EXCLUSIVE: Victoria Justice and Midori Francis Talk their Friendship in Afterlife of the Party
Victoria Justice and Midori Francis play best friends in Netflix’s new movie, Afterlife of the Party, and we got the chance to chat with the onscreen best friends about their new movie.
During our chat, we talked to the ladies about filming their scenes together, how they created their on screen bond and so much more. Check out what they had to say below.
What was it like filming the scenes where your two characters were not really supposed to either see one another or hear one another?
Victoria: “I think Midori enjoyed those scenes a little bit more than she should have. It was fun for me to be able to just be observing everyone and have free reign to do my own thing.”
Midori: “I had fun doing it because it’s a fun actor’s challenge. And Victoria is like, ‘Okay, can you not have so much fun doing the scenes where you pretend like I’m not here?’ But by the time we got to those scenes, we had already hung out a bunch and we were friends and honestly I enjoyed it.”
How did you distract yourself from not laughing at Victoria during those scenes?
Midori: “You have to focus really hard on something else to ignore something else. So I was just super zoned in on the hallway. But then also just seeing from the corner of my eye, Victoria, doing all these… Oh, she had so many acting challenges. She had to fall into scenes and it was such a joy to watch Vic play around from the corner of my eye and not be able to notice it.
Victoria, was a majority of your scenes improvised or did you plan them beforehand?
Victoria: “I feel like there was maybe a little bit of improv, but for the most part we rehearsed and knew what we were going to do.”
You can read the rest of our interview below. Afterlife of the Party hits Netflix tomorrow, September 2 and so does our review! Make sure to check it out tomorrow.
Was there anything off set that you guys did to make sure that your bond truly resonated the friendship between these characters?
Midori: “Yes. When you’re an actor, you can’t control certain things like you often can’t control who else was cast. I know I’m entirely lucky to have been paired with Victoria, who from day one was just the kindest and most open person. We definitely worked at it. In the beginning, we were like, ‘Let’s have friend dates.’ Then it naturally evolved because we had the time where we were in a bubble and we just became friends.”
Victoria: “I feel really lucky in that way too, because like Midori said, you never know who you’re going to be cast opposite with. I feel so lucky because Midori is so amazing. And I feel like we naturally would’ve become friends anyway though. We’re really similar in a lot of ways, but also very different in a lot of ways. But I feel like you’re just so genuine and authentic and it made me feel at ease. It naturally unfolded. And I just love her. She’s wonderful.”
For both of you, what was your biggest takeaway from this movie?
Victoria: “Biggest takeaway from this movie, I would probably say just that life is short and you never know when it could all be taken away. So I think, tell the people that you love, that you love them every single day. Don’t take anyone for granted and try not to hold on to any grudges.”
Midori: On that note, I felt it while we were filming it, but especially watching it, forgiveness for me was the thing that popped up a lot. We were lucky, these characters, because we got a second chance but you don’t always get that. My character was holding this night in my head for an entire year, beating herself up and she wasn’t even mad at me. Not really. She’s mad at me, but not really. And this idea of oftentimes our punishments of ourselves and of others, it’s all in our head and let’s move past that and forgive.”