High school is rough, but it’s even harder when you’re trying to figure out if you have real feelings for your childhood crush — or her sister. But it does make for good comedy in Hulu’s new rom-com “Crush,” and that’s exactly what drew star Rowan Blanchard to it.
The movie follows Paige (Blanchard) as she tries to figure out what the happiest moment in her life up to this point has been, so she can immortalize it for her college art school application. She thinks maybe it’s her crush on Gabriella Campos (Isabella Ferreira), and the moment she fell for her in grade school. Then again, Paige is also slowly starting to fall for Gabby’s sister, AJ (Auli’i Cravalho), a journey which is providing inspiration in itself.
Directed by Sammi Cohen and written by Casey Rackham and Kirsten King, “Crush” also boasts a cast that includes Megan Mullally, Aasif Mandvi, Michelle Buteau and more. For Blanchard, saying “yes” to this project happened “very, very quickly.”
“They sent me [the script], and then I was like, ‘I want to do this. How do I do this?’ So then that was that,” Blanchard told TheWrap.
The fact that it was a teen rom-com about two young women was just an added bonus. “At least for me, I didn’t feel like I was setting out to make something queer,” she added. “I felt like I was just setting out to make a comedy. That was what attracted me about the script, that it didn’t feel like it was about being gay.”
You can check out TheWrap’s full conversation with Rowan Blanchard below.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
“Crush” is so cute. I’m a sucker for just a really good rom-com and this, to me, feels like a return to the rom-coms of the early 2000s. Did it feel that way when you were filming it? Or when you first read it?
Yeah, well, I think that’s what really attracted me to it! When [“Crush” producer] Natasha [Lyonne] and everyone sent me the script I felt really connected to — I don’t know, I just feel like that’s such a missing genre. Or you get very, very few and far between now versus, exactly, in the early 2000s, when they kind of churned these movies out like all the time.
But yeah, I mean, I really enjoy putting on a rom-com. And I just feel like it’s a missing genre. It’s a special genre, because you get to laugh and I don’t know, smile. There’s a lightness that’s maintained. And yeah, I mean, I thought the script was really genuinely funny. And I laughed a lot making it, so it was a fun time.
I laughed a lot watching it. That was my favorite thing, was that you got to play in your deadpan humor, because you really you have that comedic timing. So I did genuinely laugh out loud more than once.
Good! I’m so glad, that makes me really happy. Thank you for saying that.
Of course. So, I also spoke to your co-star Auli’i Cravalho, and she talked about how having queer writers behind this queer rom-com played a huge part in the realness, and the levity, and just the fun in the script. So can you talk a little bit about that aspect of it?
I think overall, just everyone involved in the project was really — it never felt like we were setting out to make something that was, or at least for me, I didn’t feel like I was setting out to make something queer. I felt like I was just setting out to make a comedy. That was what attracted me about the script was that it didn’t feel like it was about being gay. That felt important.
I also want to ask about an aspect that would, at least if it were me, I would have said no. You guys are track stars in this movie and running is hard. So at any point were you like, “Do we have to make them runners? Can we do something else here guys?”
No, [but] I don’t run. I don’t work out. I am a pretty unhealthy person, so this was a stretch for me. I actually am such a bad runner that I injured myself on set. I like, micro-tore something. I didn’t have to like go to the hospital. but I did have to not film because it was really — yeah, well I’ll save that full story for years down the road. But let’s just say that everyone on the set of “Crush” knows now I am not a runner.
And Auli’i mentioned she had to learn to skateboard, because you guys do you have the really cute skateboarding moment where she pulls you across. And she said she hurt herself there.
Yeah, I’m glad I didn’t skateboard, because I think I would have died. (laughs)
I’m curious, how much of Paige was you, as Rowan? And how much do you pull from maybe other characters in the genre?
I think I really liked Paige’s sarcasm, and kind of just her dryness. And everybody on set, I just feel like we were really committed to trying to make things as funny as possible. I think I was trying to find the moments where she, you know, is letting life happen to her, but also how she kind of deflects everything with humor. And I’m a very sarcastic person. So it was fun for me to get to do that on set.
Did you get to improvise any of that?
Yes, I improvise a lot! I can’t remember how much of it made the actual cut, but I improvised a lot of lines. There was kind of a lot of improvising between me and Tyler [Alvarez] and Megan [Mullally]. But I felt lucky that I was allowed to improvise a lot on set, which was great. Because I really think that the script has such like a conversational comedic dialogue that it was a good basis for riffing off of it and made it really easy to improv. It just was really fun.
Yes, tell me about working opposite and Megan as well! Because I mean, if you want anyone to play your mom in a rom-com, I feel like it’s gonna be Megan Mullally. I don’t know how you hold yourself together in a scene with her where she’s talking about, putting your eraser through the dishwasher because she thinks it’s a sex toy.
I love her. I mean, the second she was on set, I was just stoked. I had so, so much fun with her honestly. She’s definitely my favorite part of the movie, after seeing it. And I just, I was just really excited that she was playing my mom.
We definitely had a really fun time doing those scenes together. There definitely [were] fun moments where I were both of us couldn’t keep it together. Because sometimes she even says things that are so insane, I think it even shocks her that it’s coming out of her mouth. (laughs)
But I adore her. I got to spend some time with her when we were filming. And I really, really liked her a lot. She’s great. It was so fun, though, seeing how far we could push it in scenes together with each other.
Aside from working with Mega, did you have a favorite moment on “Crush”?
Honestly, I mean, the night shoots were insane. When we had that whole party sequence, we did like a week of like night shoots, you know, wrapping at like 6:30 in the morning, six in the morning. But something happens. You just bond with people so much when you’re, I feel like, on a night shoot in a way. I had a really fun time shooting all that party stuff. The set was really fun. There was just so many people in the set and they rented this like beautiful big house and it just was fun. I don’t know. It was a really fun time.
“Crush” is now streaming on Hulu.