Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Hulu’s Looking for Alaska is a show emphatically about the magic of friendship, in all its self-affirming wonder and dark, traumatic mess. Charlie Plummer stars as Miles “Pudge” Halter, a shy boy obsessed with the final quotes of historical figures, whose own life gets a jolt when he transfers to a sequestered prep school in the middle of the Alabama wilds. There he immediately falls in with a group of misfits led by his imperious roommate “The Colonel” (Denny Love), super cool Takumi (Jay Lee), and enigmatic beauty Alaska Young (Kristine Froseth).
Looking for Alaska is also a searing look at grief, trauma, and the loss of innocence. What cinches the show’s hold on the audience, though, is the electric chemistry of its young cast. Together, they all seem to be directly channeling the characters from Green’s novel and their bond vibrates off the screen.
Decider spoke with both Plummer and Froseth literally one day after they wrapped filming on the heady teen drama. Emotions were still visceral from set, and after the show’s panel at Summer TCA, we asked the stars how the young cast bonded so fast, and so hard. Apparently it all came together one magic night — the first night they all met — and it kept going throughout the long, sweaty shoot.
Plummer said of the night: “I had met Denny, I’d met Kristine, I had not met Jay at that point, but we all got together in one of our apartments and just stayed up until like five in the morning. And we’re talking and laughing, playing music and dancing, and that was really the moment for me where we just clicked, of like, ‘Holy shit, all of these people are that character and this is gonna be quite the fucking experience.”
“That was really kind of the beginning of all of that bond and friendship and everything,” Plummer said. “I can still very much remember that night and what everyone was wearing, and it was the first time Jay did magic did for us. Just getting to really see people open up for the first time is such a special thing.”
Froseth said this bond naturally spilled over into the work the did. “We were a family and we were just there for each other every step of the way. When we had our first scene together, all of us, it just really felt real, like no one else could play The Colonel, no one could play Takumi. They added so much, so many things that I couldn’t even imagine. They really added their own personalities, all these secret fun facts into it that you’ll figure out while watching.”
Hulu’s Looking for Alaska shot on location for five months at a Louisiana boarding school that evoked the exact same vibe as the private school writer John Green attended in real life. That left the cast in the middle of nature, deeply embedded in their character’s journeys. Plummer and Froseth said this off-the-grid location “helped ground” the show.
“I mean, we were shooting on location where none of us had cell service or anything, so kind of whether we liked it or not we just had to be present,” Plummer said.
“And the humidity!” Froseth said. “When I read the book I really envisioned everybody being super sweaty and being very hot…”
“And that was totally the case, yeah. That was our life for a solid five months. I don’t think I’ve sweat that much consistently for any period of time,” Plummer said with a laugh. “I think there was just so many elements making show where things just kind of came together in such a meaningful way, and so many little coincidences that just added up, and it kind of just took on a life of its own and we really just were along for the ride at a certain point. We just got really lucky with it.”
Part of the power of this experience wasn’t just that the cast bonded so strongly together, but individual actors managed to forge lasting friendships with one another. Plummer described how he bonded with Jay Lee over theater and Denny Love over their love of R&B music.
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“Again, we just got really fucking lucky, I think. It could have so easily, like, one of them could have been a total asshole or something…” Plummer said, jokingly while Froseth laughed.
“We’d be like, ‘Alright, we’ll do our best to make it work for the show!'” Plummer teased.
“That sucks!” Froseth said.
“But all of these people I really feel like I want to have in my life for a really long time,” Plummer said.
Looking for Alaska premieres on Hulu Friday, October 18th.
