From
Kare11
: 'The Kissing Booth 2': Joey King and Jacob Elordi Break Down That Ending (Exclusive)
The following story contains major spoilers for The Kissing Booth 2.
The stars of The Kissing Booth 2 are sharing their thoughts on the movie's shocking ending. The sequel to the 2018 film arrived on Netflix Friday and brought plenty of drama and deception to the table. The film follows Elle (Joey King) and Noah (Jacob Elordi) as they navigate their long-distance romance. Throughout the movie, Elle gets suspicious of Noah's relationship with his college friend, Chloe (Maisie Richardson-Sellers), while also getting close to -- and even kissing -- the new guy at school, Marco (Taylor Zakhar Perez).
Elle also struggles with deciding where to attend college the following year, having promised her best friend, Lee (Joel Courtney), to join him at UC Berkeley, and also assured Noah she's thinking about joining him at Harvard in the fall.
The flick ends with Elle lying to everyone about being waitlisted at both schools, when she actually received two acceptance letters and now faces a huge decision.
"She's really good at getting herself into a pickle, that's for sure," King told ET's Katie Krause of the cliffhanger ending. "Elle Evans is notorious for trying to make everybody happy, which in turn, the way she goes about it, makes everybody mad in the long run, including herself."
"Elle has a lot of figuring out to do, and she figures out a lot during this movie. And then, in the end, she gives herself even more figuring out to do, which is crazy," she continued. "We don't know what's going to happen... I don't know why she does that."
Elordi agreed, telling ET that Elle is facing "a lot of pressure" from the men in her life.
"She's scared to tell either of them because it's such a difficult decision," he said. "She probably feels a lot of pressure from both parties, which is just unfortunate."
In addition to the college decision, Elle is also facing a romantic one. At the end of the flick, Marco tells one of his buddies that Elle is "worth it," seemingly confirming that he plans to go after her, despite her relationship with Noah.
"I feel like if you get told no, you should take the no, you know? Take the L man, give up," Elordi told ET of Marco. "Like, leave her alone, you know?"
King was more understanding of Marco's plight, telling ET that "Elle is a young gal who makes mistakes."
"I think that she went through this up and down roller coaster with Noah and his life at Harvard, and then this person comes in who's a pillar of strength to her with emotions and a personal life," she said. "Things get confusing."
That confusion Elle is facing actually led King to question if her character and Elordi's should end up together.
"Just like Elle says in the trailer, she always thought they were [endgame], but things change, things happen, and I don't know where their story will take them," King said. "But I'm so excited that we get to see Elle and Noah in this movie. I think Noah and Elle are iconic and I think it's exciting for fans to be able to see them again."
While Elordi disagreed, saying that he thinks Elle and Noah are endgame, Perez was firmly planted in Team Marco ahead of the announcement of a potential third movie.
"I felt like it was the perfect ending to the beginning of a third film," he said. "I have no idea if Netflix will be doing one, but... we need justice for Marco."
Elordi wasn't sold on a third flick, though, and was satisfied with the cliffhanger ending.
"So many of these things end with cliffhangers, you kind of leave it up for interpretation," he said. "Myself personally, I don't know what I'm doing after this phone call, so [I'm] not sure how to answer that... I have no idea."
The rest of the cast seemed eager to make another film, with Richardson-Sellers sharing that she'd "love" to make a third movie.
"I wanna see [Chloe] and Elle. I wanna see that relationship develop," she said. "I want to see how she interacts with Marco. That would be so fun."
Courtney noted that whether or not a third film gets made will largely depend on the fans' response to the sequel.
"I might be a little biased, but I actually think that our second movie is better than our first. I just love it. I think it's so good," he said. "The fans gave us so much support in the first movie and got us a second one. Who knows? It might happen again."
"Our fans loved the first one so much and they are ultimately how we got to do a second one, so if they are loud enough about this one, about hopefully making a third one, maybe Netflix will grant us the permission," King agreed.
The Kissing Booth 2 is now available on Netflix.
From
Detroit News
: Joey King is back in the sequel to 2018’s bouncy, fun streaming hit
Joel Courtney and Joey King are besties in “The Kissing Booth 2.”
Way back in 2018, the teenage rom-com “The Kissing Booth” was a surprise hit for Netflix, and it was no wonder why: it presented an innocent, fun, candy-colored vision of high school romance and was stacked with a good looking cast of characters whose problems could all be ironed out at the titular attraction at their school’s annual fundraiser.
“The Kissing Booth 2” is equally charming, and its sitcom gloss is shiny enough to style yourself in its reflection.
It’s like a middle schooler’s vision of senior year in high school come to life, if their only exposure to the world was through Disney Channel original programming.
Joey King, Emmy-nominated for last year’s “The Act,” is back as Elle, who is still besties with Lee (Joel Courtney) and is in a relationship with his big brother Noah (Jacob Elordi).
Noah is now off at college at Harvard — of course he’s at Harvard, in movies like this college always equals Harvard — and their relationship is starting to feel the strain of long-distance. Plus he always seems to be hanging around Chloe (Maisie
Richardson-Sellers), who is intimidating because she has an accent, which must mean she’s sophisticated.
Meanwhile, super hot newguy-at-school Marco (Taylor Perez) is maybe crushing on Elle, and maybe she’s crushing on him back? And then there’s Lee’s girlfriend Rachel (Meganne Young), who rightly always feels like the third wheel to Elle and Lee, who spend an inordinate amount of time hanging out together even though their relationship is totally platonic. Probably.
Rather than a love triangle, “The Kissing Booth 2” presents a love hexagon between these six characters, and nimbly manages to sustain it for “The Kissing Booth 2’s” two-hour plus runtime. (“The Kissing Booth 2” runs 40 minutes longer than Tom Hanks’ Navy boat WWII epic “Greyhound,” probably because “Greyhound” didn’t have an entire video game dance machine contest subplot to contend with.)
Director Vince Marcello returns and keeps the same vibe of slightly edgy innocence, adding just enough grown-up elements (a scene of drinking, a love scene) to make it feel slightly less than saccharine.
As for zeroing in on the feelings of confusion and displacement felt by teenagers, look elsewhere; there are plenty of high school films, from “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” to “The Edge of Seventeen” that do that better. “The Kissing Booth 2” is a sun-kissed fantasy with an appealing cast and a slick presentation that provides an easy escape, and that’s OK, too. Go ahead, give it a smooch. agraham@detroitnews.com
@grahamorama
From
South Africa's News 24
: The Kissing Booth 2's Joey King and Joel Courtney miss Cape Town and this local milkshake spot!
We recently caught up with the cast of The Kissing Booth 2.
From where their characters are now to their real-life friendship, Joey King and Joel Courtney spilled the beans during our Zoom chat.
From wings at Lefty's to Royale Eatery milkshakes, the duo also shared what became their favourite spots while filming in Cape Town, and the one friendship rule they vowed never to break.
I love a good Netflix romcom.
Give me a bowl of popcorn, my favourite chocolates and sit me down under the covers on a Friday night, and I'll be content with whatever the latest offering on the streaming service is. But I have to say, The Kissing Booth 2 actually exceeded my expectations – see my full review for the film here.
The sequel sees Elle Evans return to high school with her best friend, Lee, for their senior year, while she tries desperately to make her long-distance relationship with Noah work.
Joey King and Joel Courtney both reprised their roles as Elle and Lee – and I was lucky enough to catch up with the stars ahead of the release of the film on 24 July.
We spoke about everything from where their characters are now to their real-life friendship – and even learnt what their favourite Cape Town spots are, since most of the filming took place in the Mother City (are you only realising now their high school looks a lot like the University of Cape Town?).
"Every time I've been able to go back, I've just loved it more and more every single time," Joel says about filming in SA.
He adds: "A local spot for me would have to be Lefty's. That's where we went and ate ribs. Joey, do you remember?"
"Oh my god!" Joey gushes during our interview.
"They were so good!" Joel says. "One of my favourite things about Cape Town has been food and the culinary culture. It's just amazing – everything you could imagine. So much food!"
"One of our favourite places to go was Royale Eatery," Joey adds. "We would get the most delicious burgers and the most thick milkshakes in the world! Oh my god!"
Joey describes South Africa as "the most stunning wine country" as she speaks about Stellenbosch and adds that she loved getting seafood at Kloof Street House.
Another fond memory? "Oh, yeah, obviously, I don't know, hiking Table Mountain was pretty cool!" she says.
We get to talking about their friendship after I bring up a note that Joel passed to Joey while they were on set. (Check out Joey's video on Instagram where Joel snickers as she reads a note that says: "At some point in the next five minutes, I'm going to wink at you. It means I have farted.")
"When you spend that many hours with somebody you kind of develop your own, like, secret language of sanity," Joey says.
And if there's one friendship rule between them that absolutely cannot be broken, Joey says: "Never let the other person get milkshakes alone."
Name a better duo – I'll wait.
From
Insider
: 'The Kissing Booth 2' star Joel Courtney breaks down all of his favorite scenes from the sequel
"The Kissing Booth 2" star Joel Courtney spoke to Insider about his favorite scenes from the movie, the valuable lesson fans can take away, and whether or not another sequel is possible.
The 24-year old actor returns as Lee Flynn, "the same fun-loving little goofball" introduced in the first movie, as he and best friend Elle Evans (Joey King) enter their senior year.
Aside from the introduction of new characters Chloe (Maisie Richardson-Sellers) and Marco (Taylor Zakhar Perez), the film also shows Lee and Elle dealing with typical high school woes, like applying to colleges and falling in love for the first time.
Lee's main hardship in the sequel is a lesson in establishing boundaries
Courtney's character is challenged with balancing his new relationship with Rachel (Meganne Young) and his longstanding friendship with Elle, who has a difficult time being alone after her boyfriend, Noah Flynn (Jacob Elordi), goes off to Harvard.
"I think it's important to learn boundaries for yourself and how much you have the right to place boundaries on others, I would say is a big thing," Courtney told us.
"Lee learns, 'What are the boundaries that I need to set between my best friend and my girlfriend? What time do I get with my girlfriend is just us and we should not and cannot have a third wheel and what time can I spend with my best friend and when can we be the three of us together?'"
Courtney added that being unable to draw clear lines and communicate effectively "is a huge deal" that can put a strain on relationships, as seen in the movie.
"It's an important lesson that I think every relationship goes through and I think this is a great way of showing Lee maturing," he said.
The movie includes a moment that's 'one of the most classically Lee things that could possibly be done'
During the film, Lee tries to win Rachel back by hijacking the school's announcements and letting everyone know that he loves her. It's an over-the-top gesture that's reminiscent of other sweet moments from rom-coms, and a scene that Courtney is fond of.
"I absolutely love that scene," the actor told us. "It's one of the most daring things that Lee does. He got detention, he got in trouble for it, but it was entirely worth it, you know? He got to publicly declare his love for Rachel, which was his main goal, and then also on top of that, he got to explore what it is to pursue this girl that he loves."
"I think he went above and beyond," Courtney said. "I just think it's one of the most classically Lee things that could possibly be done in the 'Kissing Booth' world."
The actor said that Lee's clumsy running sequence was 'one of my favorite things to film'
Early in the movie, Lee rushed to save Elle from public humiliation after she accidentally turned on the school's intercom while gushing over the new guy at school.
The scene, comprised of separate shots of Courtney and King that were intercut, took months to complete because the cast and crew would film it when they had time.
"That was honestly one of my favorite things to film," Courtney said of the sequence, which involved his character stumbling through garbage cans and running head-first into a cake, among other things.
"I truly appreciate the physical comedy of those and it's one of those things where I've never really been able to do that before to such a degree and I loved it," he added. "I had so much fun doing it and I'd like to do more like that in the future."
Courtney is most proud of the Halloween dance scene
"That took hours and hours of choreography and practice and I'm really proud of how Joey and I were able to turn that scene out," he said.
Courtney described filming Lee and Elle's dance as "exhausting," due to the amount of time spent practicing and the challenges that came with moving in their costumes, but he's "really proud" of the end result.
There's a 'hysterical' montage that Courtney wishes made it into the movie
A blooper reel appears during the movie's end credits, which features some scenes that were excluded from the film. One such moment is a scrapped montage with Lee, Elle, and Rachel hilariously trying on random Halloween costumes at a store.
Courtney said that he "laughed the hardest" while filming that montage as he, Young, and King put on "the most absurd costumes of all time." One of his favorite costumes was a pink tutu, which he wore while twirling and imitating other ballerina moves.
"It was just tight," the actor recalled. "It was like I was poured into it and my boxers are sticking out underneath the tutu and I just remember it being one of the funniest things."
"I hope one day that a full montage can come out of what they originally wanted to put in," he added. "It was hysterical. I wish that could be in there."
Courtney says a third 'Kissing Booth' movie is 'possible,' but it's not up to him
The movie ends with a cliffhanger, as Elle learns that she got accepted to both Harvard (where Noah is currently a student) and UC Berkeley, her and Lee's dream school since they were kids.
"I think it is possible," the actor said. "With the coronavirus pandemic, it would honestly be a question of timing. It's entirely up to Netflix."
He added: "I would say that as much as the fans loved the first movie, they are the entire reason that Netflix gave us a second one, so if people love the second one as much as they loved the first one, maybe. But I would be one of the last to know."
From
Glamour: The Kissing Booth 3 : Will There Be a Sequel to the Netflix Rom-Com?
The Kissing Booth 2 has been out for less than 24 hours, and I'm here to tell you that it's not greedy at all to start asking about a third film. I'll refrain from totally spoiling the ending, but…there has to be The Kissing Booth 3 on the horizon, right? Plus, The Kissing Booth was the most rewatched movie on all of Netflix in 2018—if The Kissing Booth 2 achieves even half that success, it's just smart business to keep the franchise going.
While Netflix hasn't announced a third film, which is based off the Beth Reekles novels of the same name, we went ahead and asked some of the cast if they'd be down for a third. Kissing Booth 2 scene stealer Taylor Zakhar Perez (who plays charming new classmate, Marco) didn't hesitate to tell us “of course” he'd return to the role. “The cast was so lovely to work with that it would be wonderful to get back together," he tells Glamour. “It’s fun and light-hearted, especially during these times. I hope we get to bring some fun and joy to the audience for the third." (Careful: Some spoilers ahead.)
Plus, he points out, we still have to find out which school Elle (Joey King) will choose, something she's still debating by the end of the movie. Not to mention Marco's unresolved feelings for her. “Yeah, I don't think he is over Elle at all,” Zakhar Perez says. “At the end of the movie when Marco's buddy says, ‘Come on, dude, she’s not worth it,' and Marco says, ‘Yeah, she is,’ you're like, what?! How do you leave it at that knowing what could happen?”
Zakhar Perez believes in Elle and Marco so much that he's already worked out a possible story in his mind should the franchise get a third film. “He's going to take a gap year and go to New York, or maybe South Africa. We really have to round out Marco and Elle’s relationship because I felt like he brings such a good energy to her life." Zakhar Perez also points out that Marco is honest with Elle, something she doesn't always get from Noah. "I feel like there’s always something hiding around every corner, so I would like justice for Marco.”
And what if we don't get a third movie? “Well, then I think he’s going to keep playing his guitar and singing,” Zakhar Perez says with a laugh.