So here’s the thing: Lana Condor and Noah Centineo were seriously adorable together in the To All the Boys movies. Their chemistry really shines through the Netflix franchise, from beginning right up to the end. What they experienced together with the rom-com phenomenon is prime breeding ground for a real life romance, but they intentionally decided to remain professional early on and decide not to date.
Lana Condor recently recalled that right before filming the first movie To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before (which became an overnight hit for its young stars), she went to a hot yoga class and grabbed pizza with Noah Centineo when she realized sparks could seriously fly between them if she didn’t set boundaries. Then and there, she told the actor that it "was not going to happen" between them, and he agreed. Now that they’ve wrapped the trilogy, Condor stands by their no-dating pact. As she told ET:
We love each other in a very friendship way and there's real love there, but I think in an alternate universe -- I can't even imagine -- if we would've dated, it would've ruined the movies.
When the two actors initially made the first film, they had no idea the To All The Boys movies would become as popular as they are. Their professional relationship has thrived four years since Lana Condor drew that line, and she believes the movie is better for it. The odds of them maintaining their relationship for all that time may have been difficult, and there would have been a lot more focus on their personal relationships than the movies. Condor continued:
You watch movies like Twilight where the leads [Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson] were dating and broke up in the middle of the films and I could not even imagine working in a romantic setting with an ex. That sounds like an actual nightmare. It's a literal miracle that all of us still feel so much love towards each other because when you spend that much time with each other and your whole worlds are changing together a lot could happen.
When a couple of actors like Lana Condor and Noah Centineo get cast in a movie series like All The Boys, it seems as though it would be easy to fall in love. The two were already placed in romantic situations together, and they clearly have genuine chemistry off screen. Also, in terms of their lives, both of them were going through an insane change, during which they were both in the process of becoming major stars. It’s exactly what happened to Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, or High School Musical’s Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens and The Amazing Spider-Man’s Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone.
They’d also be spending time in interviews navigating relationship questions. But instead they get to make a case for not dating your co-stars. Sure, there’s a cute aspect to the idea from the outside looking in but, when it comes down to it, acting is a job and, when two actors get together in real life (especially under contract), it can cause a lot of heartache and drama. Noah Centineo echoed Condor’s perspective with these words:
This is going on four years of working together and so you don't really get to have a friendship with someone if lust gets in the way. And who knows, things can get ugly at some points.
Centineo and Condor sound like they have a really great friendship with one another, which will likely remain for years to come. And if they had dated in an alternate universe, as Condor called it, we may not have treasured the final chapter Always And Forever as deeply.
