From director Brett Haley (All the Bright Places, Hearts Beat Loud) and based on the novel Sorta Like a Rock Star by Matthew Quick, the heartfelt drama All Together Now follows Amber Appleton (Auli’i Cravalho) a young woman whose optimism shines through even with all of the challenges she experiences. When life throws her yet another curveball that threatens her dream of attending Carnegie Mellon for her singing, she must learn to lean on others to find the strength that she starts to question is within herself.

During this 1-on-1 phone interview with Collider, Rhenzy Feliz – who plays Ty, one of Amber’s best friends – talked about the appeal of this project, the experience he had collaborating with filmmaker Brett Haley, playing music with co-star Auli’i Cravalho, on and off set, shooting the big variety show sequence, and riffing with Fred Armisen. He also talked about where he’d like to go next in his career, what helped him gain experience in trying to find great scripts, and how he feels about the way that his Marvel TV series Runaways ended.

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Image via Netflix

Collider: When this project came your way, how much were you told about the story and characters? Did you get a full script from the beginning, or did you just have scenes for an audition?

RHENZY FELIZ: When I got the audition, I did have a full script. It was an older draft of it, so a couple of things were a little bit different, but for the most part, a lot of the core of it was still there. So, I had the script, and I loved the script. I thought it was amazing. I was really curious as to how someone could play Amber, the lead, because she’s so kind and optimistic, and I don’t know anyone who’s that nice, so I thought it would be a challenge for whoever got that, to make that real. And then, when I met Auli’i [Cravalho], I was like, “Oh, wow, so there are people who are this nice in the world, and are this genuine.”

It seems like this tone is tricky because it would be really easy to become overly sweet or sappy, or try too hard. But the way this film is presented, it strikes a really great balance with having that level of emotion, but having it seem real.

FELIZ: Yeah, thank you. That’s a testament to Brett Haley, our director. I was actually saying that the movie, and a lot of his films, have a lot of heart. The pacing of it is what really helps, especially the pacing of certain scenes. If you notice, sometimes there’s a silence and a little bit of quiet, and I think that helps bring some honesty to offset the topics that we’re dealing with. That allows it to not get to the point where it’s too dramatic, and it brings it back down to the ground and back into reality. That’s all Brett Haley.

What sort of environment did your director, Brett Haley, create on set? How does he approach working with actors?

FELIZ: I think he’s amazing at working with actors. He allows you to try things. He’s very open with finding the scene on the day. One of my favorite scenes in the movie is just before we go into the variety show, and her and I are in the car. When we started the scene that day, it was such a different scene. We ended up changing lines and everything. That was just Auli’i, Brett and I finding that scene, on the day. That was challenging. I wanted to rip my hair out at a certain point. At the same time, once we started finding the groove, the pacing, and everything behind it, then it came to life. That was exciting to get to watch unfold in front of me, and even more exciting to get to watch the finished product and know where it came from. That’s the kind of thing he creates on set, where it’s okay to find it on the day and it’s okay to take your time with everything, which I find to be so freeing ‘cause he can then cut it together any way he wants. As long as you trust that the director isn’t going to cut together a bad performance, then it frees you up to take your time and not rush anything.

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Image via Netflix

One of my favorite scenes in this is the moment where you’re playing piano and Auli’i Cravalho is singing. What was that like to shoot? How long did you have to do that and how many times did you have to hear that song?

FELIZ: I heard that song 75,000 times because I had to learn how to play the song prior to shooting that scene. I’m not a piano player. I’d never played piano in my life before this movie. They knew that, so they had a piano teacher come over and teach me the song. They were only supposed to teach me about the first 10 seconds of the song, right before the song really starts, and then maybe the last 10 seconds, and I ended up learning it pretty quick. I ended up being pretty fast at learning it. They were going to have me take four or five classes, but by the second class, I’d already learned everything they wanted me to learn, so I just asked the teacher if I could learn the rest of it. She said, “Yeah, sure,” so I learned the rest of the song. I had about a month before I started shooting, so every single day, for four or five hours a day, I would be practicing the piano, so I heard that song countless times. I would have learned how to play faster, but the way I learned it was so weird. Because I didn’t know how to play it, [I had to learn where to put each finger.] I figured it out, and it was very exciting, on the day, to get to do it. Auli’i sounded amazing. She barely had to do any takes, at all. I think she did maybe three takes, and that was just to make sure we had it. That was actually in the first week of shooting, and it was really fun.

How do you feel about the piano now? Do you have a new appreciation for the instrument, or do you hope to never look at it again?

FELIZ: I do have a new appreciation. I really loved it. I’ve always loved to learn. When I first started learning an instrument, I had to decide whether I wanted to learn the guitar or the piano, and I ended up picking the guitar. What I need to do is get a keyboard for my house, so that I can keep practicing. I would love to keep playing the piano.

What was it like to work with Auli’i Cravalho on this, and to have her to go through this experience with?

FELIZ: She’s amazing. We spent almost two months there, and we were the only two actors who were there for the entire run of the picture. We hung out every day. After set, she’d come over, and I’d play guitar and she’d sing. It was actually really fun. It was a weird combination, having my mediocre guitar playing and her world-class singing, but I wasn’t doing any complaining. I was really enjoying my time. We got to go out and explore Portland. Oregon is such a beautiful state. We got to go hiking and go to some waterfalls. It was so much fun. It was great.

We get to see a really good chunk of the variety show in this film. How was the experience of shooting that and all of the different performance numbers that everybody had?

FELIZ: That was one of the scenes that I was most nervous about because I have so many pages of monologues. I prepared for that for weeks in advance. Even if I had something to memorize for the next day, I would start working on memorizing little chunks at a time. By the time that we go to two or three days prior to shooting that, I didn’t have to do too much work. In terms of shooting it, we shoot it for a little over a week. That variety show took forever, and I was up on stage, the lights were hot, and I was in a suit thing. It wasn’t the most pleasant thing, but we knew we were shooting the climax of the film, and that was exciting enough to keep us going. Plus, when I was not on camera, it was almost better than any entertainment I could find on my phone because I would look over at Brett Haley while he was directing, and he was mouthing some of the words and smiling while looking at the camera. He was so engaged in the scene that was going on. And that was our last few days of shooting. That kind of passion is infectious and permeates the set, and that’s what got us through it. Even if you’re shooting for a week, you rally.

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Image via Netflix

Did you have any fun experiences sharing some scenes with Fred Armisen?

FELIZ: It was great just to get to be in a scene with him. We got to riff when he first comes in. Hilarity didn’t ensue or anything, but we just had a green light to riff, so with every take, we’d do something different. Just getting to see the way he’d react to some of the stuff we’d say was so funny. I knew when I wasn’t on camera and, at a certain point, I would started saying crazier and crazier things, just to see what would happen. It was a lot of fun. He’s so funny and so good. At the beginning, you’re like, “Oh, my god! We’re here, and Fred Armisen is here. This is crazy!” And then, at about the 35-minute mark, you’re all working together and that drops a bit. And then, at the end of the day, you’d be like, “Whoa, I just did that with Fred Armisen.” It was this weird thing, where at the beginning and end, you bookmark it with the awe factor. And in the middle, while you’re doing a scene, it drops and you do your thing.

You had done some other TV work prior to doing Runaways, but your career has been growing, from being a part of the lead ensemble on that show to now doing this film and being the male lead here. What are you hoping to do next? Have you thought about what you’d like the next step to be in your career?

FELIZ: That’s an interesting question. I feel like there isn’t necessarily a role or a genre that I wanna be a part of. I’m very interested in being a part of a good filmmaker’s overall vision. I don’t necessarily want the movie to be about me, and I don’t mean that in terms of being a lead or supporting. I want the focus to be about a good story. As long as we’re telling a good story and making good cinema, I care about being a part of something bigger than just me. It really doesn’t have to do with genre. It could be a horror movie, it could be comedy, it could be a drama, or it could be a mix of two. I wanna be a part of something great. And so, it really depends on who’s making it – the producers, that production company, the director and the other actors involved. I wanna be a part of something great.

Do you feel like you’re getting a better sense of that when you read scripts?

FELIZ: Yeah, I think I am. I’ve read a lot of them. When I first started acting, there’s something called The Blacklist, which is a list of the most liked scripts that haven’t been made in Hollywood. I started acting when I was 17 or 18. I was still in high school. I would just download The Blacklist and start reading. I had no agent and no manager. I just started reading scripts so that I could get a sense of what’s good. And I would find movies that I really liked and read those scripts, so that I could try to see how they converted from script to movie. And I’d even read bad scripts to see if I could identify what was bad about them. I did that early on. Now, I don’t have much time to read random scripts, but I read scripts for stuff that I’m going out for and auditioning for. With exposure and experience, you start to get a sense of what you can do with something and what a director can do with something. I’m sure that I’ll have a couple of misses here and there, but I like to think that I can spot some good ones. I know that you really don’t ever know until you see the finished product. Someone could either make it amazing or screw it up along the way. But I try to do my own due diligence and take something that I hope is gonna be something unique and a new, fresh way to tell a story.

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Image via Hulu

How do you personally feel about the way that Runaways ended? Do you feel like you got a sense of closure with the series, or do you feel like there was still more story to tell?

FELIZ: Interesting. I re-watched the final episode about a week and a half ago, so it’s interesting that you ask that. It was a weird mix of both. The final scene gave me goosebumps. It all got me. What they were trying to get out of me, they got. But then, I also know what the writers were thinking in terms of story, ‘cause we would talk to them, so I knew where the plotlines were heading. They showed it, at the end of the third season, with the note that future Alex gives to present-day Alex. Half of me feels like it was a good way to end ‘cause they knew it might be our last season, so they had us walking off into the sunset, all happy. But at the same time, I knew where the story could have gone, and that would’ve been so cool to explore. So, it’s this weird sense of both, where I’d love to have seen it, but they also did a good job of that final scene.

Do you feel like it might have helped soften the blow if they hadn’t told you what might have come next?

FELIZ: Yeah, definitely. It’s the unknown. It was such a good storyline that I would have wanted to see to play out.

One of the things that I loved about that show was the ensemble. You guys were all so great together. And that was the same thing with All Together Now and this group of friends that’s just so much fun to watch. Is that something that you really enjoy, when you get to be a part of an ensemble like that and can really work with actors from such different backgrounds?

FELIZ: Yeah, definitely. We have such a diverse cast on this one, and it is really fun to get to know other people and to find their energy and a way to bounce off of it to where it’s fun. It’s not that you treat everyone different, but you react to everyone differently. Finding whatever that is in the person and then being able to put that on camera is fun. There’s a feel to it. Obviously everyone’s different, so when you find that person’s feel and you can bounce off of it, it’s great. I do really enjoy getting to find that with new people. The thing I love about acting is that it’s new, every single time. Every scene I do, I haven’t done it before. Every movie I do, I haven’t done it before. Every cast that I work with and crew, I haven’t met them before. In some cases, maybe you have, but you haven’t worked with them on this specific thing. Getting to find that new thing, every time, is always really exciting.

All Together Now is available to stream at Netflix.

Christina Radish is a Senior Reporter of Film, TV, and Theme Parks for Collider. You can follow her on Twitter @ChristinaRadish.