High school is all about figuring out who you want to be, and Jodie (Ava Michelle) and Fareeda (Anjelika Washington) have found themselves moving up the social ladder in Netflix’s Tall Girl 2. Jodie is enjoying some newfound popularity, the lead In the school play, and her first boyfriend, Dunkleman (Griffin Gluck), while Fareeda is pursuing her dreams of being a fashion designer and exploring an evolving relationship with Stig (Luke Eisner). “I think seeing anyone just embrace themselves and be confident and really let their personality come out to everyone, not only the people that they’re really close to, is something that’s really special,” Michelle said In an exclusive Interview with Popculture.com.
Fareeda’s journey from sidekick in Tall Girl to an independent woman in Tall Girl 2 was a blast to explore for Washington. “I made her this bold, confident, amazing fun character, and then we get to see a little bit more of her journey,” Washington explained. “We meet her parents, we get to see her kind of doubt herself for the first time, and just kind of have a little bit of a moment of, ‘Oh wait, so people who are this confident, aren’t always this confident?’ So it was really fun to play with that, and it reminded me that maybe Beyonce isn’t always as confident as I think she is.”
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Part of the appeal of Tall Girl 2 for both actresses was the focus on the friendship between Jodie and Fareeda. “I love the friendship between the two characters, and I love how we get to see it evolve when adversity hits them and then how they both overcome it because they love each other so much,” Washington said. “Their relationship with each other is the biggest relationship that they have and the most important one.”
That doesn’t mean that romance Is off the table. Love triangles abound in Tall Girl 2, and for the record, Michelle and Washington are both Team Dunkleman. “I think there’s something so special in someone who has, loved Jodi for who she is truthfully, his entire life,” Michelle said. “I think that she’s now confident, but he loved her even when she didn’t love herself, and I think that that is probably one of the most beautiful things. I also think a relationship that comes out of a friendship is just so sturdy and strong and amazing. So I love Dunkleman and Jodie. What is their ship name? Junk?” Tall Girl 2 is now available to stream on Netflix.
