Christina Milian on new Netflix rom-com Falling Inn Love: 'Goats are super-chill'
Ready to Fall Inn Love with the carpenters, goats and Kiwi slang?
If so, check out Netflix’s new rom-com Falling Inn Love (available to stream now) starring Christina Milian and Adam Demos (UnREAL). The movie — the streaming service’s first set and shot in New Zealand — sees Milian’s Gabriela lose her San Fransisco job and boyfriend in the space of a few days, chug a bottle of wine or two, and impulsively enter a competition to win an inn Down Under. Very minor spoiler: she wins.
Once in the land of Kiwis, Gabriela promptly realizes the inn she’s snagged is in dilapidated ruin, but luckily there’s a crafty — and beautiful (seriously have you ever seen a longer torso?) — carpenter (Demos) on hand to help out. And there’s a goat! A real-life goat living in the inn. It’s a dream situation for sure and unsurprisingly Gabriela struggles to decide whether to head home or hang in New Zealand permanently.
Ahead of the flick’s release, we chatted to Milian about mastering Kiwi slang, ’90s hip-hop lyrics, and goats, obviously.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What made you want to be part of this movie?
CHRISTINA MILIAN: It came along at just the right time. I feel like my acting career’s always been my first love and my manager came across the script and thought that I would love it as well. I took a look at it and loved it. I laughed the whole way while I was reading it and I guess you could say, I pitched Netflix me for it. The next thing you know, I’m hopping on a plane to New Zealand to shoot this really funny, really cute rom-com.
How was shooting in New Zealand? It looks stunning in the movie.
I’d been there one time so I knew it was beautiful and I heard so many good things. This time around I really got to experience its entirety, culturally. The people, how they celebrate life and how cool and down-to-earth they are, was one of my favorite things — and of course, the landscape overall is a beautiful setting. Sometimes in movies they fake it, but this is the real deal.
How did you cope with the Kiwi accent and slang? Any troubles understanding?
I guess you have to live in it to understand what they’re talking about, but there was definitely a few things like, ‘You wanna go take a squizz?’ And I’m like, ‘What the heck is a squizz? Oh, take a look at something, that’s what it is.’ But there’s a lot of slang words that are completely unheard of that sound like a wholly made-up word.
Do you find yourself using any of them still now you’re back home?
Not at all. That would make me crazy.
How was working with Adam Demos (UnREAL), apart from being dreamy to look at?
Adam’s a great guy. He and I had great chemistry on screen and he’s just such a cool guy. I was in pretty much — wait, not pretty much — I was in every scene of the movie, and there’d be some days when I was just exhausted and he’d come into work and you’d just hear his happy voice on arrival. Having somebody that’s just so nice, appreciative and has such good energy is infectious. It’s a good reminder that your mood sets off a lot of other people’s moods, you know? He’s really cool and subtle about his comedy too which is perfect because too much dadumdumdum or the romantic stuff could turn out really sappy.
Okay, let’s talk about your other costar Gilbert, the goat.
Oh, yeah, Gilbert. Gilbert’s a cutie. Anything with animals I’m in heaven so adding the element of the goat throughout the whole movie gave us a really good laugh. Goats are surprisingly calm! We were just cracking up the whole time; they were probably looking at me like, who’s this idiot? Goats are super-chill.
The scene when you and Adam sing “Da’ Dip” together in the car is fun. How was shooting that? Did you get the lyrics right the first time?
We did do it a couple of times. We listened to the song right before and were trying to brush up on our lyric skills because we didn’t have anything in front of us, any papers. That was one of our favorite scenes. In the movie, our characters are like, Oh this is kinda corny and then all of a sudden it grows on you. So when we were filming it, it felt like exactly how it was in the movie like, Ah I can’t believe we’re doing this and the next thing we know we’re like, Woahhhh, When I dip you dip we dip. It just takes over. It was super-cute.
Were there any other scenes that were particularly enjoyable to shoot?
I think some of the scenes on the beach when the sun was coming down and Adam and I are running out into the water. We both just had that realization where we’re like, ‘this is our job? This is freaking awesome!’ We’re like chasing each other and I’m pushing him on the ground. We just wanted it to be quirky and fun, but at the same times it was such an epic sunset.
Your character enters a pretty random competition to win an inn. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve tried to win or entered a competition for?
When I was younger, you know how in the magazines you could enter to win a whole bunch of CDs? Like, for 5 cents you get all 12 of these albums! And you know what? You actually do get all 12 of those albums — but they charge you afterward. My mom was like, ‘What is this that you paid for?’ I’m like, ‘It said 5 cents!’ So then she gets to call and say it was ordered by a minor and do the whole thing. That’s the closest I’ve gotten.
Rom-coms are having a resurgence right now. What’s your favorite of all time and what do you think sets it apart?
My favorite one is The Wedding Singer with Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler. It has all the elements of this awkward and unexpected falling in love. These two heartbroken people find each other when they need it. I feel like that happens a lot, the discovery part of Oh, actually we kind of need each other. I also I love a good funny rom-com, because I love to laugh.
Falling Inn Love is available to stream on Netflix now.
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