However, Matafeo stresses that "Starstruck" was cast with the intention of finding "the best people for the role." She says, "When you're not white, sometimes you second-guess yourself. I no longer have to provide exposition to the plot," Matafeo says, joking. I'm happy to be in a time when that's totally changed. "I used to do a stand-up show about how I looked, and who I am, that I'd always be forced to be the 'best friend' in a rom-com. (As a 5'10", curly-haired girl myself, I was also thrilled to see a protagonist who looked like me in a rom-com for the very first time). "Starstruck" deviates from the rom-com script, for more reasons than going past the meet-cute: The series is notable for being an interracial rom-com in which both of the leads are not white: Patel is of South Asian descent, and Matafeo is part Samoan. The second series is them happening to each other, in terms of all the insecurities they bring to a new relationship." "Everything was happening to them (in season one). Jessie has to sort herself out to properly be in a relationship," she says. The second series is them happening to each other, in terms of all the insecurities they bring to a new relationship. "Season one was a lot of the external obstacles of these two characters being together - timing, miscommunications, ex-boyfriends. The nature of their problems, and their conversations, changes. ![]() It’s interesting to explore when two characters actually get together and try to sustain being in love,” Matafeo says.Īs a result of their mutual commitment to each other, Jessie and Tom excavate more of their emotional baggage in season two. When they get together, it feels like a resolution of that whole conflict. “Rom-coms are so much about the early part of the courtship. Jessie reconnects with her ex-boyfriend, Ben, in "Starstruck." Pictured: Rose Matafeo and Edward Easton. ![]() For Matafeo, this early stage of the relationship is even more compelling than the journey to the relationship, which rom-coms conventionally focus on. In "Starstruck" season two, the battlefield becomes the bathroom and birthday parties, and all the other places where Jessie and Tom attempt to merge their lives. ![]() Then it's realizing, 'Have I made a massive mistake, or not?'" But Matafeo changed the timeline so the show wouldn't miss the "most interesting part" of a relationship: "Those awkward early months when you've taken such a risk to be together. Originally, season two of "Starstruck" was going to skip over this phase, jumping to Tom and Jessie six months down the line. The ship has left the harbor, and they don't know if they'll like the ride - let alone agree on a destination. Linger on Tom and Jessie's expressions in the back of the bus in the season one finale, and all that ambiguity is there. Season two of "Starstruck" is about "those awkward early months when you've taken such a risk to be together," Matafeo tells TODAY. The bigger obstacle, though, is of an emotional nature: Jessie seems reluctant to commit to a relationship. ![]() For one, their status divides them: He's a famous actor she's aimless and works in a movie theater. Jessie didn't think it through, and you'll see the fallout from that," Matafeo tells TODAY.Īfter all, Tom and Jessie are still Tom and Jessie, bogged down with Tom and Jessie problems. "The second series explores what happens after you make that massive declaration romantic declaration - and it’s kind of awkward some of the time. What was a bold romantic act in season one now seems like an uneasy step toward further uncertainty. Season two picks up immediately in the bus headed toward Heathrow Airport, which Tom boarded in an attempt to stop Jessie from returning home to New Zealand.
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