Sofia Carson Falls in Love with a Marine — After They Wed — in Touching Trailer for Purple Hearts
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Sofia Carson and Nicholas Galitzine enter a "marriage of convenience" — with unexpected results — in Purple Hearts.
PEOPLE has an exclusive first look at the trailer for the upcoming Netflix drama, set to begin streaming worldwide on July 29, about aspiring musician Cassie (Carson, 29) and Marine Luke (Galitzine, 27) who tie the knot "to get the medicine she needs to actually survive" through Luke's health benefits due to her type I diabetes diagnosis, an official synopsis reads.
"Luke is hiding a troubled past and has his own reason for entering this marriage of convenience," the synopsis continues. "For a while, their secret plan works and they start to develop a semblance of a friendship. As Luke begins paying off the debt that haunts him, Cassie's musical career starts taking off, inspired by an unexpected muse: Luke."
"But when a tragedy sends him home earlier than expected, Cassie and Luke are unprepared to feign a marriage face-to-face, in front of family and friends," the synopsis adds. "They constantly argue and disagree, but slowly, the walls between them start to come down as they reveal their vulnerabilities to each other."
The synopsis concludes, "As the line between real and pretend begins to blur, Cassie and Luke might finally admit to feeling something real for the first time in their lives."
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Carson, who also executive produces the film, tells PEOPLE that her character Cassie is "fearless," "unafraid," "brave" and "defined by no man, no institution."
"She is driven by her passion for justice, while fighting for her life within an unjust system," continues the actress and singer.
The Descendants actress adds that she wanted "to tell Cassie's story as honestly, truthfully and vulnerably as it needed to be told."
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"I wanted her thoughts to be my thoughts," Carson continues. "Her fears to be my fears. To love how she loved. To see the world through her eyes. In order to tell her story and to do Cassie justice, I needed to fully and completely dive into her skin, her heart and her mind."
"Cassie and I are very different in a lot of ways, but in others, beautifully similar: Her tenacity. Her love of music. Her fearlessness," Carson says. "Cassie is a force. And it was my honor to be her, and step into her skin, for a moment in time. I admire her deeply."
"And I can't wait for the world to meet her, so that they fall in love with her as much as I did," she adds.
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For Galitzine, he says he "felt compelled to immerse myself as much in the military culture as possible before taking on a role like" Luke.
"I think there's such specificity that is required to play such a character so it was very much about understanding the process of creating a Marine — what basic training looked like, the intensity of it all, how they carry themselves, body language," he adds.
To that end, "We spent an entire day at Camp Pendleton, which is one of the top military facilities in the country," Galitzine tells PEOPLE. "I got to spend the whole day with real Marines, training, getting advice. It was such a memorable experience."
He says, "I've taken away such an appreciation for the people who serve. The bravery it requires and the sacrifices someone is willing to make for their beliefs and for love."
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Carson says her chemistry with Galitzine "was instant, which is a vital part of telling a romance as deep and complex as ours."
Adds Galitzine, "There were just a couple of really difficult scenes, very emotional scenes, that Sofia and I filmed together and I think just being able to go to that dark place with each other and support each other and feel the sort of closeness and the chemistry was super gratifying."
"We truly were on this journey together," Carson says. "We wholeheartedly committed to being Cassie and Luke and to telling their love story honestly and vulnerably. It was emotional, but we were there for each other."
The first single from the movie's soundtrack — "Come Back Home," an original song by Carson that she performs in the movie — is available now.
Purple Hearts, directed by Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum, is streaming July 29 on Netflix.
