Everyone is talking about The Kissing Booth 2. The sequel to the 2018 Netflix phenomenon dropped on July 24 much to the delight of fans everywhere. The Kissing Booth 2 featured a few new faces, including Maisie Richardson-Sellers as Chloe, Noah’s new friend at Harvard. At first, Elle thinks that there’s something going on between Noah and Chloe, but she finds out that these two are really just friends.
HollywoodLife talked EXCLUSIVELY with Maisie about The Kissing Booth 2 taking a different route than most romantic comedies in not having Chloe and Elle ultimately be rivals. She discussed what she loves about Chloe and Noah’s friendship and her hopes that Chloe and Elle can become BFFs in The Kissing Booth 3. The third Kissing Booth movie, which was filmed in secret, is set to debut in 2021. Read our Q&A below:
What drew you to the role of Chloe and The Kissing Booth universe?
Maisie Richardson-Sellers: I guess that’s twofold because in terms of the actual film itself, I just I love the fact that the first one just really leaned into celebrating. You know, it wasn’t a traditional lead. It wasn’t this sort of perfect, polished [movie]. It was celebrating the individuals, celebrating the quirkiness, and the differences. I think this next one though goes even further with that. It has more diversity, and it has a queer love story. To me, it was a film that I would be excited for the younger generation to see, and I think it has a really positive message behind it. When it comes to Chloe herself, she’s strong, independent, fiery, very self-confident, a self-assured woman, and I just I love fighters like that. I love to play women in that way and in a positive light. You can make whatever assumptions you want about her, but at the end of the day, her intentions were always true and always good. She wanted the best for her best friends and for Elle. So it was an interesting one as well to be able to play that line and see how much we would show. It has to be believable that maybe she was a real threat, but we always kept it truthful. It was a fun dynamic. It wasn’t just this obvious, straight down the line character, which I really enjoyed.
Had you seen the first Kissing Booth movie before you were cast?
Maisie Richardson-Sellers: I didn’t. I completely missed this. I don’t know how. I must have been under the rock, but I missed the whole phenomenon. I’m not great online. I don’t spend much time on social, so it just passed me by. So I was doing the audition, and it was a secret audition. We didn’t know what was going on. And then I found out and watched it. I was like, oh my God, this is so delicious. I just was smiling the whole way through.
You mentioned before the fun dynamic between Noah and Chloe. Before you read the full script, did you think you were going to be part of an actual love triangle?
Maisie Richardson-Sellers: From the character breakdown and as I was reading the script, I was hoping that it would come out to be that she was not trying to threaten the relationship. I really didn’t want this to be another movie where two women are pitted against each other. I was so relieved when it turns out that Elle was the one to misinterpret the situation, and Chloe was just being honest in herself and pretty excited to meet Elle. I think that’s a much rarer storyline than we’re used to seeing. For me, it’s way more interesting.
I loved the the part towards the end when Chloe says she’s immune to the Noah charm. Were you surprised by that?
Maisie Richardson-Sellers: No, I love it! So often with male and female friendships, people assume there has to be something more there. I love the fact that for them, it’s just a connection of minds. She loves him, she’s physical with him, she’s tender with him, but it doesn’t have to be this complicated thing. I think so often when you’re in high school or university, everyone makes assumptions for you rather than just listening to you about what you actually feel.
What do you love most about Chloe and Noah’s friendship?
Maisie Richardson-Sellers: I love the fact that they both give as good as they get. They both play off each other, they challenge each other, they really have that spark between them. I always imagine that met and became the kind of friends where they would call each other at 3 a.m. in the morning and say, “Let’s go for a walk. Let’s go have a drink by the lake or whatever.” There’s a spontaneousness that they feed in each other. Also, they never let each other get away with anything. I think everyone always lets Noah be Noah, and she’s like, “No, that’s not good enough.”
Do you think Chloe and Elle will be friends from now on?
Maisie Richardson-Sellers: I really hope so. I think now that they’ve cleared things up that there’s definitely potential for an incredible friendship. I think Chloe is a great older sister figure that Elle doesn’t have, especially not having her mom around. I think it’d be really therapeutic and amazing for them to be able to feed off each other. I don’t imagine Chloe having many close female friends. I think she’s very much one of the guys. So I think for her she’d love to have that friendship and ally. I think it would have incredible longevity.
Is there anything you would want to explore with Chloe and Elle in the third movie?
Maisie Richardson-Sellers: I would really want to lean into this Elle and Chloe friendship. I would also want to see more or Marco. I love Marco. Every good love story has to have some tension in it. I think Marco should come back to stir the pot again in some way. Where does Elle go to university? How does she transition from being this high schooler into becoming a young woman? And what does that look like for her? What does it look like for Lee? What does it look like for her relationship with Noah? I think it’s a relationship bridge. I remember that huge transition. I’d love to see how that is reflected.
You have your own production company, Barefaced Productions. How did that come about?
Maisie Richardson-Sellers: Well, it’s been a few years in the making, and for so long I have been feeling the lack of diverse stories being told by people who aren’t represented by the stories themselves. So often I’ll see slightly watered down representation. Through my travels and just my interactions with humans, I have so many incredible stories. I’ve met so many amazing artists who want to tell their story. So Barefaced Production started for the caring of marginalized communities and LGBTQ+ individuals. We include diversity heavily from every stage of the creative process, all the way from behind the camera to department heads to the producers. We really want to create a world that we’re presenting behind the camera as well as in front of the camera. I think that feeds the story, creates textures and layers, nuanced representation, rather than a watered down representation from marginalization of an experience. I think there’s a market for it. I think we learn about other cultures and other people through the movies and the TV shows that we watch. I feel like I have a responsibility as an artist to be as organic and truthful as I possibly can. Also, the power for other people to see themselves represented is huge in bolstering self-confidence and self-worth. It’s a two-fold thing.