Not all that long ago Sara Waisglass cursed the fact she looked younger than her years.<\/p>\n
Now, at 27, the star of Ginny & Georgia and the upcoming Tubi teen romance How to Lose a Popularity Contest is grateful for her age-defying looks.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, it\u2019s super fun because there\u2019s like so much content for high school aged kids,\u201d she says of still playing teens while approaching 30.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re always just so interested in stories about high school kids, because high school kids make mistakes, and that\u2019s exciting to watch on screen.<\/p>\n
\u201cGrowing up, I hated that I had a young face, because all my friends were, getting treated like adults, and people were still like \u2018Do you want a cookie?\u2019 to me, thinking that I was 10.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut now it\u2019s really helping me, because I get to keep working in a genre that I really, really love.\u201d<\/p>\n
Playing teens has meant Waisglass has spent an extra decade in the classroom, laughing: \u201cI still get heart palpitations when I sit at a school desk or I see a row of lockers, but at the end of the day, I know that those chapters are closed for me, and I\u2019ll never have to write another exam, thank God!\u201d<\/p>\n
Somewhat less triggering has been getting to revisit all the excitement and heartache of exploring young love on screen like it is the first time.<\/p>\n
Like a lot of the best teen movies, Waisglass\u2019 character in How to Lose a Popularity Contest, Ellie, embarks on a steep personal learning curve when she helps the school jock (Chase Hudson) with his school council election campaign and finds herself in an opposites\u2019 attract romance. <\/p>\n
Think She\u2019s All That, 10 Things I Hate About You and To All the Boys I Loved Before. Just like those movies, the chemistry between the two leads is integral to the story and so Waisglass and Hudson had that put that to the test before filming began \u2013 via Zoom.<\/p>\n
Big on \u201creading energy\u201d Waisglass wasn\u2019t sure she would be able to hit it off with Hudson over a screen.<\/p>\n
Thankfully \u2013 despite the physical distance between them \u2013 Waisglass and Hudson found an instant rapport, bonding over their shared love of hamburgers that translated into a believable romantic chemistry.<\/p>\n
For Waisglass teen romance films aren\u2019t just for kids. Good ones appeal to all ages no matter what decade they were made.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone remembers their first love, so that\u2019s a very nostalgic and hard-hitting theme that people connect to,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I think that\u2019s a huge reason why people love rom coms. I also think that there are really beautiful lessons that are weaved through these movies about not judging a book by its cover, and that you have to go through adversity sometimes with the people you love. And if you love each other enough, you can make it through.\u201d<\/p>\n
Likewise, Ginny & Georgia might be about a mother and daughter navigating life and love (while covering up a murder), but its fan base comes from all walks of life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have 12-year-olds coming up to me saying they love it,\u201d she smiles. \u201cI have 50-year-olds coming up and saying they watch it with their daughters.<\/p>\n
\u201cI even have finance district bros coming up to me saying they watch it with their girlfriends, but I know that means they just watch it when they\u2019re home alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Waisglass credits the Netflix drama with opening doors to new opportunities like How to Lose a Popularity Contest and Into the Blue, a film that she starts shooting once the fourth season of Ginny & Georgia has wrapped production.<\/p>\n
Based on Jennifer E Archer\u2019s novel, Into the Blue will see Waisglass play the 20-something Fiona who finds love while grieving the death of her mother.<\/p>\n
\u201cBooking work in this day and age is like winning a lottery because there are so many people trying to do this, and so many people who are so talented,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so, I 100 per cent think my role on Ginny & Georgia had a lot to do with this. I hope it also had to do with me fitting the character. But I\u2019m not naive, and I know that it\u2019s a huge plus to have the Ginny & Georgia fandom flow into the Tubi fandom, and I hope that they love it, because I really loved filming it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unlike Ginny & Georgia\u2019s volatile and fiercely loyal Max, How to Lose a Popularity Contest\u2019s Ellie (aka Max) is straitlaced and controlling.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith most of the scripts I read, I really relate to the characters, and I innately want to play them,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did not have that with this film. I truly thought Ellie was irredeemable. I thought she was super mean, and I didn\u2019t like that. And then I thought about it more, and I was like, how great a challenge would it be to try and find compassion for someone I really don\u2019t like?\u201d<\/p>\n
Although she has been working as an actor since she was nine years old, How to Lose a Popularity Contest is Waisglass\u2019 first lead role.<\/p>\n
And that brought with it a whole new set of pressures than as a supporting player on Ginny & Georgia for the past seven years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first scene in this film is one shot, and it starts with me and I lead the camera down the stairs into the principal\u2019s office, out of the principal\u2019s office into the cafeteria, through the cafeteria line,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one eight minute take, and I had to do that perfectly, because if you mess up, you\u2019ve got to start at the beginning.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t want to let anyone down. I met the writers. They\u2019re so lovely. I wanted to make sure that I brought their work to light in the way that they wanted. So it was very stressful. But I really did love every second of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
With just two days to prepare for the film, Waisglass said the fact her character Ellie is teasingly called \u201cMax\u201d in How to Lose a Popularity Contest, made settling into her role and the set a lot easier.<\/p>\n
Far from being a fun Easter egg for Ginny & Georgia fans, Waisglass insists the name calling is completely coincidental.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was so used to responding to Max, because I respond to Max on the street and I respond to Max on Ginny & Georgia, so I felt like I was always ready to go,\u201d she laughs.<\/p>\n
HOW TO LOSE A POPULARITY CONTEST, STREAMING JANUARY 16, TUBI<\/a>.<\/p>\n