Lana Condor on Auditioning for "To All the Boys I've Loved Before" With Noah Centineo
It’s pretty safe to say that Lara Jean Covey from To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is absolute style goals. The character, portrayed by Lana Condor in the Netflix film, has inspired countless Halloween costumes this year, and plenty of fans have discovered ways to emulate her chic outfits, right on down to that iconic scrunchie.
For those who have watched the film more than once (OK, several times), you probably noticed that Lara Jean wears platform shoes pretty often — like those sweet combat boots from her first scene with Peter Kavinsky, played by Noah Centineo. It turns out that there’s actually a reason why Lana donned those shoes in the movie — one that goes well beyond style.
While speaking at the 2018 Vulture Festival in Los Angeles on Saturday, November 17, Lana revealed that the producers didn’t realize how tall Noah was until after they’d been cast in their respective roles. “When we auditioned and chemistry read together, at the end of the chemistry read you have to stand next to the person you read with and you have to take a picture to show the producers the height difference,” she recalled. “When we went into a camera test, after we’d already been cast, I didn’t make it into a frame with him, because he’s that much taller than me. I heard the producers were like, ‘What is happening?’”
So how did Noah manage this apparent optical illusion? It was pretty simple, according to Lana. “Later, Noah told me he would stand behind me and scrunch down to make himself look shorter,” she said at the festival with a laugh, adding: “It’s sweet, that’s how much he wanted the job.”
There wasn’t much that costume designers could do to make Noah appear shorter, but luckily, there were plenty of style tricks to boost Lana’s height. Enter: those memorable platform shoes. “Those shoes hold a special place in my heart,” Lana said. And now that we know the real reason behind her footwear, we absolutely agree.
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