It’s been a little over a month and a half since Jezebel collectively dumped Netflix hottie Noah Centineo, and as the old Chainsmokers song goes, we’ve been doing just fine. Let’s check in on our ex, who gave an interview to the Hollywood Reporter, published today.
Centineo, who is 22 years old, is out there, working on himself, leveling up in his career. Fame has changed him. He drinks juice now.
He also, on his 21st birthday, dropped booze and other substances (“Fuckin’ nothing, just coffee and water and juices”).
He’s weeding out negative people in him life and surrounding himself with only people who want to see him grow:
In early 2017, he filmed Black Label’s Sierra Burgess Is a Loser — a gender-bent Cyrano tale that had its Netflix debut Aug. 30 — and that July he made Boys. Centineo’s next step was a bold one: He fired nearly all of his team, sticking with lawyer Derek Kroger but leaving APA and Industry Entertainment for CAA and manager Nick Styne.
He’s taking meetings. He’s been taking meetings. But now they’re going somewhere. Good for him.
A large portion of his past year has gone toward industry introductions. “I was taking two to three meetings every single day,” he recalls. The meet-and-greets were reminiscent of an awkward first date. “I’m sitting down in a room with people who don’t know me,” he says. “They just were like, ‘So, where you from?’ And I was like, ‘Fuckin’ Florida, man. Where are you from?’ “ Centineo found himself in the limbo of having would-be successes in the can but nothing, as of yet, to show for his work. Eventually, he found his proposal: “Hi, I’m Noah. You don’t know who I am [but] I have two films coming out. If you want to work together, I’d love to read a script. Let me know.” Two Netflix films and 14 million followers later, those meetings are paying off.
He knows where he’s going because he knows where he comes from—fucking Florida, man—and that he can overcome any obstacle—like getting truancy court after skipping school to go to more auditions:
He enrolled in a public high school, but “I was like, I’ve got a callback for Lab Rats” — another Disney series —“so I’m not going to go to History. I’m going to fuckin’ meet the producer,” he recalls with a laugh. “Truancy got involved.” After realizing LAUSD did not align with his aspirations, he finished up his junior and senior years in an independent study program favored by child actors. “I moved across the country to become an actor, not an academic type,” he says with a laugh. “I know myself, I’m not gonna be a mathematician or a professor.”
And yet, he’s confident. Because he knows he can be:
“Abso-fuckin’-lutely,” he says when [his transition from Netflix to film] is pointed out. “I own that shit.”
Most of all, he’s open to new things. He’s open—perhaps—to love:
Besides, as he often says, “I love love.”
I love love, too. I hope we can both find it, apart, but together, in a sense, because we are bound by our common history. Which I enjoyed, but feel better off having ended, but regardless feel grateful for. Thank you, Noah Centineo. Next.