Netflix has already given fans a look into the world of interactive movie-making with Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, but now it's time for rom-com fans to rise up. Choose Love follows Cami (Laura Marano), a recording engineer who seems to have everything but begins to reassess her life, and her fate is left entirely up to viewers as they help her choose everything from a career path to her relationships.
Greek and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend star Scott Michael Foster stars as Paul, Cami's boyfriend – until two former flames (Avin Jogia and Jordi Webber) reenter the picture, allowing viewers to pick from hundreds of moments where Cami's life may take a different direction, and all leading to 16 potential endings to one film.
It is, Scott tells HELLO!, a challenging way of movie-making, and something brand new for the entire cast and crew, but after 16 years in the industry, the 38-year-old — who also had an extremely dark and villainous five-episode arc on season four of You — was ready for the unique task.
This interview was conducted before the SAG-AFTRA strike.
Choose Love is a radically different way of filmmaking, what made you sign on?
Scott: I love movies, and this was a very unique kind of movie so I jumped at the chance to be a part of it. I love everyone involved – Stuart (McDonald), the director I had worked with on Crazy Ex Girlfriend – and it was shot in New Zealand! In an interactive movie, you get to be the same character but you get to make all sorts of different choices.
There's 16 endings in this movie, hundreds of choice points, and every time you watch it, no matter what track you take, you could get a different outcome. So there was an opportunity to play Paul with rejection, with happiness, with joy, with sadness – it was an acting exercise.
You get to go in and play him all sorts of different ways. I've played roles like him before, but this was a unique way to do it.
Did you have to approach acting differently because you didn't have a set conclusion?
Scott: Entirely, and it was actually a bit confusing because when you get a script for a movie or a TV show, it's 50 to 100 pages and that's the whole story. With Choose Love, you had a script but it was really just so you could get the bones of the story. To really get the whole picture, you had to read this script side scrolling, left to right, almost like a cell text tree of life that branched out in 100 different ways.
It was very hard to follow, and I had to take a lesson on just how to read the software that they use!
But when it came to breaking down Paul, it was difficult because this is Cami's story. Cami is the person that you're watching this movie through, and you're making choices for her. There would be times where I was just asking: 'Where are we in this story?' But Laura was such a pro, she kept that movie in her head entirely and I don't know how she did it because I had such a smaller role compared to her, and I had a hard time.
What are the technical aspects that were different?
Scott: Normally you go in, you shoot a scene, get all the coverage and you move on to the next scene. But this was like: You go in, you do the scene, they say, 'OK now before we finish, let's go back and we're actually going to say some different lines that work for this other ending,' so then you go back and you film the scene with completely different dialogue, or sometimes it would be a completely different ending where you have to go and shoot an entirely different scene from scratch.
It was nothing like I'd ever done before, and it was very challenging but it was also fun to be a part of something that was entirely unique.
Do you have any concerns about interactive content such as Choose Love replacing traditional moviemaking?
Scott: I don't have any concerns because I don't know how it's possible for every film; it was such an ordeal, and actors come in at the end and complain about how hard it is, but really we have the easiest job, the writers and the producers and the crew have to make this thing and it was so much more work.
I'm so impressed by anyone who pulls this off because it is a giant undertaking, but I don't see it overtaking TV and film, it's just a very cool new outlet.
There are 16 endings but which one would you pick?
Scott: Well, I'm a little biased for Paul, but I want the one where Cami is the happiest.
When you look back over your career, what are you most proud of so far?
Scott: That's hard to pinpoint because so many have been so important for different reasons. Obviously Greek was a big stepping stone for me and really put me on the map as far as getting representation, and it was my first big foray in television.
But I've done a lot of great things that have been important to me over the years, including Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Everything is important and meaningful in their own way;
I've produced a couple of short films, and those are always meaningful because they come from a completely different creative side of yourself.
Greek has such a passionate fanbase, what did that show mean to you, and did you imagine us still talking about it 16 years later?
Scott: I had no idea. We were all really young and excited to be on such a fun show where we were experiencing life at the same time.' It was such a good thing for us at the time but it also always felt like we were always trying to reach out to a bigger audience.
Looking back now, we had such a big audience compared to the way shows are now. We had four years and millions of people watched us. It was huge, so I'm happy that people still talk about it and people still watch it wherever they can, and it means a lot.
Where do you think Cappie would be in 2023?
Scott: I hope he's running a fish taco stand on a beach in Baja, living his best life, listening to music and hopefully alongside Casey ( Spencer Grammer).
Do you ever find yourself breaking out into 'I Go To The Zoo' from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend?
Scott: Yes, especially when I get together with that [cast], we definitely will bust out the song every now and again.
But I already have such a bad case of ear worm and so working on a show that was specifically about catchy songs was not great for me!
Casting for Nathaniel in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend asked for someone that was "super WASP-y, educated, a bit of an elitist," which is actually very different from Cappie - are you more of a Cappie or Nathaniel or a Paul?
Scott: When I was filming Greek in my early mid twenties, I was definitely more of a Cappie – I've never been a WASP-y elitist – but 16 years removed from Cappie, I think I've changed.
But my exit plan, when everything goes south, is to run a fish taco stand in Baja.
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