Cape Town – There's a hot new romantic comedy on Netflix starring Laura Marano and Noah Centineo.
The Perfect Date is based on the novel, The Stand-In by Steve Bloom who also wrote the screenplay for the movie.
It follows Brooks (Centineo), a high school senior who launches an app offering his services as a fake date. But when real feelings emerge, things get complicated.
Laura plays the female lead Celia, a self-assured bad-ass who is Brooks' first 'client.'
What first attracted the 23-year-old to the role was that Celia was so different from other characters she has played before, Laura tells Channel24 during a telephone interview.
"She is funny and witty, and I love how much of a feminist Celia is. She is just a bad-ass sort of character."
With every character she plays, Laura says she always brings a bit of herself into the role.
"I do have this warped sense of humour that I bring out every once in a while with my family. It depends on the mood I'm in. Celia is sarcastic all the time, so I had to embody that the whole time while filming."
She continues: "I think we do differ when it comes to how we say certain things. With her what you see is what you get. Celia is kind of in your face. Whereas, I try to be a little bit more diplomatic when I say something critical to someone. She was so much fun to play, and I found myself enjoying being her."
REUNITING WITH NOAH
For Laura and Noah, the Perfect Date was also a reunion. Noah played her crush in the Disney series, Austin & Ally.
"It was such fun reuniting with Noah; obviously both of us have matured and grown up since Austin & Ally. He is still the same wonderful person he was then."
Speaking about the dynamic between their characters, Laura says that they wanted to make sure the audience felt a real friendship between them and that they are really good friends before anything else.
"We had such a great time bantering and rehearsing. We're here, again, but in this different world."
For Laura what makes this romantic comedy different is that it forms new gender and romantic comedy stereotypes.
"It is still different from other films because it takes the romantic comedy stereotypes and archetypes and turns them on their head, which is another thing that attracted me to project. I appreciated that with this project, and I think my fans, and anyone walking in are going to appreciate it."
Besides starring in the film Laura also has two songs featuring in the movie. In March she released her first EP titled, Me.
"After I did the movie, I wrote to a producer about a song my friend and I wrote called, A Little Closer. And the producers loved it. A month later a song that I already had, Lie To Me worked for a scene. I was so excited and incredibly thankful," says Laura.
LISTEN TO IT HERE:
While the movie might be about the perfect date, I asked Laura what her worst date would be.
"I think any date where someone is not paying attention or listening, or super-engaged. I think that can be a pretty bad date. I also think a date when someone is not authentic and genuine to themselves. I think it will be very obvious and that would just be very uncomfortable."
WATCH THE TRAILER HERE:
WATCH THE PERFECT DATE ON NETFLIX NOW