Oh you're in New York City, right? I'm in New York. Yeah. I love your hair. It looks beautiful.

Oh, thank you. It's literally braided, like not no heat.

Oh, really? Have you seen purple hearts all the way through yet?

We had the premiere on Friday and that was the first time that I watched like the final sound mix cuz I wanted to wait to see it on the big screen, to watch the final um final version and um I watched it with my mom and my sister and our cast and our directors, our producers and everyone that worked so hard to bring this film to life and it was really emotional for us.

How, did you cry during the premiere?

I didn't uh yes, I did cry. I cried at the very end um I cried and then after it ended Kat, one of our co-stars, they were like, "Speech, speech, speech." Um I wasn't really prepared to say anything and I just spoke a few words while holding back tears and it was it was really special.

And when you, because you've done a ton of movies before, what is it like when you get kind of a movie that's along the lines of love? Like, do you have a certain way to prep, you know, you mentally falling in love for a role?

Cassie was definitely my greatest challenge and um as an actor and then the heart of our story is this really beautiful and complex and layered romance. And so um the key to that was really casting, was casting the perfect Luke and making sure that he and I had like a ridiculous amount of chemistry because when Luke and Cassie are together it's like fire because they each want and love each other so badly but they hate how much they do. So I think the casting was key to that and also preparation. You know like I researched for months and months and months and prepped every aspect of what made Cassie Cassie. And I think doing that and journaling as her kind of allowed me to kind of live life in her shoes and and see the world through her point of view and hate what she hates and love what she loves which I think is a reason as to why um Luke and I Luke and Cassie felt so real, you know.

Yeah. And when you're done, when it's all said and done and like you wrap and now it's time to go to the next project or back to, you know, a different role. Is it hard to detach yourself from Cassie? Like do you are you kind of like still in her mental state or

It is so hard when a project ends especially Purple Hearts I think it hit me the hardest of any project I've done because I was involved in it for so long. It was five years as producer, you know, helped to develop the script, write the soundtrack, create Cassie, film the movie. And the movie was also so emotionally intense and draining for myself and for Nick and I letting go of Cassie and it was really hard. And Nick and I were always texting each other like checking in on how we were doing because it was like almost like mourning the end of something and the end of this person you loved so much and of this relationship and you know sometimes the the the lines between reality and fiction are so easily blurred and it's hard to kind of come out of this bubble into real world and it's it's very interesting. It's a very interesting process. But um I always miss Cassie and I think I always will and you know I we did some reshoots recently and it was really fun to kind of step into that character again. And even this week just like talking about the movie and everything is is really exciting for us.

And it's nice because like you do have to detach yourself obviously to not live as Cassie, but you will forever have the movie to watch to remember all the feelings that you had when you did play the role.

I'll always keep her in my heart forever and ever.

That's so special. What if what would you say is the craziest thing that you've done for love in real life?

The craziest thing that I've done for love?

Any kind of love too, like just something if you can think of anything, the crazy thing.

Any kind of love like not just not just romantic. I don't know. I don't know if I've done anything that that's a probably a horrible thing. I don't know if I've done anything that crazy. The most is probably written songs about it in my album. I don't know if that's for love. Um God I have to think about that. I gotta step up my game.

That could be good though about like writing songs about like crazy things because like you putting in like what you're experience into songs that the world will forever listen to, like that's like that's obviously you're an artist but that can be crazy.

Yeah. It's it's definitely a little it's uh can be scary but it's also like a really beautiful thing to be able to do.

We're going to play a little game with you. Okay. So it's this or that. We might have played it last time in the last interview but anyways, there's two scenarios and then you'll choose obviously. Okay. Okay. So New York City or LA?

New York City.

Starbucks or Dunkin'?

Starbucks.

Love it. FaceTime or voice call?

Voice call.

Would you pick are you someone that picks up FaceTime though or like you would wait

It depends on the person honestly. Yeah. It depends. I'm not a big FaceTime fan.

Yeah. Stay in or go out?

Depends. Depends. Like I would say stay in but this year I really made a promise to myself and my sister and I kind of did that we're gonna live life a little more so like if our gut is to like stay in we'll kind of make the effort and go out and so far.

Dinner or a movie?

I can't do both. If I had to pick

Either go out to dinner or a movie. Would be your first preference, but then you can end up doing both.

Movie. Movie. Yeah. Like it.

Well, congratulations on Purple Hearts.

Thank you so much.

I I was very emotional during the whole thing. It was

Thank you.

It was a lot. But you killed it. Like it's unreal. Unreal. Like I was like, I don't know how she does that. Like I would just be like mentally breaking down every day on set. Like you killed it.

Thank you so much. It means the world that you watched.