How "To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You" Star Jordan Fisher Won the Role of John Ambrose

To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You is finally out on Netflix, and even before the premiere we were feeling Lara Jean Covey's struggle to choose between Peter Kavinsky and John Ambrose McClaren (played by new cast member Jordan Fisher). If you're also experiencing Lara Jean's pain, there's a good reason why: Jordan's chemistry with star Lana Condor is off the charts. For Lana, Jordan stood out from the "talented, amazing, attractive, wonderful, great options" of male actors gunning for the role.

In the film, sporty, confident, flirty Peter Kavinsky (played by Noah Centineo) stands in stark contrast to John Ambrose, who embodies a quieter energy as he tries to win over Lara Jean. LJ and John Ambrose connect through letters in the sequel, when he replies to her old love letter with one of his own; they then end up working in the same nursing home as part of a school extracurricular. Chaos, Cinderella moments, and love triangles ensue. But in an interview with Teen Vogue's Gabe Bergado, Lana was candid about the casting process and how other actors tried to portray the softer, more emotionally intelligent John Ambrose with an approach more akin to how Noah plays Peter.

"We thought, John Ambrose is a great character in the books. If they read the books, [the actors] will get it. They'll get that he's not that, he's more sensitive, like Lara Jean. He's softer, like Lara Jean, and he's really smart, like Lara Jean. A lot of guys came in with more of the Peter Kavinsky energy," Lana says. "That was so weird for me because I realized they were all trying to be like Noah. They were trying to be super macho and really charming but in a way where I'm like, 'What's happening?'"

Jordan, she says, was her very last chemistry read, and after just one take she knew he was the one. "I knew in my heart," she says. "The first word out of his mouth, I was like, there it is. I had that same feeling I had with Noah when we chemistry read together. When Jordan left the audition room I was like, 'You guys.'"

Prior to To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You, Jordan Fisher acted in various Disney Channel productions, including Teen Beach Movie and its sequel as well as the Dove Cameron-led show Liv and Maddie. Back in 2009, he even had a cameo in iCarly. More recently, he's turned to musical theater with roles in Rent: Live and Grease Live!, and Hamilton on Broadway. He's currently playing Evan Hansen — a role originated by Ben Platt — in Broadway's Dear Evan Hansen for a 16-week run.

As Lana explained in her Teen Vogue cover story last month, the casting call for the To All the Boys I've Loved Before sequel was color-blind. At the end of the first film, audiences got a glimpse of John Ambrose, who was then played by actor Jordan Burtchett. In the book P.S. I Still Love You, John Ambrose is described as having blonde hair and navy blue eyes; he's also the grandson of Lara Jean's nursing home friend and mentor Stormy who explains to LJ, "My grandson looks like a young Robert Redford." In the film adaptation, John Ambrose isn't related to Stormy (who is played by Holland Taylor).

“Would I prefer [John Ambrose] to be someone that's a person of color? Yes, for my own... call it selfish reasons that I would like our diverse film to be even more diverse. I actually don't think that's selfish; I just think that's right,” Lana said about the recasting in her January cover story. “But I also wasn't, ‘I'm only going to read with people of color or no one at all.’ I just really wanted the world to see a world of To All the Boys that looks like the one that you see every day.”

Ultimately, Jordan encapsulated what Lana thinks of as a crucial aspect of the sequel, and she told coworkers on the phone they should pick him if they want to embrace the intent behind Jenny Han's original vision for the character.

"I was like, 'You could pick a more macho jock person if you want. You absolutely can, but it's going to be a different movie if you do that,'" she says. "Or you can pick Jordan, who is John Ambrose in the flesh from the books. Sensitive, smart, caring, everything that I had imagined. I kept telling them, 'You have to preserve the sweetness of To All the Boys.' If you don't, then no one's going to like the sequel no matter whatever with the boys. You have to preserve the sweetness."

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Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue