Based on the best-selling book by Jennifer E. Smith, the Netflix original film Hello, Goodbye, and Everything In Between tells the story of Clare (Talia Ryder) and Aidan (Jordan Fisher), a young couple who, despite the love they clearly have for each other, have made a pact to break up before college. For their last night together and before they officially say goodbye, they decide to revisit their relationship from their first hello, and in doing so, they wonder if maybe ending things isn’t their path after all.
During this interview with Collider, co-stars Ryder and Fisher (who’s also an executive producer) talked about telling a story about the human experience, why this was a project that was so important to Fisher, the challenge of shooting during COVID, the biggest challenges and most fun moments of the shoot, and paying homage to Ferris Bueller.
Collider: Jordan, you’re not only one half of the lead couple at the center of this story, but you’re also an executive producer on this film. How did you get involved in that capacity? Was it something you sought out? Did you just get a lucky opportunity?
JORDAN FISHER: A little bit of all of it. I got lucky with the creative partners. I was working on To All the Boys 2 in Vancouver, and Max Siemers and Matt Kaplan approached me with the idea for this script adaptation of this YA novel that Jennifer E. Smith wrote. The meat for me to really sink my teeth into was the fact that this could be my YA swan song, but it’s about the human experience. It’s about transition. It’s about getting uncomfortable. It’s about making decisions that you feel like are gonna weigh in and have magnitude over the rest of your life and dictate how things are gonna go when, at the end of the day, life is so long and we need reminders of that. We also need reminders to let our hair down, from time to time, to just ride the wave. I have issues doing that. We love control in our lives and it’s hard to relinquish that. The whole idea of creating a YA rom-com that was about two human beings going through transition in their lives, I was like, “Yes! Whatever this is, one hundred percent.”
And then, there was my dream of producing and of being at the ground level with something. This was that opportunity. I said, “I wanna produce it with you.” And they said, “Okay.” That was the beginning. Having dreamt of that, and doing what I could to learn and to shadow directors and producers and writers and crew, amongst different shows that I’ve worked on, in my career up to that point, to have an opportunity to really exercise what I had learned, put it into something that I really believed in from a human level, and then to be able to collaborate with some of the most gifted actors and naturally talented people, I lucked out in a massive way. I couldn’t be more grateful that this is my producorial debut. It helps me know that, the other things that we have coming down the line at my production company and everything else that I’m getting to be a part of, I won’t die. If I do this, and I actually put my time and energy into it and put it out, yes, it’s nerve-wracking, but I won’t die. Even if it tanks, I did it. At the end of the day, watching this film and shedding tears and feeling the warmth and seeing the thing come to life, and it actually being a great freaking movie, I’m like, “How did this happen? How did I get so lucky?”
TALIA RYDER: You ask how, but I watched how hard you worked and how much do you put into this, so it makes sense that Jordan made a good movie.
FISHER: I appreciate that, but we did it. And it was a lot of fun. I wouldn’t have traded a moment, even the coldest lakes. That was some of our best acting we’ve ever done in our lives, pretending like we could actually breathe.
Talia, you have done a smaller, more intimate film with Never Rarely Sometimes Always, and you’ve done the big spectacle with West Side Story. Where does a film like this fit in? Does shooting something like this feel somewhere in between the two?
RYDER: I don’t know. I feel like each film I’ve worked on has been its own experience. In my mind, they’re each their own thing. This was the third movie I’d ever done. I’ve never had fun like this. It felt like summer camp. We did this in the peak of COVID, and the four of us just locked down together. All we had was the movie and each other, and we each had a lot of fun. I feel like the fun we had off-screen really translates to what you see on screen.
FISHER: It was the challenge of COVID. Everything that we did, where this film was concerned, we hit all of it. It was not only a summer film in the fall in Vancouver, which is a very cold, wet and rainy season, we did it all at the peak of COVID. We constantly patted ourselves on the back, for the fact that we managed to somehow make that work. And we did it safely with no issues and no nothing at all, which was really great. Everybody followed the rules and did their thing, and having that time spent off-screen and being able to bond and have fun in that way, we did the best that we could to make the most out of the moment. There were no cast parties or wrap parties, or anything like that, that helps people bond. Typically, when you’re on location somewhere, you have an excursion planned for the weekend, if you know you’ve got Monday off, and you maybe go to Vancouver Island, but we couldn’t make those things happen. But we had a lot of fun. I wouldn’t have traded a moment.
You mentioned the challenge of the freezing water, but your characters go on a number of mini-adventures and have fun together. What was the one that was most memorable or most fun to shoot, where you didn’t freeze and could just have a good time?
FISHER: That’s a really good question.
RYDER: Those water scenes were wild. We were freezing.
FISHER: But even so, didn’t you have fun on the tube? It was so cold, but I had a blast. We had so much fun. We were cold in the ice skating rink. We were there for a few days, so it was time for us to just play and slide all over the place. That was really fun. We needed a good like play moment.
RYDER: And the party bus scenes were really fun.
FISHER: Yeah. We were just such close friends. I say “were,” as if our friendship has died. Not at all. We all still talk to each other, on a regular basis. That’s one of the rare things about this film. At least in my experience, you romanticize the idea of maintaining a friendship with a cast that you grow close with. You go, “God, we’re having so much fun, here on this island in the middle of nowhere. We’re working on this one thing, of the same mind, and when we get back home, things will stay relatively the same.” But for the first time, in my whole year, our whole cast continues to speak and maintain a relationship. That doesn’t happen, ever.
RYDER: No. We got a really good group.
I love that Aidan and Clare meet at a party where Aidan is dressed as Ferris Bueller and sings “Twist and Shout.” What was it like to get to recreate a bit of that movie magic? Were you personally a fan of that movie? Did it scare you to do that?
FISHER: Of course, absolutely. I’ve got a pulse. That was a lot of fun. Anytime you get to cosplay something that’s deeply meaningful to you, especially if it has something to do with your childhood, it’s a lot of fun. I’m not the house party guy Aidan is, which is so funny. I feel like I have more Clare in me than Aidan. You wouldn’t catch me dead at a Halloween house party, no chance. I would much rather have six friends over and hand out candy, drink wine, and watch a couple of scary movies. That’s the vibe.
RYDER: I’d commit to the bit. You’re in high school and it’s a Halloween party, so you’ve gotta commit to the bit.
Hello, Goodbye, and Everything In Between is available to stream at Netflix.