Sara Waisglass, star of the new rom-com How to Lose a Popularity contest (alongside Chase Hudson), knows for sure that her character Ellie would not be friends with Maxine Baker, the scene-stealing high schooler she plays in Ginny & Georgia.
The reason? “Ellie is mean. She’s hurting, she’s got a lot of grief that she carries which makes her much more controlling (of her surroundings and her peers),” Waisglass tells Teen Vogue over email. “Max, however, is always supporting her friends and emits a chaotic energy that would freak Ellie out. I’d love to watch them interact though!"
How to Lose a Popularity Contest, out Jan. 16 on Tubi, features Waisglass and Hudson in starring roles that mark a turning point in their careers. Waisglass's Ellie is an overachieving striver — her “lifelong dream” is to attend an Ivy League school, classic — who believes student government is just a popularity contest, not an indicator of any real talent. Nate (Hudson), meanwhile, is an “emotionally stunted monster” (according to Ellie) who nonetheless benefits from his popularity. “We live in a world where Nate's gonna be more successful than all of us,” Ellie states.
And so Ellie sets out on a quest to prove her theory, and she finds herself teaming up with the affable slacker in a student body president battle that evolves, of course, into romance.
It's got a “fun, nostalgic vibe,” Hudson says over email. Waisglass adds that she “always wanted to be part of a rom-com," and this was the perfect chance. In the trailer, which Teen Vogue is exclusively premiering below, you can see the onscreen chemistry between Waisglass and Hudson in action.
For Hudson, a content creator and musician who performs under Huddy (and previously, LILHUDDY), this was his first leading role in a feature film.
“I was a little nervous going into it, especially because I was working with so many talented people,” he says. “I went into this with a mindset that if something’s meant for you, you have to give it everything you've got. I took this role very seriously so I could bring this character to life in the right way. The day after I booked the job, I started training at the gym and working through the character with my acting coach. I wanted to crush it in this space and really prove I could do this. I’m so proud of how it came together and what we created."
He saw pieces of himself and his own high school experiences in Nate and how he interacts with people. “We share the same lingo, so it felt familiar to portray that on screen, I honestly felt like I was playing a younger version of myself," Hudson says. "I was also excited to tap back into my baseball roots and tell this story with such a great cast; we all became close. There were a few scenes I knew would challenge me, but I love a challenge.”
Check out the How to Lose a Popularity Contest trailer, starring Sara Waisglass and Chase Hudson, below.
