- What made you want to come on board 'Chemical Hearts?'
- Immediately reading it I liked the story.
Also the characters were both like, very deep.
And then you.
- Me? (laughing)
- There you go!
- Thank you.
- What made you wanna executive produce on 'Chemical Hearts?'
- I was initially attracted to the idea
that these two characters were just different
from what you normally see portrayed in young love.
I don't like young teenager movies, I never really have.
I don't find them entirely interesting
because I don't find them real or relatable.
You know, having a story that's more grounded
and portraying young love with the pain that it entails,
it just felt real to me
and that's a story that I want to tell.
And I've always wanted to be, kind of, more involved
than just an actor.
I've always wanted to be involved from start to finish,
have my hand in the casting process,
seeing the different cuts and having my opinion matter.
And so to be an executive producer - Yeah, sure.
and actually have that,
I was like, "Wow! This is truly a dream come true."
- Your character Grace,
you know, you turn down
you know, like a coveted job,
at least in Henry's mind,
as like, editor at the newspaper.
I don't know, was that important to have her,
kind of, off the bat like, Iguess, go against the grain
and like, turn down that job?
- Yeah, I think, and again,
it's kinda like all these teen--
A lot of teenage movies are like,
"Oh, you get the job that you wanted,"
or, \"You get the opportunityyou've been waiting for.\"
And we find out that it means a lot to Henry
and you find out that Grace was a writer as well.
But, I think she's also old enough
and mature enough, emotionally, to know
that she's not in the space to handle that.
And so, I think it says a lot about who she is,
where when she's offered something that she normally,
probably would have been thrilled to do,
she's like, "No, I can't handle that right now."
And she's not willing to put more stress on her shoulders,
which I think is, you know, kind of a difficult decision to make
when you're a teenager. To know when to say no,
when to stop.
I know even as an adult, I'vehad to learn how to be like,
\"Nope, can't do this. Too many plates are spinning already.\"
And so, I think she knows who she is
and she knows the spot that she's at, emotionally,
that she can't handle it.
It just says, it's kind of a testament to her character
that she's--
She's got a lot goingon inside and she knows that,
and she's not about to make her life even more hectic
by adding responsibility to it.
Then Henry becomes her responsibility.
(claps)
- Oh, geez!
- Come on!
(laughing)
- So, Lili, first thing that's said in the movie
is, "You're never more alive than when you're a teenager."
Do you agree with that?
- I don't know if I do.
I think, maybe, in a chemical reaction kind of way,
it's true. In the sense that your brain
is experiencing things for the first time,
like you're experiencing your first love,
your first heartache.
And so in that sense, you're truly feeling these things
for the first time.
But, I don't know if I agree if that's the case for everyone.
I think right now in my life,
I'm the most alive I've ever been
and feel the most connected to myself
that I've ever been.
- I don't know, yeah. It's like, I don't know if I'd agree
with saying like, "You're more alive."
I would just say things are more raw,
and then you have to get older.
You know, as you get older, I think you naturally,
hopefully learn about yourself more,
and then learn how to like, deal with those feelings
a bit more. Just how you think, everything like that.
But yeah, so I don't know if I would flat say
like, necessarily "alive." I would just possibly say
like, a bit more raw, I guess.
- I think new. Like everything's just--
- New. That's a good word, too.
Raw sounds a little weird. (laughing)
- No, it's a cute word. It's true.
(laughing)
So, for the gang in 'Chemical Hearts,'
producing the issues of the newspaper,
it's said that, \"Havinga platform is useless
"unless you have something to say."
And you're someone who doesn't have social media.
You don't even have social media,
which is the opposite of me.
How do you look at social media?
Like, do you think it's a bunch of people
posting useless things?
Or do you think that you would be able
to find your own voice where you would be talking
about the important things?
Or like, how do you view people who have a platform
and what they do with it?
- Yeah, no. I mean, I think it's definitely a mixture.
I mean, I'm sure that there's people that,
I don't know, maybe, don't have something useful to say,
but I think there's people that do have incredibly
useful things to say and, you know, are able to shine a light
on something that maybe isn't talked about.
So, I mean, no. And I think it's like,
in a lot of ways, itadvanced us as a society
in a really great way.
If I would have one,
what I would say, I mean, I don't know.
That's something I would need to think about.
Like, at least for me personally,
it feels like to be abit of a tricky question.
'Cause obviously like, I do wanna help as much as possible.
But, in terms of like, revealing so much about my life,
it's like, I'm not really sure how comfortable I am
about that.
- Yeah.
- But obviously like, I aminterested in like, helping people
and things like that.
What about you, I mean you do wonderful things.
You seem to have meaning to,
you know, a lot of what you sayand what you do on there,
which you know I think is great.
- To me, that's the point.
Like, if I'm gonna have an audience of X amount of people,
I want to at least be saying something important,
or at least have something that people can take away
from what I'm saying. - Yeah.
- You know, I think there's a lot of mindless content
out there, and I don't wanna be one of those people
who just kinda adds to that.
I would rather have something to say
that people can take away from, I guess.
- Yeah.
- That's it about that.
- Yeah, no, that's awesome.