic, depending on the day, so.”
The Critic’s Cocktail Recommendation
It may not seem right to suggest a drink for a high school heart-throb. But Noah’s actually 22, so we don’t feel so bad. We recommend The Loser, a whisky & Jägermeister concoction that will have you feeling like a winner at the bar, but living up to its name when you wake up in the morning!
Cheers!
Critic's Cocktail 