'To All the Boys': Lana Condor on the mega movie role she almost got

Lana Condor stars as Lara Jean in the movie trilogy To All the Boys I've Loved Before, but another role almost ruled that out.

"I was like down to the last two, or the last three, for 'Star Wars,'" she recently told Yahoo Entertainment. She was being considered to play the character Rose Tico, which eventually went to Kelly Marie Tran.

"I read with John Boyega," she said of the actor who played Finn. Condor explained how far she got in the process saying, "I did all the reads, the chemistry [tests], all the director stuff," but she also noted that she wouldn't have been able to play Lara Jean if that had panned out.

"That one was brutal just because it's 'Star Wars,'" she added.

Video Transcript

- Will I look back in 20 years and wonder if I made the wrong choice?

I didn't get in.

KEVIN POLOWY: Why part of Laurie Jean's struggle in this one comes when she doesn't get into Stanford, like, her top choice for college, initially anyway, right? As actors, even very successful ones, you guys constantly have to deal with missing out on jobs that you really want. Has there been one like that for you that got away that was especially tough to get over?

LANA CONDOR: Yeah. But I will say, like, there's a couple if I had gotten those I would have never been able to do "To All the Boys," so I think everything does happen for a reason. Like, I was, like, down to the last two, or the last three for "Star Wars."

KEVIN POLOWY: Rose Tico?

LANA CONDOR: Yeah, she was [INAUDIBLE] trained. Anyway, so she got it, and it makes so much more sense for her to play it, but I wouldn't have gotten "To All the Boys" if I had gotten that. There was this show that they literally told me I had the part, and I was so excited. And I was getting ready, and then they recast me in the last minute with someone else.

That was heartbreaking, and it's very hard not to think that it's because of you and not because of something else I got. It's very hard not to be like, I know it's because I suck. But, again, if I had done that show, I would have never been able to do "To All the Boys." So every time if I if the door closes, it stinks, but I do believe that something better will come along.

KEVIN POLOWY: Thanks for sharing that, by the way. That's, that's amazing. I mean, you know the actors are constantly getting this close to these things, and opportunities come and they pass, but like, that's, I wasn't expecting "Star Wars" because that's, obviously, the top of the mound. But you know, it's so reassuring that you found your own trilogy and happiness.

LANA CONDOR: I mean, I read with John Boyega. Like, I did all the reads and the chemistrys and all the, like, director stuff and everything, and it was just-- that one was brutal, just because it's, you know, it's "Star Wars." [LAUGHS]