After her star-making turn in Netflix’s To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before trilogy, 24-year-old actress Lana Condor is having a pretty amazing 2022. She and longtime love, Anthony De La Torre, got engaged — yes, the ring’s a stunner — and she plays a leading lady again opposite Riverdale heartthrob, Cole Sprouse, in HBO Max’s new romantic comedy, Moonshot, out March 31.
Condor may be this generation’s Molly Ringwald, an atypical romantic lead who usually gets the guy, but she’s also a remarkable woman who just produced her first TV series (another Netflix series called Boo, Bitch, in which she also stars) and records sweet love songs with her fiancé when they’re bored.
Our March 2022 cover star sat down with editor Maggie Kim to discuss everything from Asian representation to why love should feel more like a warm and cozy blanket than burn-it-to-the-ground passion.
Here’s a quick peek…
Everyone falls in love
“Something I loved and will always love with To All the Boys… is that everyone falls in love. Period. Asian girls fall in love, too, and it’s not a weird mystery,” Condor says. “I don’t understand why love stories in the past — and still right now — have been reserved only for white people. That’s not fair nor is it realistic.”
Love triangles are a no-go
When I ask for relationship advice from the self-professed “love triangle expert” (her expertise coming from the To All The Boys storylines, not real life), Condor is the opposite of fireworks and drama. “There’s this weird misconception that love has to be difficult,” she muses. “It’s messy and painful and there’s so much passion, your world burns down. It’s beautiful on paper, but it’s not right. Love should feel safe and comfortable. With Anthony, I feel like I’m in a cocoon. Love doesn’t need to break you apart.”
Oh hell no, wooden engagement rings!
“A few years ago, [Anthony] goes to me, ‘Wooden engagement rings are all the rage now.’ It was not funny at all,” Condor remembers. “I was like, ‘If you think for a second you’re getting me a wooden ring, you got another thought coming!'” (Don’t worry, he went with a gorgeous diamond, instead!)
Her childhood dream was to be an astronaut
“That was what I was so initially drawn to with Moonshot,” she says. “Matt Damon goes to space, but when do college kids get to do it?”
To read the full interview with Lana Condor, pick up GRAZIA USA’s March 2022 issue on newsstands and email contact@graziausa.com to subscribe.
