The Last Sunrise Cast Gets Candid on Chemistry, Romance, and Bringing Anna Todd’s Story to Life

Anna Todd may be best known for writing the After franchise, but The Last Sunrise introduces audiences to a whole new love story worth falling for. Speaking with Pop Culture Planet’s Kristen Maldonado, the team behind The Last Sunrise spoke about bringing Todd’s latest book to life, finding the perfect Ry and Julian, and creating the undeniable connection at the heart of their romance.

“It was exciting,” Maia Reficco said about stepping into Todd’s world and building her connection with Fernando Lindez. “It was purely because of how we got along and how willing we were to make the fool out of each other and kind of play and find whatever dynamic worked best.”

“The thing about the chemistry, it was pretty natural. Every day we were getting more friends,” said Lindez. “We were getting more confident with each other and building a beautiful relationship that, of course, made it work.”

For Lindez, The Last Sunrise also represented a major career milestone as his first American film. The biggest adjustment? The language was one thing, but the production culture was another. “Working with Americans is different than working with the Spanish,” he said, noting the different work ethics he experienced on set. “I honestly prefer the American because they are more direct. Let’s get to work.”

Reficco, however, had a very different take. “I work so much in the U.S. It was so much nicer to have less hours,” she joked. “We work too many hours in the U.S. It’s too much. I’m too tired.”

Interestingly, The Last Sunrise didn’t start out as a book. “I actually started this as a film idea and sold it that way,” Todd revealed. “But then a little bit before contracts moved in, I was like, ‘Okay, this will be a book too.’”

“I could see it,” she said about her experience on After. “I don't know if it's because of the experiences I've had with the After series being adapted or just the more I tried to learn about producing and the process. I could see every word I was writing, I could see it in my head. It just felt very easy honestly to adapt.”

When it came to finding Julian, Todd knew immediately that Lindez was the one. “We all immediately were just obsessed with Fernando as Julian,” she said. “He just has this essence about him that, for me, I was just immediately like, this is it.”

In fact, she became so convinced by Lindez that she stopped participating in other auditions. “This is where I will be a brat. This is where I will throw a fit,” Todd joked.

Reficco’s casting was just as important, though Todd acknowledged the actress is quite different from Ry in real life. “I feel like she has like two souls living inside of her and somewhere in the middle of them is able to tap into someone like Ry,” Todd said. “And she’s just a great actor too.”

Meanwhile Carlson Young, who had a break out in MTV’sScream: The TV Series, stepped into the director’s chair for The Last Sunrise. Her experience as an actress has helped her create a supportive environment on set for her cast. “There are so many things when I was growing up and learning how this industry works and how a set is run that I would have loved to have had as an actor. I feel like I can kind of provide maybe some level of safety,” Young explained. “I understand how vulnerable it is to be on that side of things and provide the support and the language as much as I can while manning the the more technical stuff on the other end as well.”

Reficco’s experience in romance doesn’t stop with The Last Sunrise. The actress made her Broadway debut as Eurydice opposite Jordan Fisher in Hadestown, making me question: Would Julian have looked back? “What a great question,” Reficco said, immediately delighted by the comparison. “I feel like inherently the Orpheus story is so heartbreaking because he loves her so much he can’t help but look back. Therefore, I do think he probably would and we’d be forever stuck in the same cycle as Orpheus and Eurydice.”

While another Broadway role isn’t immediately on her schedule, Reficco isn’t closing the door on the stage. “I’m going to just make music for a while, but then after that, I’d love to go back to Broadway,” she said. “I would love to.”

Reficco is best known for her role as Noa in Pretty Little Liars, where she was chased by the killer A over the course of two seasons. So which is more fun: being a final girl or a lover girl? “Both,” Reficco said immediately. “I can’t choose. You’re making me choose between my two kids.”

She admitted that being a final girl comes with an adrenaline rush that’s hard to replicate. “There’s something about being a final girl that I don’t think anything can top,” she said. “Getting to be chased around by a murderer and also like such an iconic murderer like A was something that will forever live as one of my favorite things I’ve ever experienced.”

But The Last Sunrise allowed her to tap into something completely different. “There’s something about the divine feminine energy that comes with being a lover girl that’s really empowering,” she said. “I’m a very insecure person. It made me feel beautiful and desired.”

Despite cameos in their past works, Todd and Young felt it didn’t make sense to appear in The Last Sunrise. Young was actually six weeks postpartum during filming and wasn’t feeling camera-ready, but more importantly, the cameo simply didn’t feel right for the story. “This universe, I feel like [a] true observer and a guide,” she said. “It just didn’t feel right to insert myself into the backdrop of the tapestry.”

For Todd, the decision came down to protecting the world they had created. “I don’t want to take people out of the story. Don’t get me wrong, I love seeing Stephanie Meyer in Twilight,” she said. “This world, it just didn’t fit and I would have felt weird.”

Your next romance obsession arrives August 26 on Prime Video.