Jenny Han was going to make sure that the adaptation of her book was not whitewashed when it came to being a movie. “I ended up deciding to work with the only production company that agreed the main character would be played by an Asian actress,” Han wrote. “No one else was willing to do it. Still, I was holding my breath all the way up until shooting began because I was scared they would change their minds. They didn’t.” Lana Condor, who is Vietnamese-American, starred in the adaptation, produced by Awesomeness Films and Overbrook Entertainment, and released on Netflix.
The film would not have been the same without Lana and we are so glad Jenny stood her ground and chose an Asian lead as described in the book itself.
The movie is teenage drama and mostly shows how teenagers are often blinded by their crushes and can go to any extent to avoid embarrassment when their feelings are exposed in a one sided manner.
