Netflix’s romantic comedy He’s All That releases on the streamer on August 27, 2021. The film stars Addison Rae, Tanner Buchanan, Madison Pettis, Peyton Meyer, Isabella Crovetti, Myra Molloy, and Annie Jacob. Both Matthew Lillard and Rachael Leigh Cook return from She’s All That, which the film is based on, although in different roles.
“In this reimagining of 1999’s She’s All That, teen social media influencer Padgett’s humiliating on-camera breakup goes viral, leading her to make a risky bet to save her reputation: She swears she can turn scruffy antisocial Cameron into prom king material,” says the official logline. “But things get complicated when she finds herself falling for him IRL.”
ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with He’s All That stars Annie Jacob and Isabella Crovetti about the romantic comedy’s themes and how excited they were to be a part of the spiritual successor.
Tyler Treese: Annie, your character is one of Cameron’s real friends, and your chemistry with Tanner is so great in the film. Did you just kick it off naturally or how did you establish that chemistry with him?
Annie Jacob: It was a lot of hard work. A lot of acting. No, I’m just kidding. Tanner is so great. As soon as we met during the chemistry read, I was like, this kid is cool. We got along. Then we met via video chat, and then we just started FaceTiming and texting each other constantly. He’s just an easy kid to get along with. It was not hard at all. I could actually make fun of him in real life and pretend we were filming it. It was great.
Isabella, there’s a really cool, Great Gatsby party in the film. How fun was it getting to get dressed up in that attire?
Isabella Crovetti: So much fun. It took a lot of work, so many just like hours of like sitting in the makeup chair, but like when it was all done, it was so nice and it was so cool. Because like you felt like you were part of that time period and all that. Especially the costume added with the set, it was so much fun. It was so cool.
Annie, were you a fan of the original She’s All That? Or was that something you checked out after getting involved?
Jacob: I did check it out after getting involved. I had heard about it a lot because it was playing on TV all the time and Freddie Prinze Jr. [is a] great actor, Rachael Leigh Cook looked great. So I had seen clips and it was really great. I’m not a big rom-com person. I don’t always get the time to sit down and watch rom-coms, but once this movie I heard about it, I was just like, I went and watched the full thing and I was like, yes! Then I suddenly felt the pressure of I gotta be good.
Crovetti: Yeah! Oh, no. So much pressure.
Isabella, there’s such an important and relevant message in the film about social media and the importance of being yourself rather than putting out this persona. What does it mean to be a part of a film with such a great message?
Crovetti: It really means a lot to me. Because I always thought that before the actual film. Like I didn’t just like watch the film [and] was like, “Oh yeah, that’s pretty important. I should talk about that.” Like I did think about that. I’ve always thought that for a really long time. I feel like as long as you’re yourself, people will totally relate to you. Beause just like being yourself, I feel like every person has that sort of like weird wacky side. So if you let that show even if that may sound a little cheesy, I feel like it’s quite important. So I like that we made a movie about that and I get to be in it.
Annie, it’s always great to see LGBT plus representation and it’s done so seamlessly in the film. What did this role mean for you?
Jacob: It was an honor. I really wanted to make sure it was authentic as possible. Being a person of Indian ethnicity, I just was excited bring that representation forward. [As far as] being in the LGBTQ community, I myself, I’m not. So my really good friend, Kelly Quindlen, she writes really popular young adult LGBTQ novels. She was a really good friend to me through the whole process. Like I would just text her photos of things and just be like, “Hey, I don’t want to be stereotypical. Am I cool?” Like, is it okay if I like, what, what can I do? She was just like, “Great, you’re doing great. You’re doing great because really it’s just a person [who is attracted to another person].” It was great to be authentic in that way.