Griffin Gluck, Luke Eisner, and Jan Luis Castellanos Open up About Insecurity and Returning for 'Tall Girl 2' (Exclusive)

One of the best things about franchises is that the characters can undergo such major growth over the course of the series. That Is definitely the case with Netflix's new teen rom-com, Tall Girl 2. Dunkleman (Griffin Gluck) finds himself navigating his growing romance with Jodie (Ava Michelle), Stig (Luke Eisner) has to atone for the havoc that he wreaked in 2019's Tall Girl, and Tommy (Jan Luis Castellanos) is the new guy vying for Jodie's heart. 

Gluck and Eisner were already veterans of the franchise and were anxious to return to these characters, particularly as the often contentious dynamic underwent some drastic changes. "I think Luke and I probably share very similar experiences coming back to these characters. I think these characters are definitely versions of our goofiest ourselves," Gluck told Popculture.com in an exclusive interview. "They're not necessarily who we are as people, but they are definitely facets of our personalities to a very far extreme. So I think it's fun to be able to revisit that side of you. And I think what Luke and I did a lot during this film is sort of just let go and have fun and play around with the scenes and the lines, much to the chagrin of the producers, I'm sure."

Castellanos is the new guy on set attempting to woo Michelle's Jodie, but he was also given a meaty storyline about male body insecurity that is rarely discussed onscreen. "I feel like men nowadays, oftentimes we try to suppress all those insecurities, even though they bubble up. But it's okay to be yourself," Castellanos shared. "It's okay to be unique." This storyline struck a chord with Castellanos, who pulled from personal experience growing up overweight. "That was a story that was fair for me to tell in a movie that felt like you had to overcome those insecurities, because I remember jumping into the pool with a shirt on because I didn't want people to see who I really was and stuff like that," Castellanos admitted. "And still to this day, sometimes I'm like, 'Oh, my stretch marks.' And then you have a friend come and tell me, 'You're a tiger. Embrace it.' And I'm like, 'I love you.' So it feels really good being able to bring that to the screen."

For Eisner, he was excited to show a different, kinder side of Stig this time around. "I think being in the first movie, everyone wanted to be his friend and he didn't understand why. And then this one, he wanted to be friends with everybody again and they didn't want him to be and he was trying to figure out why," Eisner said. "So I think it's the complete opposite. He's playing the anti-himself from the first movie. And I think what I enjoyed about doing that was finding that those are pretty similar people. You're trying to be yourself and to make friends and to find your group and your herd and your tribe. So I mean, that's not the most poetic answer. But I think it was almost the same character, just in a different circumstance." Tall Girl 2 is now available to stream on Netflix.