While that was just a few years back, it was already a lifetime ago for Rodrigo, who evolves at warp speed. “The difference between 17 to 22 confidence-wise is really big for me, just knowing who I am and believing in my ideas and opinions.” One of the most outspoken celebrities of her status, she’s never been shy about politics, addressing the Roe v Wade rollback in her first Glastonbury performance, condemning the humanitarian crisis in Palestine to her almost 40 million Instagram followers and, at brunch, brings up my piece about the devastating war in my homeland, Sudan. (After our chat, she buys her own vinyl at a record shop to sign as a contribution for the Freedom for Sudan fundraiser I’ve been organising.) The state of her own country is an enormous cause for concern right now too. She has had to call out the US government for using her song to soundtrack their cruel deportation videos. “That was awful. Dystopian,” she says, quieter. “The way that Ice is ripping apart communities and terrorising people is so disturbing. It’s a really sad, scary time.”
We walk over to where Madison Hu, “my bestest friend in the whole world”, waits for her. Hu is tall and striking, with a choppy haircut and khaki jacket, and flew over to hang with Rodrigo in London. She has a very nonchalant cool, the opposite of Olivia’s ultra-warm and chatty first impression. They met on an early Disney role: as the two stars of Bizaardvark. “I always say that if I didn’t have her I might have gone a little crazy,” says Rodrigo. “She knows every part of my life. We’re like sisters.”
It’s no exaggeration to say Madison has seen it all. In the audition room, Hu first approached Rodrigo because she thought she looked so nervous. “I was like, ‘Maybe I should help her out,’” she says, with a small laugh, in hindsight. Back then, Olivia “was a very deeply anxious child. I think, within her, she still has that, but now I’ll see her in meetings and she has a self-assuredness… that is really inspiring.”
Since then, when in the same city, they’ve seen each other pretty much every day and have not gone 24 hours without speaking. “We treat it like you would a romantic relationship, where you’re like, ‘I need to see you, and talk to you, and feel connected to you in some way.’” Hu gets choked up recalling the roller-coasters they’ve seen each other through. “This friendship with Olivia has been the longest, most meaningful relationship of my life.”