Olivia Holt Teases Thanksgiving Freeform Movie Turkey Drop, Talks New Single 'Bad Girlfriend'
What is a “turkey drop,” you ask? We’ll let Olivia Holt explain.
In her upcoming Freeform film, Turkey Drop, the 22-year-old actress plays Lucy, a freshman college student who comes home for Thanksgiving break and realizes the disheartening possibility that her high school boyfriend (Tyler Perez) is going to “turkey drop” her.
“Turkey drop is a phrase that comes from two people being in a long distance relationship, and when they both come back in town for the holidays around Thanksgiving, one of them ends up dropping the other,” Holt tells PEOPLE.
As Lucy begins to suspect a “turkey drop” on the horizon, she leans on her mother (Cheryl Hines) for support while she fights to save her relationship — just as a new potential partner (Ben Levin) arises.
“She’s doing anything and everything she can to save the relationship, but in the process, her older brother’s best friend is falling for her, and she starts falling for him as well,” Holt explains. “So, she’s sort of in this love triangle, and it’s a really beautiful but complex story about her journey and the decisions that she makes as a young adult.”
While the Cloak and Dagger star admits that she’s never been “turkey dropped” before, she sees similarities between herself and Lucy.
“I feel like we’re both a little neurotic at times,” says Holt. “Like, we need to have like full control over everything, and sometimes when there is a bundle of things happening, we feel like we need to have hands on every single one of those complications.”
“So I definitely feel like that’s a similarity that we have,” she continues. “But other than that — I mean, I feel like maybe we’re both sort of ambitious in ways, but I feel like we’re also very different.”
Holt also says she drew on her friends’ experiences in order to perfect the role.
“When I first found out what a turkey drop meant, I remember calling at least two of my closest friends who it’s happened to before,” she says. “And they talked me through it, about how they felt when they kind of knew it was happening, because their partner at the time was distancing themselves. So they really dissected it for me, that way I could really hone in on what those feelings were like.”
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Along with her latest acting gigs — which includes an appearance in Marvel’s Runways on Hulu next month — Holt recently released “Bad Girlfriend,” her second single of the year following “Distance,” which featured DJ Nicky Romero.
“Music was my first love, so working this past year on music has been really special,” she tells PEOPLE. “I feel like I’ve never had this much consistency in music before. I’ve been in the studio almost every single day writing, and making songs that I’m really happy with, and I’m excited for everybody to see — or to hear — all the music that I’ve been making.”
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And while she does find it “challenging” to balance music and acting, Holt has always made sure to find time for both.
“When we were shooting second season of Cloak and Dagger in New Orleans, I found a recording studio out there, a beautiful recording studio,” she says. “And on the weekends, whenever I wasn’t shooting, I would go to that studio. I would have some writers that I worked with, and producers that I worked with, fly in, and we would just work the whole weekend, and we would make songs.”
“So I think it’s just finding the time, and it’s definitely not easy,” she admits. “But it’s definitely worth it whenever you come out of there with a killer song that you’re happy with.”
Turkey Drop premieres Saturday at 9 p.m. ET on Freeform.
