Spoilers for To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You below.
He sings, he acts, he plays piano—and now, Jordan Fisher is Peter Kavinsky’s stiffest competition. The triple threat plays the sensitive romantic John Ambrose McClaren in To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You, and although his character ends the sequel with his own heart broken after threatening the beloved fictional relationship between Lara Jean (Lana Condor) and Peter (Noah Centineo), fans are still eager to see Fisher return for the third movie. The newly-minted Internet Boyfriend talks to ELLE.com about relating to John Ambrose’s “old soul,” hosting game nights for the cast, and rooting for Lara Jean and John Ambrose to get married.
What has the fan reaction been like?
Overwhelmingly positive. Fans of the books love John Ambrose as a character. He’s kind of the perfect guy—so sweet and warm, and he comes from a really great place. He isn’t trying to be a home wrecker, he just finds himself in the middle of an odd predicament: He’s unaware of the relationship and reconnects with an old friend.
Considering the high expectations for the character, did that impact how you prepared to play the part?
No. Jenny Han created the original character, right? And that’s the guideline here. There’s some beautiful stepping stones in terms of how to breathe life into him just because of who Jenny Han created. So for me, there wasn’t any kind of pressure. I was just doing the film and worked on it with friends and had a great time doing it, and thankfully, I felt like that translated.
Bettina StraussNetflix
John Ambrose is left hanging after his kiss with Lara Jean. To you, what was going through his mind during that moment?
He’s an old soul and he’s socially aware. He’s emotionally intelligent enough to recognize what the situation is, the fact that she still has feelings for Peter, and the timing was off. They missed each other by, we’re talking just like, some weeks, right? What if, during all the commotion of that first book and film, while Lara Jean and Peter are trying to figure things out before they develop feelings for one another, what if John Ambrose came in? What if he got that letter a little bit faster? That’s the thing he deals with and lives with, and ultimately recognizes that it’s out of his control. Timing is everything, and we can’t control that. And that’s okay.
If you had it your way, what would happen next for John Ambrose?
Let’s say the third book didn’t exist. I think Lara Jean and Peter figure things out, they stay together for a while and learn a lot about each other and themselves. Maybe they drift apart at some point, and John Ambrose and Lara Jean pick things back up. I ultimately think they’re end game material, and even the hardcore Peter Kavinsky stans, myself included, kind of ship Lara Jean and Peter together right now, [for] the high school/college age. But I ultimately think John Ambrose and Lara Jean have the best connection and march to the beat of a similar drum. In terms of end-game marriage talk, that’s where it flows and that’s what it should be for them. But they’re not ready for that, and that’s fine.
Bettina StraussNetflix
Peter and John Ambrose represent two high school archetypes—the sweet jock and the romantic intellectual. Did you relate to one of them in high school?
John Ambrose, honestly. He’s cursed with being an old soul. I think it can make things very complicated for him, for Lara Jean who also goes through the same thing. Being an old soul, especially in middle school, junior high, and high school was kind of a tough moment. It’s hard to relate to your peers. It’s hard to connect with them in a deeply meaningful way because you’re emotionally playing along with them. That’s what I’ve dealt with—not only being an artist, and an actor, in a football town outside of Birmingham, Alabama, but trying to find people that looked like me, and walked like me, and dressed like me, and talked like me. It’s very different. I navigated it the same way John Ambrose did.
I heard you hosted game nights with the cast.
Yeah, I’m a bit of a dad. I think they’d all say the same thing. I really wanted everybody to spend time together outside of actually working with one another. I’ve been doing this for a while and I know how easy it is to have some fun on set, and then as soon as we wrap up, everybody goes their separate ways and does their own thing. It’s so important to spend time off set, because that bonding time informs the trust and ease and nature of everything on set. If you spend that time off set, you really invest in one another and get to know one another on a personal level. It helps everything where the film is concerned.
Let’s talk about the scene where you play the piano.
It was definitely my favorite scene. It was a difficult one to play while simultaneously dealing with all that John Ambrose is dealing with, and a difficult one to map out and put together, but luckily Michael, our incredible director, gave me the freedom and liberty to construct a chord progression that felt right for the scene. One of the things he does so well is connect with the actors and say, ‘Hey, what do you think about this? What are your ideas for this?’
You’re currently starring in Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway. What has that experience been like?
It’s been a dream, honestly. This role is no joke, and it’s an incredibly cathartic experience every night. I walk off every night and think, ‘I can’t believe I got to do that again, and I can’t believe I get to do it tomorrow.’ It just doesn’t get old. I say, movies pay the bills and Broadway pays the soul, and I need that. There’s a totally different experience, and a unique kind of vibe…I call it social intercourse. It happens between the audience in the house as well as the actors and everybody that’s onstage. [It’s] completely electric and that’s what makes live theater so unique to me.
You’ve played iconic musical roles in Dear Evan Hansen, Rent, and Grease Live. Are there any bucket list parts you’d like to play in the future?
I would love to go back to Hamilton, because I replaced Anthony Ramos on Broadway and he played John Laurens and Philip Hamilton. I would really love to explore Aaron Burr as a character; I think he is one of the most complex individuals in American history, and that would be a ton of fun to play. I would love to play Hermes in Hadestown. There’s so much great material out there, and even the stuff that hasn’t been created yet, the ideas that creative friends of mine have, ideas that I have about shows that should be done that haven’t been done yet, that I would love to explore and create… I’ve been doing [this] 16 years, and I have a very, very long way to go. I’ve got a lot of goals to achieve in my life and career.