Those days when writing love letters was the norm

MANILA, Philippines — As I write this story, I have already seen Netflix’s newest film To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before three times. Don’t envy me, you’ll get to have a chance to watch this adaptation of Jenny Han’s best-selling book as many times as you want when it launches on Netflix today worldwide.

 I first saw the film a day before my scheduled interviews with the film’s lead star Lana Condor (she plays the lovelorn Lara Jean) and the author herself. In Hollywood, it’s a must for a journalist to have seen the movie (or a pilot of a TV series) before the interview so that the range of topics would be relevant to the film and not verge into personal territory.

Fortunately, because the movie is set in high school and tells about a girl who wrote and kept five love letters to five different boys she has ever loved, my interview with Lana allowed us to have a cheery chat about her own personal love and dating history to date, well, among other things, that is.

In the movie, complications arise when the letters are mysteriously mailed out to all five boys! What is Lara Jean going to do? If you have read the book, you already know what is going to happen. This writer has yet to read it but the author told me that the adaptation is faithful to the book.

Having watched it multiple times, this writer need not tell you that the movie is so fun and entertaining to watch. It’s a HS-set romantic comedy and it offers a fresh take on the genre. Starring with Lana are two good-looking actors Noah Centineo (who plays HS jock Peter Kavinsky) and Israel Broussard (who plays Josh Sanderson, the neighbor) as two of the boys who received the letters — but who between them gets to win Lara Jean’s heart won’t be revealed by this writer. Only a few more days and you’ll know.

From this point on, this story will be spoiler-free. Let’s get to know Lana, how she compares herself to Lara Jean, her career, first kiss, break-ups and other dating stories. Shall we?

She’s originally from Vietnam. She was adopted at four months old. She grew up in Chicago, Washington State and New York. She had her Hollywood debut as Jubilation Lee (Jubilee), one of the X-Men alongside Jennifer Lawrence and Michael Fassbender in the 2016 film X-Men: Apocalypse.

Complications arise when the letters are mysteriously mailed out to all five boys! What is Lara Jean going to do? If you have read the book, you already know what is going to happen.

We had our interview at one of the suites of the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills last week. I teased her when I entered the room that I saw her the night before. She was surprised, her eyes grew big and was clueless before I added that I saw her in the movie. And then she laughed.

“I am a lot more outgoing than Lara Jean is,” she said when asked to compare her character to herself. “But we are very similar in the fact that we can’t articulate our emotions very well verbally so we write it down.” Lana said that she is the type of person who would hand-write letters to her friends and family when she is trying to expres njs something to them. I have written a lot of love letters to the people that I love in my life. It’s sweet to be able to keep that, like a tangible letter, and I want to give that to people. I am trying to keep that spirit alive of writing letters because I think it’s dying.”

And, yes, she did write love letters to her crushes, too! But, unlike Lara Jean, she was more bold.

“I always identified myself!” she said when asked if she was sending blind letters. “In middle school, I did the whole, like, ‘Do you like me? Check this box yes, check this box no,’ I did that to so many crushes I always got in trouble for passing notes in school.” She recalled being suspended one time in school because she was caught passing notes.

Break-ups? Lana has her share of stories, too.

“I don’t think I’ve ever had an adult relationship break-up before. But I remember when I was a kid I had little boyfriends and then we would break up! I was so in love with this boy in eighth grade. I really thought he was the one for me and then he broke up with because he said that I liked him more than he liked me and I was living in NY at the time and I was on the subway just like truly heartbroken because when you’re that age, you don’t think you are ever going to recover. For the first time, you feel your heart, like, hurting and you think ‘I am going to die,’ because it hurts!”

First kiss?

“Sixth grade! It was like a (she makes a smack sound). It was a dare! It was a group of people and they were, like, ‘Kiss!’ and it was so gross. I remember, like, ‘Eww, that’s, like, lips are weird,’ I did not like it.” Lana said that she wished she had a cooler first kiss story to tell.

Dating rules? In the movie, Lara Jean agrees to a list of rules to date a certain someone.

“You’ve got to make me laugh. If I am not laughing when I am with you, then I’ll probably get bored.”

Would she require someone she’s dating to write her love notes?

“I should! Now you gave me some ideas, I will definitely do that!” she said in between laughs.

Later, as we were winding down our interview, I teased her that if she did the movie in the Philippines, everyone would start assuming that she and Noah, one of her co-stars, would be dating now. Lana Smiled.

“Noah is a dream to work with and our chemistry is so good. It was very, very easy to act like I liked him because I do! I love him! He’s an amazing person and he’s an amazing guy! Working with him was, like, magical and I didn’t have to act because he’s just so likeable. He’s amazing! I want to work with him over and over again.”

And her final thoughts on love?

“It’s hard to tell people how you really, truly feel about them, especially if the feeling is love. But, for me, just always be straightforward. And don’t be afraid if they don’t feel the same thing back, because at least you told them, you tried really hard. But be transparent, take risks.”