It co-stars Sophia Lillis and Wyatt Oleff may have ditched the creepy clown in I Am Not Okay With This, but they’ve kept a dynamic on and off-screen that made them a perfect fit for the upcoming Netflix series.
From the people behind hit shows Stranger Things and The End of the F—king World, Lillis and Oleff star in the “irreverent origin story” of teenage girl Sydney (Lillis) trying to juggle her relationships with friends like Stanley (Oleff) and mysterious superpowers. Dropping on Netflix Feb. 26 and also starring Sofia Bryant (The Good Wife), Kathleen Rose Perkins (Episodes), Aidan Wojtak-Hissong (Falling Water) and Richard Ellis, the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-filmed series was developed from a graphic novel by the same name by Charles Forsman.
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Lillis told PopCulture. com on a visit to set that having Oleff with her on this new project has been a bit of a comfort as she made her way through the filming of the first season.
“It’s been fun. I love him so much, and I feel like it’s always good to get to know people,” Lillis said. “That’s kind of the whole thing in acting with new projects. In new projects, you get to know more people and expand, but it’s also really nice to have someone you know so you don’t have to go [in alone], even though I love it.”
Reflecting on his relationship with Lillis from It‘s first iteration to It Chapter Two, Oleff revealed that the two really bonded when they had more one-on-one time doing press for the Stephen King novel’s film the first time around due to the pure number of people on set during the actual filming. When Lillis was cast as Syd in I Am Not Okay With This, producers immediately noticed their real-life friendship and chemistry on and off-screen and immediately knew they had found their Stanley.
Dipping into the dynamic between Syd and Stanley, Oleff felt a certain kinship to his character, whom he built by drawing on John Cryer’s iconic Pretty in Pink character, Ducky.
“How my character relates to Stan and Syd’s kind of dynamic is just like, in real life, it’s kind of my duty to annoy her,” Oleff admitted. “Stan does it anyway, but he doesn’t mean to, but he does it. And it’s not on purpose or anything, but after a bit, she’s just kind of like, ‘Ugh,’ in the best way possible. She still views him as a nice friend, but just some stuff he does, just some little quirks he has, just make her a little annoyed.”
I Am Not Okay With This comes to Netflix on Feb. 26.
Photo credit: Jean Baptiste Lacroix/WireImage/Getty
