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Noah Centineo Recalls Meeting Lana Condor—and How She Rejected Him

The two play Peter Kavinsky and Lara Jean Covey in the Netflix rom-com To All the Boys I've Loved Before

By Corinne Heller Aug 30, 2018 6:46 PMTags

Ouch, the rejection!

Noah Centineo, 22, and Lana Condor, 21, showcase incredible romantic chemistry in the Netflix rom-com To All the Boys I've Loved Before. In real life, when they first met, it was quite the opposite.

"When we first met in the audition room before any of us had booked it, we were sitting waiting in like the lobby and I saw her and I was like, 'Hey do you want to run lines?' And she was like, 'No.' I was like, 'Oh, that's cool, fine, I'll just die here,'" Centineo recalled on E!'s Daily Pop on Thursday.

"I didn't even remember asking her that. She had actually told that story months later in the press," he said.

The actor said that a couple of months later, the two ended up at a chemistry read for their parts of Peter Kavinsky and Lara Jean Covey.

"Then we just read together and it was...[perfect]," he said.

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When asked if Condor thought he was hitting on her, he said, "I don't know. Maybe," adding, "No, I ask people to read lines in the audition room if they look nervous! I was just like, hey, I could always run my lines. It's always easier if you're running with a stranger before do it with the casting director. It helps you get the nerves out. And if someone else looks nervous, then it totally is gonna help them too. If you can do it with some random person you just met, you can easily go into a room and do it again."

Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

Centineo and Condor's onscreen chemistry, and affectionate words for each other in press interviews and on social media, has scores of fans shipping them in real life. Condor has a boyfriend— actor Anthony De La Torr.

As for Centineo, he did not offer details on his love life but did rule out dating fans.

"I don't close any doors totally, but probably not, because then it's like more of a infatuation with like, a position more than like, the person," he said. "It can overshadow that, which is difficult, I would think."