From News Nation USA : “The Kissing Booth 3 Highlights The Problem With Elle & Lee's Friendship”

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Elle and Lee’s story in The Kissing Booth 3 emphasizes the biggest problem with their friendship and how their relationship can be toxic.

Warning: Contains SPOILERS for The Kissing Booth 3.

The Kissing Booth 3 emphasizes the biggest problem with Elle (Joey King) and Lee (Joel Courtney) friendship. Netflix’s rom-com franchise based on Beth Reekles’ books of the same name wrapped up with the release of its third film. In it, Elle, Lee, with Noah (Jacob Elordi), and Rachel (Meganne Young) decided to make the most out of their final summer together before everybody goes to college.

Coming into The Kissing Booth 3, The Kissing Booth 2 set up the conflict between the Flynn boys regarding where Elle might go to college. She was unsure whether to go to U.C. Berkeley as she and her best friend planned, or go to Harvard so she and her boyfriend no longer have to deal with their long-distance set-up. To make matters worse, Elle was accepted into both schools, forcing her to make the decision on her own. There was an assumption that this was going to be the central plot for the threequel, but it was quickly resolved at the beginning after Elle decided to go to Boston, which made Noah happy but left his younger brother frustrated.

Lee was initially mad about it; he didn’t like that Elle was breaking another friendship rule as she did when she started dating Noah. He said that he felt abandoned by his best friend. So, she tried to make up for it by promising to finish all the items on their summer bucket list. This pacified him for a bit, but with the task list too long, accomplishing all of them in a matter of months was difficult. It meant that they would have to stick very close to their schedule if they want to accomplish everything. This wasn’t a problem for Lee, but things were different for Elle — who had to get a part-time job, babysit her brother, and also spend time with her boyfriend. It didn’t take long before their plans fall apart, and while Elle was also partly to blame for not being more forthcoming with her struggles, the whole issue goes back to Lee and how he could be controlling.

He was so focused on Elle that he didn’t even have a proper arc with Rachel. In fact, what’s more odd about Lee’s fixation on his best friend’s future is that he didn’t have the same issues with his girlfriend who’s also moving across the country for college. As revealed in The Kissing Booth 3, Rachel was going to Rhode Island School of Design, and while Lee had already started planning how they will navigate the long-distance relationship, he wasn’t hanging by her every move throughout the end of The Kissing Booth’s trilogy. Granted that he and Elle’s relationship go way farther than his romance, it’s just weird that he seemingly has the urge to control his best friend more than anyone else.

Perhaps it has something to do with his rather complex relationship with Noah, feeling like he’s taking away Elle. Lee talked about the supposed tug-of-war between him and his brother for her attention, lamenting that he’d always come second to Noah. Regardless of his unresolved feelings in The Kissing Booth 3, he’s still exhibiting toxic behavior, and there are better ways to deal with it than emotionally manipulating Elle.

From BuzzFeed : “Literally Just 14 Behind-The-Scenes Times The "Kissing Booth" Cast Was 1000% Hilarious”

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Read the whole thing.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/angelicaamartinez/kissing-booth-cast-joey-king-jacob-elordi-joel-courtney?origin=web-hf

From Collider : “'The Kissing Booth 3' Cast and Characters: A Guide to the Final Chapter of Netflix's Teen Rom-Com Trilogy”

Lee Flynn is Elle’s best friend and the person responsible for most of the comic relief moments in the films. Once he finds out about Elle’s relationship with his brother Noah, Lee becomes infuriated for a while and then comes to terms with their happiness. In the same way that Elle is afraid of jeopardizing her friendship with Lee, Lee also doesn’t want his relationship with Rachel to be in the way of it. This even results in a couple of tough moments between them in The Kissing Booth 2. While Elle is still deciding if she will go to Berkeley or Harvard, Lee is pretty settled on maintaining their plan of fulfilling their rule to go to the same university. In The Kissing Booth 3, we will see Lee and Elle spending as much time as possible together before she decides on where she will go after the summer ends.

Joel Courteney plays Lee Flynn in The Kissing Booth trilogy, and like King, he also started his career at an early age. His first notable role was starring in the J.J. Abrams-directed sci-fi thriller Super 8 in 2011. The actor’s performance in the film led him to win the Best Performance by a Young Actor award in the 2012 Saturn Awards ceremony. After this, Joel had a couple of appearances in other thrillers and indie films including Stephen King’s Mercy and the leading role in the CW short-lived series, The Messengers.

Spoilers ahead!

Joel Courtney chats with ET’s Matt Cohen about the end of the ‘The Kissing Booth’ franchise, which jumps ahead six years to reveal where the beloved characters end up after college. Joel reacts to his character, Lee, winding up with his high school sweetheart Rachel, and weighs in on whether he thinks Elle (Joey King) and Noah (Jacob Elordi) really ride off into the sunset together. Plus, he shares a message to fans about the end of this era, and offers up his ideas for a potential sequel down the line. ‘The Kissing Booth 3’ is now streaming on Netflix.

From Nerds of Color : “Joel Courtney Talks Netflix’s ‘The Kissing Booth 3’”

Joel Courtney plays Lee Flynn in The Kissing Booth 3, which is the third and final film in Netflix’s beloved The Kissing Booth franchise. The first film of the trilogy premiered back in 2018 and was followed by The Kissing Booth 2 in 2020. The era will come to an end on August 11.

It’s the summer before Elle heads to college, and she’s facing the hardest decision of her life: whether to move across the country with her dreamy boyfriend Noah or fulfill her lifelong promise to go to college with her BFF Lee. Whose heart will Elle break?

Along with starring in all three of The Kissing Booth films, Courtney is best known for his role in Super 8 as Joe Lamb. He starred in Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn, Sins of Our Youth, and The Between as well as appeared in Mercy and Dear Eleanor. The actor also claimed the lead role in The Messengers for the CW.

Other notable credits include Pursued, The Empty Man, Rogue, R.L. Stine’s the Haunting Hour, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., The River Thief, F*&% the Prom, and Assimilate.

I spoke with the actor about bringing Lee’s story to a close, The Kissing Booth franchise, Lee’s friendship with Elle, and what his tagline for the trilogy would be! Watch my interview below to hear all of his answers.