Andrea Lewis is trying again on starring alongside Hilary Duff within the Disney Channel Authentic Film Cadet Kelly and the movie’s newfound resonance.
Within the 2002 movie, Duff portrays Kelly Collins, who’s pressured by her new stepfather to enroll within the George Washington Navy Faculty as a method of instructing her self-discipline. Whereas she struggles to regulate to the brand new surroundings and has a rival in her commanding officer (Christy Carlson Romano), Duff’s Kelly befriends Carla (Lewis).
When reflecting on the position within the beloved Disney movie, Lewis stated she was “very excited” for the challenge.
“I beloved Disney Channel, beloved Even Stevens, beloved Lizzie McGuire … I used to be a [The] Well-known Jett Jackson fanatic. I beloved the content material,” she informed Individuals journal. “So when the film got here in — and I suppose that is me revealing one thing about myself — as a result of I used to be an actor as a child, I might extra so take a look at the fundamentals. It was like, ‘Oh, film or sequence,’ and also you’d be like, ‘Oh, yay, OK.’ ”
She added, “And then you definately’d be like, ‘Do I like this character in any respect?’ [I] appreciated the character, thought she was enjoyable, however like I stated, I didn’t course of what it was, who was in it, nothing of the kind.”
When she noticed already Disney darlings Duff and Carlson Romano stroll into the read-through, she realized the challenge was “sort of a giant deal.” The actress, who additionally starred in Canada’s teen drama Degrassi: The Subsequent Technology, described the expertise as “in all probability considered one of my most enjoyable shoots I’d ever had — nonetheless to this present day.”
She additionally praised her former co-star Duff and Duff’s mom: “Hilary was nice. Her and her mom have been so, they have been very influential for my mother and me. Hilary’s mother is who inspired us to come back to L.A. and inspired us to pursue sure issues, and simply to actually stand on stuff.”
She added, “Hilary was the primary individual I had met who had, on the time, a 360 deal. She had a file deal, she additionally was going to be doing a film, and he or she additionally had a sequence. I by no means heard of that. So I feel in some ways, assembly Hilary once I was so younger was very aspirational. You bought to see any individual doing their profession at a bigger degree.”
With the movie now being over 20 years outdated, Lewis stated she’s nonetheless acknowledged for the movie. “I didn’t count on that a part of it and even the magnitude of individuals’s pleasure for the movie. To be acknowledged nonetheless so often for Cadet Kelly shocks me very a lot on a regular basis,” she stated.
She additionally addressed the movie being thought-about “queer coded,” one thing Duff and Carlson Romano have additionally mentioned.
“One thing I found solely as an grownup about Cadet Kelly is that it’s like a popping out film for folks. I might by no means, in all my years, have checked out that film like that, seen it like that, however I found that through the pandemic, that it was this large popping out film for folks,” she stated. “As a result of I do know after we have been taking pictures, it wasn’t a thought. And now trying again, you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, wait, we paint her hair in a rainbow. There’s all this pressure. Sure, it was a queer film! Did any individual know that?’”
In a 2022 Cosmopolitan interview, Duff stated the movie being “queer coded” was dropped at her consideration by her How I Met Your Father costar Tien Tran.
“She was like, ‘Oh my God. It’s a second within the queer group,’” Duff stated of Tran. “All that close-talking with Jennifer. I didn’t know that. But when it helped anyone, I hope so.”
In the meantime, Carlson Romano mirrored on the discourse on her YouTube Channel: “What I discover fascinating concerning the interpretation of the connection between Cadet Kelly and Captain Stone is that there’s a narrative that’s within the tradition proper now that persons are saying possibly they have been in love, possibly there was an undercurrent of pressure between the 2 ladies.”
She added, “It actually helped a variety of ladies establish their sexuality. The army has historically been strict about that stuff and on the time that the film got here out we weren’t speaking about that stuff. This character, Captain Stone, was the sexual awakening for lots of the ladies that felt that approach at that age. I had an element in that! That’s loopy, I by no means even thought of that. I’m very flattered.”