[The following story includes spoilers for Netflix’s The Recruit.]
Noah Centineo became the internet’s boyfriend in 2018 when he starred as the dreamy Peter Kavinsky in Netflix’s To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. But Centineo’s career goes back much further than that.
The actor has been in the industry since he had a role in his first indie film at 9 years old. He continued in small projects until he landed a one-liner in Disney Channel’s Austin & Ally when he was 15, and that’s when he remembers first getting recognized by fans in a movie theater with his mom.
After a few more roles on Disney and Nickelodeon, Centineo landed the project that changed things for him: The Fosters. When Jake T. Austin left the ABC Family show, Centineo stepped in as Jesus Adams Foster, one of the show’s main characters.
“The Fosters kind of took me to a different level as well with recognition. I mean, The Fosters is so wonderful, and those people saved my life,” Centineo tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I learned so much on that show, but then the recognition increased a little bit more from there.”
Two months after The Fosters ended, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before premiered on Netflix, and, suddenly, everything was different.
“Suddenly, people knew my name. Suddenly, I had opportunities that I’d never had before,” he says. “I’ve also been fortunate to have a little bit of its time given to me, so it wasn’t super overwhelming. It was overwhelming for like 20 minutes, and then I was like, ‘Alright, I can deal with this. This is good.’”
Since then, his career has been nonstop, initially landing one Netflix rom-com after another, until he hung up his heartthrob cape (at least partially) and picked up a suit — or two.
In 2022, Centineo’s roles were a little more action, a little less dreamboat. He took on the role of Atom Smasher, a superhero who’s a part of the Justice Society and is known for his power of growth and super strength, in Black Adam. Two months later, Netflix released The Recruit, in which the actor plays Owen Hendricks, a lawyer fresh out of law school, who starts working at the CIA and gets tangled up in dangerous power politics when a former asset threatens to expose the organization’s secrets.
At this point in his career, the 26-year-old says he’s fortunate enough to be able to sit back and decide which projects he wants to take on, as opposed to simply having to take whatever acting job he’s offered.
“The plan was not to just deviate and go to action,” he explains. “Now that I have a bit of time and the luxury of sitting back and choosing what we do next, it’s really just about like what I react to.” He continued, “I think the only thing that I’m really looking at now is like, what are good, fun projects that I want to be a part of? It’s not really this genre or that genre, but it’s more so just like what feels right and what feels fun.”
And what feels fun for him now also includes producing. The actor announced on Friday that he was lauching Arkhum Productions, which will focus on comedy and drama projects that put an emphasis on social commentary.
Below, Centineo unpacks The Recruit, what he took from his experience on Black Adam, veering away from the teen heartthrob roles that rocketed him to stardom and why he doesn’t have a dream project.
What originally drew you to the role of Owen Hendricks?
The tone of the show was really interesting. It was a new way into the spy genre that I hadn’t seen before. The tone is great because it combines so many different genres, which is part of it, but the thing I hadn’t seen before was exploring the CIA through the lens of a lawyer fresh out of law school on his first day, totally in over his head. And I thought that was great. It was just a pilot when it was presented to me, and it was just great. I loved it, so I really wanted to be a part of it.
It’s definitely a very unique way into the CIA. Owen gets his butt kicked a lot in the show. Talk to me about that. Did you have to train? Did you have a stunt double?
The cool part about Owen is that he’s completely in over his head, so he doesn’t have training to fight, to kill, to use a weapon, to defend himself, to drive a getaway car. He knows literally none of these things. So, for me, there wasn’t much training involved because I didn’t have to look like I knew what I was doing. It was the contrary. I did have a stunt double. His name is Kenny, and he’s freaking amazing. He looked so cool when he’s doing all the stunts, so we actually had to work together to do some of his body language to make him less cool and more freaking out. He was fantastic. He was really, really great.
Owen can be a little bit cocky at times, how did you play that?
He’s cocky, just be cocky, like you’re the smartest person in the room. You just gotta be super confident. You have to think that you know yourself. So, for the character, he thinks he’s the smartest person in the room. He probably thinks he’s capable of more than he really is.
There are scenes in which Owen doesn’t handle his relationships or friendships properly. Did you find it difficult to portray the less likable aspects of his character?
No, not at all. I mean, he’s a selfish young kid in his 20s, and he’s even fighting with that side of himself, too, as the show gets on. He feels bad for what he’s doing. But he also can’t let go of this ambition and can’t let go of this case, whether it’s personal or because it’s CIA will throw him in jail because he fails or whatever it is, and he hates failing. It wasn’t hard for me. I mean, he’s an ambitious, young 20-something, who’s trying to take over the world and feels like he has every reason to be doing what he’s doing. He feels entitled to that. So, yeah, you just get behind that. Obviously, he’s selfish, and he could have handled a lot of the circumstances with his roommates and with Hannah a lot better, but he doesn’t see it that way. Not until after the fact, right? Hindsight is 20/20. So as the actor, you just gotta see it that way, too.
As I was watching the show, I couldn’t figure out what the acronyms were in the episode titles, what do they mean?
Yeah, they’re said in the show, like episode two is like Never Let Them See You Pucker. All throughout and whatnot.
Very cool. Where was your favorite place to film?
We filmed around the world. We were really just Montreal, Vienna and L.A. for all of it. The Vienna Film Commission is phenomenal. They were super down to open up their city to us and such hard, tireless workers, and they aided this show so much. So we really appreciate that.
I got to jump in one of the big rivers in Vienna and actually film it, and that was magical. Doug Liman with a camera on a boogie board and me. It snowed. It was in a snowstorm actually, the first day we shot it.
You speak other languages throughout the show. Did you speak any of them before filming?
I just memorized. They’re just sounds, but fortunately, English is a Germanic language as well, so we have similar alphabets and similar sounds. Russian is cyrillic. Like it’s a little different, right? So I feel for Laura [Haddock, who plays Belarusian asset Max Meladze]. She knocked it out of the park. But yeah, German was a little bit closer to home. So for me, it was just memorizing sounds. Then, obviously knowing what those sounds mean as well, and then figuring out, you know, “Oh, I’m saying this. How would I say it? What does that mean?”
We talked a little bit about Owen’s less admirable qualities, but he’s also very lovable and sincere at times, which seems similar to a lot of your other more recent roles. What draws you to roles like that?
I don’t really think about it like that. I read the pilot. I saw Owen. He was really sarcastic and really witty. He had an edge to him, but we needed him to be likable as well, right? You can’t just be that. So that was where the warmth came from. It was like, “OK. Well, he needs to have some redeeming qualities here.”
Owen and Max finally get together in episode seven, but he’s kind of been drawn to her since the get-go in one way or another — whether it’s for his work, or he has a personal interest in her. What is it about her that you think drew him in so much?
There’s a danger at play that I don’t think he’s ever quite had a relationship with before. He’s tethered to her — the survival of his career and then his actual survival — he needs her, and it’s whether he wants to or not. Of course, the way that she moves is intoxicating. And she’s always so beautiful. And I think just all of this combined brings him to this crazy place, and she also knows exactly how to use that to her advantage as well. She realizes that when she makes advances, it makes him feel uncomfortable, so she wants to continue doing that, and there’s obviously an innate attraction there, but it’s dangerous. And, obviously, the pheromones of everything — when you look at somebody you know if you like them or not, so yeah. He’s actually not allowed to, right? It’s not professional, I suppose.
The season finale reveals the major cliffhanger that Max’s daughter is still alive, and she kills her mom. Who is she, and what does this mean for Owen moving forward?
I don’t know. You gotta ask [creator] Alexi [Hawley]. She’s the only one here that knows the answers to these questions. His life is at stake in that moment. I think it’s a question of if he gets out. And if so, how? I don’t know. We’ll see.
What would be your guess?
I don’t have a guess. (Laughs.)
I have a few overarching career questions now.
Let’s do it.
Your other more recent project is Black Adam, which was set to move forward with a sequel that is now on pause, but what did you take away from that set?
We had such a wonderful time making that movie. I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed four months on a shoot like I did during the filming of that movie. There were so many of us, and we all just blended together, and everybody was so willing to just befriend one another, and we really became family, and that’s inclusive of Dwayne [Johnson] as well. He set the tone, and not just the cast, but everyone involved in it. We were constantly going to dinners and spending time with each other, and I will take that with me for the rest of my life, let alone the lessons and working with such iconic and deeply experienced and talented actors, our DP Lawrence Sher, our director [Jaume Collet-Serra], but it was the heart of that film for me that I’ll take with me forever. And I’m so grateful to have been a part of it.
Were you bummed to hear that Henry Cavill won’t be returning as Superman anymore?
I honestly can’t even speak to any of that. I don’t really know what their plan is, and I’m psyched to see what they do with the DC world. For me, I’m just really excited to see Peter Safran and James Gunn‘s vision for DC, those guys, they know what they’re doing. So, we’ll give it to him. I’m excited.
You’ve been acting for a while, but your career really started to take off when you landed The Fosters and then To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. I feel like I remember you saying you kind of got famous overnight. Talk me through how that was for you.
I don’t think I ever actually said that. I think a lot of people were saying that, and I think what I usually would have said in response to that was, though it definitely felt like overnight — the social media aspect was without a doubt overnight, how it was 300K to 11 million, I think, in less than 48 hours and then onwards and upwards from there — but I feel like fame, if you will, was drip-irrigated to me over the course of my career. I started doing modeling and commercials in South Florida when I was 8. I did my first indie when I was like 10 or 9, a Latin indie when I was 11. None of these things went anywhere. They were great projects for what they were, and I’m super grateful for them, but none of them really tapped the market. It wasn’t until I was 15, and I did a Disney Channel guest star for a one-liner on Austin & Ally where I started to get recognized, but I was 15 by that point. I had been working, so by the time that happened, it was like, “Whoa.” I remember I was in a movie theater with my mom. It was the first time anyone had ever like recognized me. And then, I kept working.
I did two more episodes on Austin & Ally and other Nickelodeon shows and other Disney shows. Then, I did How to Build a Better Boy with Disney, and then I did The Fosters, and The Fosters kind of took me to a different level as well with recognition. I mean, The Fosters is so wonderful, and those people saved my life, [co-creator] Bradley [Bredeweg] and [executive producer] Joanna [Johnson] and [co-creator] Peter [Paige]. I learned so much on that show, but then the recognition increased a little bit more from there. Then, I had done other shows and little indies here and there, so by that time that To All the Boys came out, it didn’t feel overnight. It did feel, though, like suddenly everything was different. Suddenly, people knew my name. Suddenly, I had opportunities that I’d never had before, and so for all that, it was quick, but yeah, I don’t know. I think, for me, I’ve also been fortunate to have a little bit of it at a time given to me, so it wasn’t super overwhelming. It was overwhelming for like 20 minutes, and then I was like, “Alright, I can deal with this. This is good.”
Around the time of To All the Boys, you played a lot of heartthrobs. Did you want to play those roles, or is that just what came across your desk?
That’s all I got. That’s all I was auditioning for. That’s all I got, except for The Fosters. Fosters was different, and that was the first opportunity [I got] to do other things, outside of like the little indies. So no, but that was I guess what I was kind of good at, or I just fit those roles, so I kept doing those roles, and they were great, man. I do feel fortunate that I didn’t have my own show until I was 18. I got to just work with different groups of people in different casts, different directors, different producers and writers, and just kind of hop from show to show like an independent contractor. I feel like that really aided in my development. And yeah, as I get older now, it’s like, “OK, what else do we want to do?”
You very easily could’ve stayed in those types of roles, but you went in the opposite direction with some your acton roles. What went into your decision to do that? Why did that appeal to you?
The plan was not to just deviate and go to action. I feel like I’m very fortunate to have the opportunity to sit back and decide what to do ’cause before you’re just auditioning and auditioning, and you’ll take whatever you can get. Now that I have a bit of time and the luxury of sitting back and choosing what we do next, it’s really just about like what I react to.
Two years ago, two and a half years ago, I read the script for The Recruit, and I loved it, and I wanted to do it, and it happened to be action, spy genre through an interesting lens. With Black Adam, I had met with [producers] Beau Flynn and Hiram [Garcia] in general meetings well before Black Adam was like a thing for me to be considered. And then, they remembered, I guess. We had a really great chat. I remember meeting with them, and they were phenomenal people, and we just sat there. I think we went over like 30 or 45 minutes and just kept talking about life. Fast forward a little bit, Black Adam was ready to go, and they were like, “Jaume, you should meet Noah.” So, I got to meet with him as a director, and obviously with that, I would have done anything to be a part of a project like that. So, I think the only thing that I’m really looking at now is like, what are good, fun projects that I want to be a part of? It’s not really this genre or that genre, but it’s more so just like what feels right and what feels fun.
You kind of touched on this a little bit, but from here, where do you envision your career going?
That’s for me to know, and y’all find out, I think. I would just rather you guys take everything in as it comes. I don’t really like speaking about the future before it occurs.
What would be your dream project?
I don’t have one. I just wanna work with really, really incredibly talented people that I can learn from. I wanna show up and learn from some of the greats. I’ve already had the opportunity to learn from such incredible people, and I just would like to continue doing that. I don’t really have a dream role, and I just wanna keep expanding and learning more about myself and seeing what I can do and push myself, if there is anywhere, if there is anything else. Maybe there’s not. Maybe this is it.
Stop that. I’m sure there’s plenty. (Laughs.)
Regardless, we’ll find out together.
You’ve been acting since you were a kid. Looking back, what would you tell little Noah?
Keep going, dude. The 8-year-old wanted to be on Disney Channel. I was 15, and I made it on Disney Channel. Then, I wanted my own show, and then we got The Fosters. I wanted to do films, and now we’re doing film. So, just keep going. I like how I moved. I was very, very grateful for my parents and how they were able to support me. I moved to L.A. when I was 15 with my mom. So, it’s not like I went by myself. I would just telling the kid keep going, do what you’re doing. I liked how it all turned out.
Interview edited for length and clarity.
The Recruit is now streaming on Netflix.
Source: Hollywood
