Interview: Jenny Han, author of TO ALL THE BOYS I'VE LOVED BEFORE, now a Netflix Movie
By: Bonnie Lynn Wagner Aug. 17, 2018
The first book in Jenny Han's New York Times Best Selling Lara Jean trilogy, TO ALL THE BOYS I'VE LOVED BEFORE, is now a movie. Netflix produced the film and dropped it to today on its streaming service just in time for the weekend.
If you're looking for a movie full of family, romance, and coming of age, you're going to want to watch this one soon--and then go pick up the books to see where everyone winds up!
The series revolves around a teenager named Lara Jean, who always writes a love letter to the boy she has been crushing on, then locks it away in a hat box and moves on with her life and forms a new crush. When the five letters of her heart are mailed out, her life suddenly gets a lot more complicated. She enters into a pretend relationship with one of her former crushes in order to keep her current crush from finding out she still likes him--and the relationship changes her life completely.
The movie stars Lana Condor (Jubilee inX-Men: Apocalypse) as Lara Jean Song Covey and Noah Centineo (The Fosters) as Peter Kavinshky. It also features Janel Parrish (Pretty Little Liars) and Anna Cathcart (Dizzy in Disney's Descendants 2 and the upcoming Descendants 3) as Lara Jean's sisters.
Today, BroadwayWorld is thrilled to sit down with New York Times Best Selling Author Jenny Han and ask her about the movie, her writing process, and even get to share some photos from the set with you!
Congratulations on To All the Boys I've Loved Before becoming a movie! What has the process been like for you?
It's completely surreal and very much a dream come true. Never in my life have I seen an Asian American girl star in a teen movie before. I'm so happy to be a part of this moment, and of this movement.
Do you made a cameo in the movie? Were you able to visit the set?
Yes, I visited set twice. It was so cool to walk through Lara Jean's bedroom and see the artwork on the walls, her Nancy Drew collection, all her stuffed animals. As for a cameo-- wait and see!
What was your favorite book scene to see brought to life in the movie?
Hot tub scene. I'll leave it at that!
What was your favorite day on set?
There are a few fun flashback scenes and the sets were so fun.
What character do you most relate to?
Lara Jean. I put a lot of myself in her-- her love of baking, of aesthetic, of her sisters.
What is the most challenging part of the writing process for you? What part do you find most enjoyable?
I don't plan anything out and I don't write in chronological order. The emotional tenor is what guides me, but a lot of it is feeling my way through the dark. That's okay if you have unlimited time to work and stumble upon things in a delightful way, but under a deadline it can be really stressful. The most joyful part of writing for me is when I am 90% there, and suddenly the story clicks into place and things finally start to make sense.
Originally, To All the Boys... was going to be a duology. What made you return to the series a year later and close out Lara Jean's journey? I'm so glad you did; I loved watching her grow up and becoming a young woman on the brink of an amazing future!
When I finished P.S. I Still Love You, I truly was done with the series. I kept saying the books were two halves of a heart. But I suppose time and space had made me nostalgic, because my mind kept drifting back to Lara Jean and Peter, wondering what they were up to. I finally called up my best friend Siobhan Vivian and asked her, would it be crazy if I wrote just one more book? She suggested I try and see. So that same night, I started writing, and I couldn't stop. I wrote until the sun came up.
Where do you see Lara Jean in ten years?
I have no idea! I think the fun part is imagining. She could end up in so many different places.
You have written one of the best father figures I've seen in YA literature. What went into building his character and story arc?
I thought of him as a dad who was really trying his best. He wants his girls to stay connected with their mom, he knows he has limitations, but he really does try.
What are you working on now?
It's too soon to say! I'm in the early stages of a new book, but I'm still figuring out what it will be.
Here are some pictures from the set!
ABOUT JENNY HAN:
Jenny Han is the New York Times bestselling author of Shug, The Summer I Turned Pretty series, co-author of the Burn for Burn series, and most recently, the To All the Boys I've Loved Before trilogy. She is a former children's bookseller and children's librarian. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
ABOUT TO ALL THE BOYS I'VE LOVED BEFORE:
What if all the crushes you ever had found out how you felt about them... all at once?
Sixteen-year-old Lara Jean Song keeps her love letters in a hatbox her mother gave her. They aren't love letters that anyone else wrote for her; these are ones she's written. One for every boy she's ever loved-five in all. When she writes, she pours out her heart and soul and says all the things she would never say in real life, because her letters are for her eyes only.Until the day her secret letters are mailed, and suddenly, Lara Jean's love life goes from imaginary to out of control.
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