Young actress Isabella Kai may only be 14 years old, but she’s more than capable of packing a powerful emotional punch and showcasing her incredible talents on screen, as she proves in her latest film, Our Friend , starring alongside Dakota Johnson, Casey Affleck, and Jason Segel.
Our Friend follows the true story of the Teague family as a family friend (Segel) moves in with them to help them deal with and process the heartbreaking diagnosis of Nicole Teague’s terminal cancer diagnosis. Isabella plays Molly, one of the couple’s two daughters.
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Diply had the pleasure of sitting down with Isabella to talk about the film and how it felt to work on a movie so emotional at such a young age.
Isabella explained that working on a movie with such heavy themes was difficult but rewarding.
“A big part of it is that it’s a true story, and I was playing a real person,” Isabella told Diply. “I related to Molly in a way, I haven’t gone through what she’s gone through, but I have had hard times, so I was able to put myself in her shoes. I felt a lot of empathy for the family.”
Isabella explained that the film was one of the hardest she’s ever worked on. “When I got the audition and I read the script, my first thought was that it was one of the hardest roles I had ever gone for and the hardest scenes I had ever auditioned with,” Isabella told Diply, adding that it was hard at first to put herself in the shoes of someone who had gone through “the unimaginable.”
However, Isabella explained that her time on set with Johnson, Affleck, and Segel was anything but depressing.
“I think you have to find the good, and the humor, in times where it can be really hard,” Isabella said. “A lot of days were really rough because of the scenes we had to film, but we always found the good. We always laughed. We were playing games in between scenes.”
Isabella also explained that the film set itself made the experience “pretty magical.” She added, “I think a big part of it was that we were filming in the town that the Teague family had grown up in, and so being in a small town where everyone knows everyone… I live in the city so it’s completely different.”
“Everywhere I went, the people knew the story and they knew the Teague family and they really cared about them and loved them so I thought it was really really beautiful.”
Isabella noted that she wasn’t nervous working with such big stars. “I mean I felt a little bit, not pressure, that’s not the right word. I just really really wanted to make everyone proud. I felt really really lucky and really humbled to have gotten the chance to work with any of them,” Isabella explained.
“We became so close it felt like every moment was a memory,” Isabella told Diply of the experience. “I made so many memories with Violet [who plays my younger sister in the film], we hung out every day. We became like sisters. Every single second I was there was a memory I will treasure forever.”
“We just became this little family and we shot in the same house every day, it was really beautiful,” Isabella said.
When it comes to her career future, Isabella is hopeful that Our Friend is not a one-off. “I hope I’m still doing this when I’m older,” isabella said. “I really want to continue making movies, in particular, I love doing drama,” Isabella told Diply, adding that she one day hopes to work with some famous directors like Steven Spielberg and Quentin Tarantino.
We’re sure that with her talent, directors will be lining up to work with her!
Our Friend is available to rent on Google Play, YouTube, and the Microsoft store. You can find Isabella on Instagram to keep up with her work and future endeavors!
