Noah Centineo has become a household name, especially with rom-com fans who will recognize him from the hit Netflix franchise To All the Boys I Loved Before and Sierra Burgess is a Loser. He won hearts as the YA lead and soon took over as Hollywood heartthrob.
This year, the 26-year-old took up a different space, flexing his acting muscles as an action hero—playing Atom Smasher in Black Adam and now, playing the lead on the Netflix CIA series, The Recruit.
Centineo has never felt typecast. In fact, he loves rom-coms and would do them again. He also loves action and had a blast getting his hands dirty with the action sequences in The Recruit. At the end of the day, the actor wants to “deliver for his audience,” he said candidly.
No matter the role he picks, there always seems to be a Noah-esque quality to the personas he inhabits. He believes it’s his form of acting, and being unable to escape yourself comes with the territory—just like Brad Pitt and Vince Vaughn. Not that he’s not open to transformations—in fact, he would be happy to tackle that too someday.
The actor lived in Montreal while he filmed The Recruit, and he loved it. We caught up with the actor to discuss his new roles, the direction of his career and what he loves about Montreal.
You were at the Los Angeles premiere and you posted on Instagram saying you have found a new sense of direction and urgency in your life and career. Can you elaborate on that?
Going to Montreal for six months to shoot this opened my eyes to so much. I got such an education on what it takes to really bring a project from beginning to end. It’s a grueling process at times, and how important it is to have the right team involved to do so. And when I came back, I took all of that information and I really felt like it fired me off in a new direction. I took so much of it and I’m really grateful for the education I received working on The Recruit. So, you know, I started my own production company with my partner and we’re developing a slate, we’re just really excited about the stuff that we’re building and excited about other opportunities on the line with Netflix. So yeah, I feel stoked.
When I watch your work, I couldn’t help but there is always a Noah-esque quality to it, whether it’s in Black Adam, or whether it’s in The Recruit—you have great comic timing, and I feel like it’s borrowed from your personality. So how much of that do you bring from your own personality into these roles?
I’ve always looked up to actors that do that, whether it’s Matthew McConaughey or Vince Vaughn, or Brad Pitt, there’s just a lot of them…they can’t really escape themselves fully. I think that’s why we love them so much. And so I think, I think maybe that is an aspect of my form of acting. Not to compare myself to them at all, but I just think I can’t really help it and oftentimes, the roles that I’ve been fortunate enough to be involved in or booked as a result of an audition have allowed for that and I have no problem doing that. I tried to find pieces of myself and infuse it into the character.
So if every character is a little bit of the actor who plays them, how much of yourself do you see in Owen?
A lot in Owen. I think he’s got this blind optimism, he’s headstrong, and a little bit stubborn. And I see that in myself a lot, too. I’m reckless, I have reckless abandon, sometimes with my own safety and my own life. Especially when I was younger, when I was his age, he’s 24. He’s fresh out of law school, second day on the job. And I see a lot of my younger self in him without a doubt. There’s also selfishness that I currently possess that he has. He’s incredibly ambitious. And he wants to do well, and he wants to prove himself in this world. And I feel aligned with that as well.
I believe when you got the script, you asked if this was aligned to your personality?
I called my team and said, “Who gave you permission to fucking take me and my likeliness and put it into a script?”
Was that something you were looking for? Something that is almost identical to your own?
I think at that time in my life, yeah I was. It was definitely something that I was interested in. It wasn’t something I was cognitively looking forward to. It was just something that I reacted to right and aligned with. It felt good to me. I became very passionate about what I could do. I know I can do this and I want to do this role.
You started as being the lead of high school rom-coms and now we see you moving into the action space. Seems like you’re trying to diversify your work to avoid being typecast. So is that the direction of your career that you’ve been working towards?
It’s not even an avoidance of being typecast it for me. I just go with whatever feels right for me. I never felt like I was typecast. I did rom-coms, and I love doing them. Netflix was such a great home for a collaboration. For me, it’s really just about whatever feels right for me. Of course, when you’ve only really done romantic things, some filmmakers obviously are not going to want to work with you if you just do YA and rom-coms. With that you have to weigh your options, there are of course restrictions. But for me, it’s less about looking at those and looking at what is possible. What are my opportunities? What are my options? How can I marry what’s in front of me with what I want to do, with what my audience is really expecting? Can I deliver things that my audience would be into? Because at the end of the day, they’re the reason that I’m able to work.
You’re also giving a different side to your personality and your acting range. Seems like you’re enjoying it.
I love it. There’s plenty to explore out there when it comes to storytelling and characters. I’m just excited to continue to do that.
How long were you shooting in Montreal for?
Six months? We were there from October until March. Hell yeah we got winter. It was so cold.
You even watched the Montreal Canadiens game while you were there?
Yeah, it was fun!
Where did you hang out in your free time? Did you have a go-to spot?
I was at the Old Port a lot. Went up to Mile End a few times. Also did Bota Bota the spa. It was fantastic. What I loved is that the city of Montreal puts on these festivals during winter that you can just go to and walk around for free. And it was so special. You know, living in a cold place, it can really be isolating when it’s that cold, it can be really depressing and you’re just kind of locked inside. And the city was so great. The people were so wonderful.
So how has your experience with your fans been in Canada in Montreal compared to around the world?
Great! It’s cool to walk around a city I’ve never been to and feel like the people around me are friends. They’re nice people that know me and smile, and are polite and kind, willing to give me recommendations on where to get dinner and where to go have good coffee. It’s just great. It’s lovely.
You were looking for film for your camera—did you end up finding one in Montreal?
I did! A camera store across from 49th Parallel.
The Recruit is now streaming on Netflix
