Original subtitles

[beep]

[electricity crackles]

[man] Action!

[Sebastian] [screams] Woo!

[clapperboard snaps]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] It takes courage

to jump into something new.

But if you're brave enough,

your new book could become a phenomenon,

your movie could become a franchise...

and your love could captivate millions.

[man] All right!

[Louise Lombard] [VO] So join us for a look at all things AFTER,

and find out what happens when you dare to take the leap.

[Hardin] Let's go!

[screams] Woo!

[Louise Lombard] [VO] Here we are on the southern coast

of Portugal, on a beautiful beach

hidden in the heart of the Algarve.

[waves lapping shore]

That's the filming location for a movie

awaited by tens of millions of fans worldwide,

the controversial latest installment in the AFTER saga.

[waves splashing]

[clapperboard snaps]

-What-- What are you-- [laughs]

[peaceful music playing]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] AFTER, the story of

Tessa and Hardin's love,

has captivated millions around the world.

It's a complicated love story

between a disturbed teenage boy -[thunder rumbling]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] --struggling with his own demons

and a driven young woman

on the threshold of womanhood. - [romantic music playing]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] It's a romance that is

not afraid to embrace its innocence,

sensuality... and emotions...

[peaceful music playing]

A generational love story that has captivated millions.

[waves lapping shore]

On the sands of this beach,

Hero Fiennes Tiffin draws a temporary symbol of

Hardin's everlasting love for Tessa.

A love that has inspired thousands of pages,

captivated millions of readers,

and made hearts tremble all over the world.

So come with us beyond the romance,

beyond the phenomenon, beyond AFTER...

[perky music playing]

[romantic music playing]

In the summer of 2018--

-Sorry.

[Louise Lombard] [VO] --on the set of the first film,

Josephine Langford and Hero Fiennes Tiffin

had no idea the love story they were about to tell

would change their lives forever...

a love story that began as fan fiction online,

then made its way onto bookshelves

before arriving on screens all over the world.

-[cheering]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] Today, the AFTER universe encompasses

thousands of pages published on Wattpad,

seven books translated into over 30 languages,

five feature films, a documentary,

and most importantly, a fan base numbering

in the tens of millions.

-[chanting] Hero! Hero! Hero! Hero! Hero! Hero!

[Louise Lombard] [VO] Here we are in the midst of

filming movies 3 and 4 in Bulgaria.

This shoot was intended to be secret,

but nothing can prevent fans

from showing their love for AFTER,

and the talented actors who portray their favourite couple.

-[Hero Fiennes] I love you! -[cheering]

[ambient music playing]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] But why did AFTER

inspire so much enthusiasm from its fans?

What about this intimate romance ignited such passion

from a generation of readers?

How did AFTER become such a global phenomenon?

-Why is the AFTER series so successful?

-It's wish fulfillment. It's, whether it's bringing you

back to a time in your life or,

you know, making you feel young again, romantic...

A good romance can span generations.

-I think it's largely [stutters] driven by, um,

young kids, young girls, finding their way.

They're working their way through love in their life.

-Everybody loves love.

And I think everyone can relate to toxic love. [laughs]

-I actually was in a relationship when I was younger

that reminds me a little bit of Tessa and Hardin's relationship,

and I-- I don't think I'm the only person

who's experienced that before.

-It's a sort of fantasy idea of what life can be,

but it's not without its difficulties.

-Romance isn't necessarily always beautiful,

and that's what the books are.

And I think that's what people love so much about the books.

-What's so magical about the story that she's told,

she didn't shy away from the problems

that other people label as, like, toxic,

but they're problems in relationships that

real people have in their lives. And...

And I think so bravely tackling that is what--

it was part of the key to-- key to its success.

-It makes sense why it's connected--

as a movie and as the books, you know,

it's-- it's such a global phenomenon.

-But it's a relationship story,

and who doesn't love a relationship story? [laughs]

-Everybody can relate to this.

Even if, you know, you're 45 or 60,

everybody had their first love.

[Mark Canton] You could just tell that young women

who were reading this book in millions and millions

and millions of copies around the world,

were relating to it.

-And it's also sexy!

It's a-- it's a sexy series, and sexiness tends to sell.

-I don't know if I've ever been a part of something

that was quite as popular as this-- this series,

and it's-- it's really cool.

-It all just worked perfectly and--

[stutters] I don't know why it's so good! [laughs]

-None of us can really explain the AFTER effect or--

or why this has resonated with so many people,

but it just has, and we're just really lucky that it has.

[peaceful music playing]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] It all started with Anna Todd.

In 2013, she picked up her phone to write the first words of

what would soon become an entire universe:

the AFTERVERSE.

Anna has always been a fan of romance.

-I just always read.

I liked romance most, obviously.

And I was at a point where I felt like

I had read all the romances,

and I just kept reading the same books.

They were all different books, but it just felt like

the same thing over and over.

And I just thought, oh, I'll find something on Wattpad.

And then, on Wattpad,

I read everything, and I was stuck again.

And I only wanted to read fan fiction at that point.

And everything I was reading was all Harry Styles fan fiction.

And I got completely obsessed with fan fiction--

decided one day just out of boredom to write my own--

because there was nothing that was like really keeping me.

And I started a chapter for no reason,

just on a random Sunday.

And I didn't have any followers or any reason to think

that people would actually read it.

[whimsical music playing]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] Initially, AFTER was written as fan fiction

centered around characters

heavily inspired by the boy band One Direction,

particularly its iconic singer Harry Styles.

It was fiction intended for the literary

sharing platform Wattpad,

a free website that allows users to read

and publish original stories.

On Thursday, April 11th, 2013,

Anna posted the first chapter of AFTER on Wattpad.

She continued to post constantly for the next 15 months

until July 4th, 2014,

when Anna posted the 295th and final chapter of AFTER.

[audiobook] [VO] Chapter 1.

"Tessa!!"

[Anna Todd] [VO] I wrote the first chapter,

and it just-- it felt like, almost like addicting.

That's a very general term.

But I just felt so-- the like rush of writing.

So, I did it again and again and again.

[chuckles] And then it became popular pretty quickly online.

[Louise Lombard] [VO] Popular is an understatement.

AFTER has more than a billion reads on Wattpad.

Yes, you heard that right, a billion!

At the headquarters of Wattpad Studio in Toronto,

they still can't believe it.

- AFTER has been an adventure from day one.

And the-- the people who are running our site,

who are running the platform of Wattpad,

came up to us and said, "Hey-- like,

everyone on the platform today

is reading AFTER , and we almost crashed.

Does anyone know what AFTER is?"

And we all stopped and started reading AFTER .

It was immediately obvious why people loved it so much.

You know, Anna has such a phenomenal voice,

such a phenomenal connection with her audience.

I mean, they really see and look up to her as a mentor and

just really can dive into her universe

in a-- in a phenomenal way.

So, when you're looking for stories

that are really audience driven like we do every day,

there was no better example than AFTER.

This isn't like a Twilight there,

where a whole book showed up on a shelf one day

and some people bought it and read it and talked about it,

maybe on forums online or on Twitter.

This was a story that was created on a platform,

that grew on a platform,

that was published week after week by Anna.

And fans grew up with it.

And so, their understanding of the-- the journey of that story,

their understanding of the universe is so much deeper

than someone who just went and bought a book off the shelf.

[Louise Lombard] [VO] Wattpad's platform enabled AFTER

to become one of the most widely read

romances of the past decade.

And the entire series was written on the author's phone.

[Anna Todd] [VO] It's just so much faster to type on my phone,

and the urgency.

So, if I feel something, or if I hear a conversation,

or see someone that just makes my imagination go off,

I'll just need to write then.

And if I waited until my "scheduled writing time"

then the story would just die, and it would be boring.

And I just like the urgency of writing on my phone,

and I like the urgency of posting on Wattpad--

and getting immediate feedback.

It's like having thousands of editors.

[Louise Lombard] [VO] Wattpad is an interactive platform,

which means that every day, on every page,

in every chapter, Anna received notes

and comments directly from her readers

so she could better understand and respond

to what they wanted from the story.

Ten years ago, this unconventional approach

to writing would not have been possible.

[Aaron Levitz] [VO] One of the things that

makes us unique is our-- is the platform, right?

Not just the amazing creators and the stories on it--

and that's everything that we produce on

Wattpad, WEBTOON Studios

does come off either of the platforms.

But it's also understanding why the audience loves that

and that comes through comments, and it comes through data.

It comes through understanding the parts that

audiences really clamoured for,

and the parts that audiences were like

"Eh, that didn't really interest us,"

and understanding why they love that tertiary character

more than one of the leads in the story.

[Louise Lombard] [VO] Gradually, more and more people

caught on to the phenomenon.

-And then publishers started reaching out to me.

And at first, I was like, what are you talking about?

Why would you want to publish my Harry Styles book?

I don't understand.

And then, it got published. Was successful.

Which, there's always the kind of doubt:

will it be only successful online for free,

or will people actually buy it?

And then, I sold a lot of books. [chuckles]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] Publisher Simon & Schuster won the deal

and the first book, AFTER,

was released on October 21, 2014.

Over the next 14 months,

four more installments in the series were published:

AFTER WE COLLIDED,

AFTER WE FELL,

AFTER EVER HAPPY,

and the prequel BEFORE, as well as two spin-offs.

The books have been published in multiple countries,

translated into over 30 languages,

and have sold tens of millions of copies worldwide.

Between the success of the books

and its popularity on Wattpad, AFTER has become

one of romance fans' favourite stories.

The series is a massive work of fiction,

spanning thousands of pages.

[Anna Todd] [VO] Yeah, well, I wrote them all

in the beginning as one big book,

and the only reason that Wattpad has three

is because I went to upload the 101 chapter,

and it didn't allow me.

And I was like, "oh, what happened?"

Like, I thought my account was going to be

like locked or something.

I didn't know what was going on.

But it was just because it was too heavy, the file,

like it was too long.

So, I had to basically start the second one.

That's why it says AFTER 2 instead of AFTER WE COLLIDED.

And then the third one, I had to start because of that,

but in my head, it's all just one big saga.

But when we were publishing it,

we basically did it off of every one has a cliffhanger--

every chapter does, but every book has a cliffhanger.

So, we kind of sectioned it

where it made sense to stop the novel.

Except for the third one, which I didn't realize

was going to be like 890 pages.

And even the publisher-- we had to change my deal,

because they thought they just bought three books,

and when they got the actual length of the Wattpad version,

it's 250,000 more words than the published one.

So, the Wattpad version is like ten books!

[Louise Lombard] [VO] Such a staggering page count

didn't scare away her readers.

Instead, they devoured the love story of Tessa and Hardin.

But what was it about this romance

that readers couldn't get enough of?

-I'm not afraid to take risks in writing,

and I'm not afraid of, you know, backlash if Hardin's too mean,

or Tessa's too emotional, or the themes that are dark,

and there's a lot of addiction themes,

whether it's them being addicted to each other,

or Hardin being addicted to alcohol, um--

or Tessa, you know, being very self-deprecating

and very, trying to be this image of

what she's supposed to be,

and that is relatable to people.

And the characters are so flawed,

and I love romance,

but there are a lot of times where I feel,

because I had, you know,

grew up in a house full of addicts,

I've had a lot of the same traumatic things as Hardin.

So, for me, when I'm reading romance

and every woman is perfect and she's-- every man loves her,

and they get in one fight, and then they get married,

it's like, that's not realistic.

I've been married since I was 18,

and that is not how it works. [chuckles]

So, I just think it was refreshing for people

to read things, especially younger girls,

to read things and think "Oh, wow,

I don't have to be perfect, and, you know,

getting a man's attention is not the only thing I need."

Because I also have intelligent characters.

Hardin is a literature major who quotes classic literature.

And usually, if you get a bad boy,

it's like he just only gets in fights,

and he has no depth.

So, I think it's all of those reasons,

but I think it's just the addicting nature

of their relationship.

[Louise Lombard] [VO] Jennifer Gibgot is one of

the producers of the films.

She discovered AFTER and fought for Anna Todd's

romantic saga to make its way to the big screen.

For her, AFTER was an opportunity

to tell a new kind of love story.

[Jennifer Gibgot] The thing that I really loved

about the story is that

it's really about a very damaged guy who's an alcoholic,

and it's about a young girl who, they meet,

and she saves him. Her love saves him

and makes him wanna be a better person.

So, you know, even though you're reading it

and obviously it's like super sexy to read it

and you get invested in the passion and all of that,

at its core, it's a love story about

how love can save people.

And that's what I really responded to.

So, I thought it was actually important

to bring that story to life for a young audience because

so many people struggle with alcohol addiction,

and I think it's an important story.

[Louise Lombard] [VO] Today, AFTER fans

can watch the love story

play out in five successful films,

but the transition from book to film

was far from simple.

[Jennifer Gibgot] [VO] So, the story is,

I had actually been one of

the producers in the running for Fifty Shades of Grey,

because I read those books

and I contacted the agent very early on.

So she gave me a few studios who were bidding on it

and Universal came in, bought it for five million dollars,

I lost the rights so I was very bummed out

and I went to my friend's house

and her husband worked at Wattpad.

And I was telling them this story and he said,

"Oh, well, if you wanted to produce Fifty Shades of Grey ,

you need to read AFTER ."

And I said, "What's AFTER ?"

and he said, "You have to go on Wattpad and read it."

So, I actually read it on Wattpad,

and I reached out to him right away

and I said, "I need to produce this!"

-Our first stop for the film was-- was, uh,

with Offspring Entertainment, with Jen Gibgot.

We were introduced to Jen--

through, uh-- some colleagues in LA.

You know, she has such a great history

with this type of content, with being able to pull romance,

a little bit of laughs here and there,

and really understanding that audience that AFTER has already

in the fandom that's-- that's driven by it.

And we really hit it off and felt, you know,

we both brought some great things to the project,

Jen and, Offspring Entertainment and Wattpad,

as producers-- and obviously had a real ability

to amplify Anna's voice,

Anna's fandom, through film adaptation.

So, once we decided to work together,

our first stop was Paramount Studios.

[Jennifer Gibgot] [VO] So, I sold the movie to Paramount,

and we were in development there for four years.

And during that time, Instagram had just started to

become a real thing.

Um-- This was back in 2014 and Anna had tagged me

in a couple of photos on her Instagram

saying that I was the producer of movie.

And so, every single day,

these young girls from all over the world

starting writing to me through Instagram saying,

"When are you gonna make AFTER ? When are you gonna make AFTER ?"

And I was, you know, busy producing other movies

and I would see their messages,

but after four years they never went away.

They just kept writing me!

So, finally I went to Paramount and I said, you know,

"If you guys aren't gonna make this,

you have to give me the rights back."

So, they agreed to do it.

They said, "You can have them back,

but only if you make the movie independently."

From the moment that Paramount said

that they would give it back, it happened very, very quickly.

We had about three different people

wanting to invest in the movie and pay for it.

It wasn't, you know, an expensive movie.

We knew we could make it for a price, so,

you know, compared to like obviously

these big action movies and things like that.

So, I had three people who wanted to do it

and I ended up going with Courtney Solomon and Mark Canton

because they were the people that said,

we'll give you six months of a commitment, meaning, like,

at the end of the six months if we don't make this movie

we'll give it back to you.

And I agreed based on that.

I was like, [stutters] and I had obviously

a conversation with Anna and Wattpad, I was like,

"Listen, out of the three people that want to finance it,

these are the only people that are really willing to say like,

'We either make it or we give it back to you,

no strings attached.'"

-Beautiful. [sighs]

The first time I heard about AFTER

was when my partner, Courtney Solomon--

knocked at my office at our other offices

and said "Bro, we have this draft of a script

based on these incredible books,

and we should really overnight take a look at it

and get ready for a meeting. It's very exciting."

-Mark and I have both done sort of a lot of action movies.

I've done a lot of horror movies.

So, we were sort of in different genres and,

you know, we'd both done certain franchise movies.

And I'd been interested in the sort of YA space, you know,

looking at things like Twilight and Hunger Games

and how successful they were,

and that if it's something that's a really

popular piece of IP, like AFTER is,

that there's a really, you know,

strong fan base that already comes with it

that really is dying to see the movie.

-Yeah. I remember right away reading the script and liking it

and thinking of it in the world of Twilight

or other titles that had such a huge audience.

[Courtney Solomon] [VO] This was a love story, you know?

So, I'd never tackled a love story before,

so it was interesting to sort of deal with those characters,

and that young age group, and sort of first love

and the passion of first love--

that was, you know, interesting to me.

And that's really what it was more than anything.

More than the audience preexisting

or anything like that, was first like,

I was like, "Oh, this is cool."

-And so, you know, we-- we raised the money

to make it independently, and it became the highest

grossing independent film of 2019,

we won the People's Choice, the Teen Choice,

and that's when I felt vindicated.

Like, I knew! [laughs]

Because even when I got it out of there,

Paramount like was like "Okay, you can have it back.

We'll see, you know, good luck!"

[man] Okay. Here we go, pictures up.

[Louise Lombard] [VO] Filming for AFTER

began on July 18th, 2018.

Anna Todd even has a cameo in the film.

[peaceful music playing]

[Jennifer Gibgot] [VO] By the time the movies got made,

she had a fandom already

that was international.

You know, she had sold, as I said,

15 million copies of her books,

and that's just not even counting all the reads

that it got on Wattpad.

Um, but she already had, you know,

500+ of her own followers on just Instagram,

and then more on Twitter and more on Facebook.

So, she-- she already had a fandom.

So, she felt an obligation to make her fans happy

and I was so happy to have her involved because

I knew that, you know, only she would know truly

what was really important to them.

We could all speculate, but she had been involved,

obviously, with the fans since day one.

[Louise Lombard] [VO] So, Anna witnessed her story

go from words on a page

to scenes playing out before her eyes.

For the author, it was a dream come true.

[Anna Todd] [VO] It's very validating

and it's very surreal.

There was this shot of them on the bed yesterday.

And it was Tessa was covered mostly in a sheet

and Hardin's head was on her back and there was just this,

just looking at it, I completely forgot that

I had anything to do with it, and I was just like,

"This is so beautiful!

And this works." And if I didn't--

I think the ultimate test as like a fan girl for me

is that if I didn't create this, I would be completely obsessed.

Like, I would be the person that would have like

the AFTER fan account

and the like following everything they're doing,

and I would be completely obsessed

like I was with Twilight .

And I think it's hard to find that like "magic,"

and I'm just so fortunate and lucky and grateful

to have that in something that I created.

[water splashing]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] The magic of the AFTER films

would not have been possible without the undeniable chemistry

between its two main actors-- -[Tessa chuckles]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] Josephine Langford

and Hero Fiennes Tiffin.

[gentle music playing]

For millions of fans, it's now impossible

to imagine anyone else as Tessa and Hardin.

But finding the right actors for these roles wasn't easy.

As soon as pre-production started, the search

for Tessa and Hardin was on.

-We knew that finding the perfect Hardin and Tessa

was going to be so hugely important.

-Obviously, there was a lot of pressure on casting

because there was a lot of anticipation

from the existing audience of, who's Hardin?

Who's Tessa?

You know, who are these characters?

-The most important thing was

finding the right balance-- for the two roles.

We did want to stick with, our two leads

in particular, very close to the book.

And we went through a number of actors and actresses,

we had a long search.

-It was like, probably two years of just constantly searching.

Even before I knew the movie was actually going,

I just was so...

I had no idea if we would ever find the right person.

-[muted chatter]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] They auditioned dozens of actors,

but Hero Fiennes Tiffin immediately stuck out.

[Jennifer Gibgot] [VO] We brought in Mary Vernieu,

who's an incredible casting director,

she's cast some of the biggest and best movies,

and it's funny because at our very first lunch with her,

she said, "It's going to be Hero Fiennes Tiffin." [laughs]

At the very first! She just knew.

She had, I guess, read him in the past.

She just felt like he was the character.

And yet, we auditioned and screen tested a bunch of guys.

But, from the moment he came into the office,

we were all very excited about him for Hardin.

[photographer] Yeah. Nice. There--

[Louise Lombard] [VO] Once they met with him,

it was obvious to the filmmakers that Hero was Hardin Scott.

[upbeat music playing]

Before AFTER , Hero was known for playing Tom Riddle,

young Voldemort in the sixth Harry Potter movie.

The English actor was hired alongside his uncle,

Ralph Fiennes, who plays the adult Voldemort in the saga.

Hero was 11 years old when he was cast in the role.

Nine years later, at age 20, he was cast as Hardin Scott.

In the meantime, Hero was living the life

of any aspiring young actor.

-I was doing a bunch of auditions.

I was flipping burgers

at a place called Miss P's Barbeque.

and I'd left school;

I'd dropped out of school the last year of school

to try and just pursue acting and--

and done loads of auditions.

And-- and I remember the first one I did,

I had done like three that day,

and it was getting to a point where I was just like

"I hope I don't confuse the other auditions

with this one."

I just go in, do my best,

and I feel like I was so busy and so I didn't overthink it.

I was so run down by the end of it

and I feel like I almost did a better audition

because I wasn't overthinking and trying too hard

and it's funny how that happens sometimes.

And then there was another audition,

and then I was like, "Right, they want me.

Let's-- let's go for it."

And then, another and another and then, uh--

I was flown out here to LA to chemistry read

and I was like, "All right, this sounds,

I don't think they're flying a lot of people out here

to chemistry read."

I didn't actually audition with Jo in the chemistry read

which is interesting.

But I don't know exactly the process.

I think she might have auditioned for a different role

at the time as well.

And I got home, and my agent from LA

happened to be in London at the time,

so I had my English agent and American agent.

And we were at some café and he was like,

"Aw, you didn't get the role." I was like, "What?"

And the English agent turned over and was like--

I knew he was-- I knew he was trying to pull my leg.

And-- and then obviously he was like,

"No, you did get the role"

and sent me on a rollercoaster of emotions.

And yeah, I mean, that's-- that was history, that was it.

It was-- it was a surreal process.

I remember waking up each-- each morning

and it did feel like a dream. And yeah.

And honestly it took me like four years

to finally go like, whew.

This is it now. This is how-- But I'm-- I'm grateful for--

for all of it every step of the way and uh--

Yeah. It's--

I'll never forget that whole process.

It's almost nice to go through and tell you about it

and revise in my head exactly how it all happened--

cuz it really was like life-changing, so.

So, yeah.

[Louise Lombard] [VO] Finding Tessa was far more challenging.

Josephine Langford's name came up later

in the casting process.

In fact, the film nearly started shooting with a different Tessa.

[Jennifer Gibgot] [VO] Finding Tessa was--

was more difficult.

It was really crazy because I would think that

there would be so many young, you know,

blonde, beautiful actresses because,

you know, I did want her to be cast

the way that the character was described.

Josephine actually read for a different role.

She was in Australia

and she read for the role of Molly

and we read her over a video conference.

From the moment that we saw her,

I was like, "That's our Tessa."

So, I called her agent and I said,

"She needs to get on a plane tomorrow and fly out here."

[laughs]

And they were like, "Really? Really?"

And I said, "Yes, she does."

[ambient music playing]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] Josephine was also 20 years old

when she was cast as Tessa.

Prior to that, the Australian actress

had started making a name for herself on Australian TV

and in the American horror movie

WISH UPON.

But Tessa would be her first leading role...

a role she knew came with considerable expectations.

Long before arriving on set,

Josephine was aware of her character's popularity

among the book's fans.

-I felt a responsibility to get it right,

to get the character right,

for her to be portrayed accurately

and not as a two-dimensional good girl caricature. Uh--

But you can't really let pressure or expectation

get to you because I think as an actor,

it's important to make your own choices

and strong choices and not choices, uh,

just because you think it's gonna appease someone

or appease a group of people.

So, it-- I mean, it was a responsibility but uh-- Yeah.

You just-- I think you just can't let that get to you,

knowing there's a lot of people-- anticipating

what you're going to do. [chuckles]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] Hero took a different approach

to understand the essence

of his character.

[upbeat music playing]

[Hero Fiennes] Hardin is very rarely

like happy and [stutters] you know, Hardin,

when he's not with Tessa,

and that's the beauty of the story is that

she brings out of him his best version of himself.

And without her, he finds it near enough impossible--

impossible to do that. So, it's about him being

able to not just rely on her

but bring enough to her as well.

But also yeah, find-- find a way-- [clicks tongue]

find a way to make it work because, for him,

that's life and death, that's--

that's the only thing that matters

and that's what, you know,

there's so much passion in the story.

[ambient music playing]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] Right from the start,

that passion exploded onto the screen.

From the first call of "action,"

the chemistry between the two young actors

was undeniable.

Josephine Langford and Hero Fiennes Tiffin

became Tessa and Hardin.

[Mark Canton] [VO] With Josephine and Hero,

we clearly found

that young couple where the sparks on screen

are really dynamic, you know.

And they're both fine young actors

and they're both-- very professional,

and that was an important part of it too,

when you're working with young talent.

[Jennifer Gibgot] [VO] The big reason why the films

are such a success

is because they have such great chemistry

and because both of them really embody the characters

that are on the page.

It was really, really important to find the right people.

And I'm so glad because,

whatever the fans may say, I know that they're really happy

with who we picked for Hardin and Tessa.

-The fans that went and saw it were just so happy

to see something that they've been following for years,

and they were so happy with Hero and Josephine as casting.

I personally think that Hero and Jo's chemistry

carried the film, and it made it impossible--

even if you've never read the books--

it made it impossible to look away from the screen.

[pop music playing]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] Where did their chemistry come from?

Why did sparks fly so immediately?

It remains a mystery, even for Hero and Josephine,

but it's pretty clear they were made for these roles.

[Josephine Langford] [VO] We actually didn't

get the opportunity to have a chemistry read

on the first film,

so we sort of met and it was like, this is it.

[laughs] Uh--

So, I think we were just really lucky

that when we met and we started rehearsing,

we-- we had chemistry.

-I feel like maybe it had something to do with--

with it was both our first time doing lead roles,

that we were almost in it together

and if we felt something or we disagreed with production

or direction or anything,

we almost had to rely on each other.

We were the only kind of support that each other had

because we were fighting the exact same battle

every time any conversations came up,

so maybe it's something to do with that.

-Chemistry on film is something

you just either have or you don't.

And so, I think we were just really lucky that apparently,

we had it when we started filming.

So, there was nothing that we had to do specifically

to like, recreate it.

It's just-- I think it's either there or it's not.

-Listen, I say it every time; it's good casting.

We don't know how.

If I did, then I'd be making movies

and be like "You two! You're perfect together!"

you know, so you never-- we never know.

[Louise Lombard] [VO] You can feel that chemistry

in every frame of the AFTER franchise,

from the moments fans will never forget

to the moments they never got to see,

like these never-before-released scenes.

[door thuds]

[body thuds]

-[chuckles]

This is not as comfortable as it looks.

-No? -[Hardin] Can you help me out?

-[Tessa chuckles]

-Yeah. This is exactly what I needed.

-Yeah.

-Actually, I have a better idea.

I think you're gonna like this.

[birds chirping]

[peaceful music playing]

[Tessa] It's too soon.

Don't go.

-Okay.

-Wait, really?

[chuckles]

-[Hardin chuckles]

-Okay.

[Louise Lombard] [VO] Their connection was undeniable.

[man] [indistinct] And action!

[Louise Lombard] [VO] Josephine and Hero quickly

won over everyone on set.

As they worked with different directors

over the course of five films,

the young actors continually found new ways

to approach their characters and hone their craft.

The entire cast and crew loved working with them.

[club music playing]

[Castille Landon] [VO] From the very first table read,

I was like, "Oh yes, these guys like,

they know what they're doing, but also like,

[giggles] they're so cute."

They're both so different, the two of them.

He's much more sensitive and comes at the character

in a kind of like fresh new way because he isn't as studied.

He just kind of like, goes with his gut instinct.

And she is the complete opposite of that.

She's like tough as nails and

she comes to every day of work,

like she knows all of her lines-- she-- and--

and he knows all of his lines too,

he just has like a very quick memory,

while she's like very studied and has a lot of questions

and she wants to know like,

the logic of every single moment.

Consequently, you're constantly thinking of the scene

through two very different perspectives every single time,

which actually helps to keep it balanced

because it never becomes just Tessa's story,

or just Hardin's story.

You're able because the--

the personalities of those two actors are so strong and--

and I think that's why they're so good in those roles too.

[Louise Lombard] [VO] Brian Pitt has been

running day-to-day production on the series since day one.

He was on set every day with the team for all five movies,

giving him the opportunity

to watch Hero and Jo grow up alongside Hardin and Tessa.

[Brian Pitt] [VO] What's been really interesting to see is,

when we came into this and I met Jo and Hero,

I remember the first day meeting them, you know?

They're young actors, I think they both turned 21,

and what's been kind of interesting,

because the way the books are set up

and the series are set up is, we follow them through

when they first meet all the way up until--

later in their life.

That's not something you always get to do with a character.

So, as we are watching them meet for the first time

and follow all the way up through their lives,

we're also watching them actually connecting better in,

you know, in real life.

With Jo and Hero what was very interesting is,

in the very beginning there was an innocence there,

and I think in movie 1, there was that innocence.

And-- and it all played well

with the-- with the movie itself.

And then in movie 2, what you kind of see from

even a filmmaker standpoint is, I'm watching these--

these kids become better actors.

And every time we put them on camera,

they got better and better and better.

You know? And then, moving into movie 3 and movie 4, again,

we're-- [stutters] jumping forward into their lives,

and they're now, they're becoming adults,

and-- and they're dealing with more adult problems.

And when they showed up on set, I remember,

I hadn't seen Jo or Hero in probably nine months or so,

and I had said to Chad, our AD,

when we were doing some rehearsals,

and Castille, our director, I was like, "Wow,

they've really come into their own."

Like, you know, she's become a woman;

he's become a man.

And this-- I've watched this happen over these last

three years and-- and I was very proud of them.

-That's the beauty of doing, you know,

coming-of-age stuff when you're actually coming of age.

Because, you know, you're acting a lot of it

but a lot of it, you don't even notice is-- is, you know,

[stutters] you can't act growing a little bit taller

and make-- looking a little bit older.

-Well, that was something that was really nice about this:

getting the opportunity to play, over the course of two years,

one girl just at very different points of her life,

like over the span of probably seven years.

-That aspect of-- of having the real-life time passing,

I think was perfect.

I think the-- the scheduling of when we shot was perfect

because we really grew with the characters.

[pop music playing]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] In July of 2018,

on the precipice of adulthood,

Hero and Josephine arrived on the set of AFTER .

The first movie was far from a sure thing.

No one could be certain that fans of the book

would rush to see the romance play out on screen.

But the filmmakers felt that as long as they captured

the essence of the books, audiences would respond.

[Jennifer Gibgot] [VO] It is faithful to the extent

that we take a lot of time

and care when we developed every screenplay

to make sure that like every big line,

the biggest moments are in there,

but it's absolutely impossible to take a 700-page-plus book

and fit it into a 110-115 page screenplay.

You know, you just...

you can't take that and make it that. [laughs]

It just doesn't work.

So, we had to pick what we felt like

were the most important moments and scenes.

The thing that we kept going back to

throughout the development of all the screenplays

was that no matter what, because there are a lot of characters,

this is the story of Hardin and Tessa's love story.

And as long as we stay on that path

and we stay with the two of them,

the movies are gonna work.

Because they are the spine of the whole series.

[pop music playing]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] The films stayed true

to their lead couple

through all their ups and downs:

on the one hand, the kind and ambitious Tessa,

and on the other, there's Hardin,

a troubled bad boy

who rarely makes the right choices.

That narrative presented some challenges for Hero.

[Hero Fiennes] Do you know what?

When I was doing the first film,

I knew why Hardin was how he was because of his past.

And I felt so kind of like excited

but I-- I was so--

I couldn't wait for them to see why and see later--

later in the following movies, they get more of an idea of his

his-- his childhood and his upbringing,

and I really-- it's so important to inform,

you never know where someone comes from

and what someone's story is.

And-- I was like chewing my nails off

until the point in which we could tell the audience,

because a lot of people would just be like,

why is this guy always so moody?

Like, why is he so mean and why is he so,

you know, emotionless? And um--

it all starts to make sense because, you know,

you can't judge a person before you know their whole story.

And luckily, the fans gave us enough support that we could

[stutters] continue to tell the story, sorry.

Definitely I felt a responsibility of--

of making sure that people understood the whole picture

and didn't just wanna be like Hardin for no reason.

But, you know, understood that

yeah, there's a background,

there's two sides to every story,

there's a background to everyone and then--

I think that was-- that was what was really fun as well

about exploring the character too.

[dramatic music playing]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] This emotional exploration

was matched by an equally intense physical exploration,

as the young actors worked hard to portray the red-hot

sexual connection that is so foundational to

Tessa and Hardin's relationship.

Love scenes are important in any romance,

but they were especially essential to the AFTER saga,

which begins with Tessa losing her virginity to Hardin.

Filming these scenes required an atmosphere of consent,

professionalism, and mutual respect

in order to capture the beautiful,

complicated dance of two young lovers

discovering each other for the first time.

[Hero Fiennes] There's no nudity.

It's just like really well shot

and it's implied and it's-- it's--

those scenes are-- are-- it's like a dance,

you choreograph it.

You think it's like really glamorous and-- and sexy,

but you're in there and you've got like the cameras leaning

[stutters] over your shoulder and my hand maybe

has to like hold her hand and then-- I'm like,

bending my arm out of the way to somehow like--

and it's not-- it's not how it-- how it seems.

As we went on with the-- with the franchise

and got to the later movies, it was making sure that

every time there was a [stutters] sex scene

it had a story to it,

and it had a reason and they were not all the same.

It's not all just like you wanna have sex at the end of the day.

Some of them is like, it is a way of making up,

it's a-- it's a-- you know, some-- sometimes people are

under the influence and they, you know,

really want to get at it, every-- what's interesting is

all of those scenes still inform the storyline,

and they're not just thrown in there

for fun or for, you know, any other purposes.

They-- they all, like you say, are real and--

and like a really important part

of telling the story of a relationship.

[pop music playing]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] A relationship that is set

at Washington State University.

But filming for the first movie

took place far from the state of Washington.

[Brian Pitt] [VO] We had decided

to shoot the movie in Boston.

And I was in New Orleans,

so I sent a team up to Boston to get things up and going,

and then I flew up a few weeks later

to meet the director and the producers and all--

all the folks that really had put this project together

prior to me ever coming on.

And then we spent, I don't know,

maybe a week up in Boston, had the whole team ready to go,

and it just wasn't working for the project.

-[man] Camera mark. -[clapperboard snaps]

[Brian Pitt] [VO] So, we just made that kinda decision

that we needed somewhere that would allow us to really

bring this movie to another level and get the scope.

And Atlanta, Georgia, worked.

[man] Camera mark.

[Brian Pitt] [VO] So, we made that quick,

you know, move which is, uh--

logistically very complicated. [laughs]

It threw us all into a bit of a tailspin

from a creative standpoint

as well as a logistical standpoint. Uh--

But we did it, and everybody just rallied around,

and we were off and running in a new city, you know,

Atlanta, Georgia, which we were shooting for Washington!

[laughs]

[woman] Hero, did you hear that?

[man] Right where you are.

[Louise Lombard] [VO] Once they got to Atlanta,

everything clicked into place,

and even the most experienced members of the crew

began to realize

that something special was happening on this movie.

[Brian Pitt] [VO] You know, the moment I realized

it was something bigger than just another project

and a script on paper

wasn't necessarily an overnight thing.

It was-- it was a-- an evolution of

once I saw this coming together,

once the writers starting chatting with me

and once I really got into the--

the side with the director and we started picking, you know,

picking the look of the character

and casting Jo and Hero.

And once all this started coming together,

I think a lot of us quickly realized, "Wait, this is--

this is gonna be something a little special,

and let's-- let's make sure we treat it that way."

[thrilling music playing]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] Filming for the first movie

concluded in August of 2018.

A few months later, during Thanksgiving week,

the first teaser trailer appeared online,

nearly breaking the internet.

The fans' reaction was beyond anything

the team could have expected. -What are you dreaming about?

-[Molly] Truth or dare? -[gasps]

-Are you a virgin?

-[gasps]

-I dare you to make out with Hardin.

-[gasps]

-I'm done playing this game.

[Tessa] But isn't it really about

what lies beyond those moments? -[indistinct]

-What are you doing? -[gasps]

-Please? -I think you owe me a debt.

-[gasps]

-Holy--

[Tessa] [VO] So, what's your story then?

[Landon] Be careful. Hardin is complicated.

-He has his shirt off!

-I thought you were dreaming about me.

-[gasps]

-Holy shit.

-[gasps]

-Oh. -[thuds]

[thunder rumbling]

-They're dancing at the party.

[Tessa] [VO] Before him was so simple,

and now there's just...

After.

-After. Oh my--

-[shrieks]

-Can we watch it again? -Yes. Oh my God.

[Louise Lombard] [VO] The film was scheduled for release

on April 10th, 2019, in the U.S.

and in the following weeks worldwide.

Here we are at the beginning

of a global promotional tour for Anna, Josephine, and Hero.

-[cheering]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] From Brazil to Italy,

through Portugal and Mexico,

the reaction when the trio appears

is always the same.

-[cheering]

[chanting] Hero.

[cheering]

-Oh. -[dramatic music playing]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] This enthusiasm is

reflected in the numbers.

-[shrieks]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] AFTER 1 has made over 70 million

at the worldwide box office.

-[cheering]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] The film won the People's Choice Award

for Favourite Drama in 2019

and three Teen Choice Awards, including Best Drama,

Best Dramatic Actress for Josephine,

and Best Dramatic Actor for Hero.

The film's early box office success

ensured AFTER would become a beloved franchise.

Josephine knows that

it would not have been possible without the support of the fans.

[Josephine Langford] [VO] We did a press tour

for the first film

and we went to like ten different countries

and we got to interact one on one

finally with a lot of the fans and a lot of the fan base,

and just seeing how many people are passionate about this story

all around the world

and getting to actually talk to them and--

and it was just so--

it's so rewarding knowing that what you're doing,

no matter how small, or no matter how big,

is being received positively and--

and affecting like a large group of people.

I think we're just really lucky that we have such a huge

and such a passionate fan base who are really keeping,

who are really the reason why we're here

and why we're making a sequel.

And for some reason, there's just so many people out there

who've connected to these books

and who've connected to this story,

and who've connected to the first film.

[man] Action!

[Louise Lombard] [VO] AFTER WE COLLIDED

picks up one year after the first movie.

With more mature characters and a more experienced cast,

the team was ready to jump back into the AFTER universe,

with one notable addition:

Roger Kumble assuming the director's chair.

Kumble is a specialist in teen movies,

having directed one of the genre's classics,

Cruel Intentions.

-Obviously, with a lot of franchises,

you switch directors for each movie,

which gives it kind of a different fresh look.

-And we went with Roger Kumble because

we all were big fans of Cruel Intentions .

So, he had obviously done this iconic movie,

he had done Pretty Little Liars .

His movie was like a slightly different tone.

It-- he leaned a little bit more into the comedy in certain parts

and he did a-- a fantastic job.

[Louise Lombard] [VO] Roger Kumble was thrilled

to take on the project,

and excited by the challenge of expanding

Tessa and Hardin's story.

[Roger Kumble] [VO] You know, entering a--

a saga like AFTER is a-- a dream come true.

You know, I'd been away from-- features--

for a good part of ten years now.

I've just been working in television

because the stories were just more compelling.

But then-- you know, when I got the call

to have lunch with Anna Todd and Jennifer Gibgot,

I'd heard about the books, so I was like,

"Oh, wow, this is-- this is a huge opportunity," you know,

and it was just great,

especially jumping in the sequel because like the world had

already been established and--

and-- I'd never done a sequel before.

[Louise Lombard] [VO] On set, the atmosphere feels

different from the first film.

As the actors revisit their characters,

they seem more relaxed.

The whole team is more experienced.

[Brian Pitt] [VO] Movie 2 had its own

little set of difficulties,

although that one went fairly smooth.

-Seriously?

[Brian Pitt] [VO] But, when we shot the first movie,

we didn't necessarily know

if we would be able to shoot a second one,

although we wanted to.

We didn't know what it would really entail,

so after the first movie we got rid of everything

to do with the movie.

That's pretty standard. Then, all of a sudden,

we're ready to make movie 2, we're very excited about it,

and I realized I needed a few of the sets back.

So, we had to go back through the movie

and basically recreate sets from scratch.

Uh-- we had a-- you know, originally, uh--

Hardin and Tessa's apartment was a real location.

But in movie 2, it was a situation where we--

they were gonna spend so much more time in this apartment,

there was no way we could go back

and shoot this real apartment, it was tiny!

It was way too small to shoot in.

The rest of us were jammed in the neighbour's apartment

on top of each other the whole time.

And so, we had to basically go back in,

look at the-- the movie, rebuild and redesign

everything to match, but a little bit bigger,

and build it on a stage.

So, all of those things, that matching aspect, uh--

and deciding that we were gonna do it on a stage versus

in somebody's real apartment,

made it very, very difficult to pull off.

Now, I was smarter after that. Uh--

I had all the sets packed up,

stored away in giant shipping containers,

'cause I knew we were coming back at that point.

[door thuds]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] While the sets from the first film

were recreated identically,

the style shifted under Kumble's direction.

-[Tessa] No, no, stop! -[Hardin] Tessa! Tessa!

[Louise Lombard] [VO] AFTER WE COLLIDED

adopted a lighter, more comedic tone.

[door thuds]

[Tessa] You're such a dick. Why are you even here?

[Roger Kumble] [VO] I always compare AFTER

and AFTER WE COLLIDED to like Alien and Aliens.

It's a sequel but it's a completely different tone,

and that was important when I-- when I interviewed for the job.

I said, "I kind of wanna take them on an emotional

rollercoaster with this movie."

The first one-- I love the first one--

and it was more, it was very poetic. Uh--

This is more a thrill ride. It's a hold on to your seats.

-Tessa?

[Tessa] Can-- can you put some clothes on?

Please?

[objects clattering]

-[Hardin] Tessa? -[door thuds]

-Put some clothes on!

[objects clattering]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] AFTER WE COLLIDED

was a continued journey of transformation

for these characters, particularly Tessa.

-There is no "your Tessa" anymore!

[Josephine Langford] [VO] In the first film,

Tessa's a college freshman

and she's a little inexperienced in certain areas.

And since then, she's--

-Fuck you!

[Josephine Langford] [VO] She's-- fallen in love,

she's had an intense breakup,

she has an internship at a publishing company,

so she's immersing herself in a world with adults.

She goes to a club for the first time.

She's a lot more experienced,

and in certain ways jaded and mature, and just

a different girl when we see her in this film.

And so, we wanted that to reflect also physically.

-Wow. -[Tessa] Thank you.

[Josephine Langford] [VO] Her hair's different,

her makeup's different, her style's different.

Yeah, this is a-- this is a pretty

different version of Tessa.

-Yeah, it's great.

I'm loving--

[grunts] -[peaceful music playing]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] Tessa and Hardin's love

continued to delight fans on the big screen.

AFTER WE COLLIDED was an overwhelming theatrical success,

despite opening in the midst of COVID

during the fall of 2020.

On streaming, it exceeded

all expectations, reaching number one

on multiple platforms,

and remaining there for several weeks.

-Wait! Just give me five minutes, okay?

I just need to get--

[laughs] [shrieks]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] The fans' appetite for this story

was undeniable.

So, production was greenlit on the next two films

before the second was even released.

[water dripping]

-Because of book 3 and book 4,

a lot of the same locations were shared.

If-- if we could make it in a situation

where we shot them all together, we could save a lot of money,

which also meant that we could then put more money

into building a-- a better movie.

I also think that because of the time between the two movies,

technically is only,

it's a shorter time period

between 3 and 4, we could go into it

and shoot it like one long giant movie.

So, that-- that made it just make sense, overall.

[Louise Lombard] [VO] To helm the next two movies,

the production hired Castille Landon,

a young director who had previously worked with

and impressed the studio behind AFTER .

[Jennifer Gibgot] [VO] The reason why we decided

to go with Castille was,

we thought it was actually really important

to tell these stories through a female lens.

And it was a thought-out conversation that we all had,

and I think she did a fantastic job.

[Louise Lombard] [VO] Castille jumped into the AFTER universe

and quickly got to work directing two feature films.

While some might have found that daunting,

Castille felt it was a natural way

to approach the source material.

-The books really lend themselves

to being looked at as one whole story.

[Castille Landon] [VO] It's a short timeframe, so

I didn't really look at it as two different films

as much as I did just one big film

that we were shooting-- all at the same time.

And that really helped to keep sight of everything,

'cause I think if we-- if we had to do it in a different way,

that would have been a lot more challenging.

[Louise Lombard] [VO] Castille set out to capture as much of

Hardin and Tess's love story as she could,

including unreleased scenes like these,

featuring fan favourite Anton Kottas as Smith.

-[Christian and Kimberly laugh]

-Do you have a name yet?

-Oh, look... -We have been thinking about--

-About waiting until the gender reveal party?

-Um--

-That.

That, what she said. -[Tessa] Right.

-Well, they've been up there for a while,

so I think I'm gonna go see what they've been getting up to.

-Yeah.

Hope you like trains.

-Are you going to [indistinct] too?

[toy train rattles]

-No.

I'm just visiting for the night.

-I rewired it, so it goes faster.

-Did you?

-Mm-hmm. It was really slow.

-Smith.

That's pretty impressive.

This is a very cool set.

But it's way past my bedtime and probably yours too.

Good night, little guy.

-Night.

[Louise Lombard] [VO] In addition to the challenges of

shooting two movies at once,

the production, much like the rest of the world,

was soon confronted with an entirely

unexpected new challenge.

[Brian Pitt] [VO] We were set to shoot in Atlanta

and then we found ourselves in a worldwide pandemic.

[man] Good morning, boss.

[Brian Pitt] [VO] Uh-- And what do we do here?

If we don't shoot,

and we don't find a way to safely shoot during this,

the fandom is gonna go an extra year,

year and a half without a follow-up movie.

And we knew that wasn't gonna happen! [laughs]

That was not gonna go over well.

So, we had made the decision to move the entire production

to another country where it was safer to shoot,

and we could be a little more controlled.

[Louise Lombard] [VO] On set in Bulgaria,

the production of both films

strictly followed the COVID protocol

put in place by the Directors Guild of America

and Screen Actors Guild.

[man] Thank you.

[Louise Lombard] [VO] Masks were required at all times.

Cast and crew underwent constant testing,

and production departments were separated and isolated

from other crew members.

For the safety of the people involved,

it was essential that everyone was aware of the rules

and followed them to the letter.

But living through such difficult circumstances

in isolation was not an easy task.

[man] And then, this will blend better.

[Castille Landon] [VO] Shooting during the pandemic

has been insane.

There were a ton of precautions that were taken.

We were all basically put into quarantine.

We quarantined when we got here.

We are tested multiple times per week-- every other day.

And then on set, there's so many things

that are taken into account.

Everybody has to wear masks all the time--

there's no exceptions to that.

A whole team of people that comes through

and sanitizes every single prop.

Then there's like UV sanitization

at night in the sets and with the wardrobe.

It was uncertain times, but I don't think that

any more precautions could have been taken.

[Louise Lombard] [VO] Thankfully, the adventure of

making AFTER 3 and 4 had a happy ending.

[Castille Landon] [VO] We were originally gonna

shoot in Atlanta, then it became Bulgaria.

And like the first day of filming, I think a week out,

we lost our location.

And then all through it, we've lost like

different day players and cast.

We've kind of had to shuffle things,

which then pushed our shooting date later,

and so then we're dealing with snow and bad weather.

[chuckles] So, it's been like, kind of a comedy of errors.

[car door thuds]

But I think we've really managed to--

to push through it and make really great movies

that I'm super proud of,

regardless of all of those obstacles.

[Brian Pitt] [VO] It was so important to us

to put these products out,

and our fans were so excited about them

that it kind of fuelled all of us.

Every night when we were working,

in the middle of the night, in Bulgaria,

in the snow, in masks, uh-- long hours,

pretty much isolating ourselves from the rest of the world

cuz we lived in little pods

and we weren't allowed to talk to people or be around anybody,

just to make sure everybody was as safe as we could be.

It was very, uh-- trying on your soul, to some extent.

And we did that for five months, uh--

away from our families.

And I don't think many of us would have done that

for any other film.

[ambient music playing]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] In AFTER WE FELL

and AFTER EVER HAPPY,

the love between Tessa and Hardin

remains just as intense, passionate, and complex.

But as strong as their bond is,

growing up will put it to the test.

[Josephine Langford] [VO] Now that Tessa and Hardin

are in the real world-- as in the adult world--

their relationship hasn't evolved.

It's still the same relationship with the same obstacles

and challenges and sort of insecurities, uh--

because they're all really internal and emotional,

I think the landscape's just really different.

And they're dealing with, uh-- with different things now,

like long distance and what you do in that situation.

[Louise Lombard] [VO] As you can see in this unreleased footage,

the real world brings real problems for Tessa.

-Uh-- Can you put your number in?

-You know, smarties.

[laughs]

You know, you could have had them

just transfer everything over.

-Fresh start.

-Right.

-Thanks.

-Two-one-two?

New York?

So, you're not kidding about moving to the city with me?

-Yeah, I'm talking with an admissions counsellor

at NYU next week. But...

yeah, it looks like I'll be able to start in the fall.

-And then you just transfer

to Advanced Publishing's New York office, right?

-I-- I'm not sure I can work for him,

just knowing he's Hardin's father.

-Right.

[playful music playing]

-Wake up.

Landon, wake up.

Wake up.

-What?

[Hardin] Wake up!

I need you to unlock your phone.

-No.

-Unlock your fucking phone.

-No, no, no, no.

-Can you unlock your phone, please?

I need Tessa's number.

-You don't have it for a reason.

-Unlock your fucking phone!

Please.

-[Landon sighs]

-Wasn't so difficult, was it?

-[thuds] -Sweet dreams.

[Landon] Can you at least get the light? Can you--

[door thuds]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] These two movies take us deeper

into the two lovers' lives,

exploring their emotions and exposing their secrets--

some tragic, others happier,

but all necessary for Tessa and Hardin to evolve.

This evolution is particularly dramatic for Hardin,

who finally confronts his alcohol addiction

and the reasons behind his self-destructive behaviour.

Telling an honest story of addiction

is a responsibility Hero has always taken very seriously.

[Hero Fiennes] [VO] I know people who have been

through the same thing.

It's always a lot more authentic

when you can draw from someone you--

someone you know,

or experiences of people you know. And um--

I was informed enough about the behaviour of--

of people who are addicted, and addiction in general to--

to kind of inform me well enough in that sense.

But-- it's tricky, not so much just the audition,

but like childhood trauma was one that I wanted to make sure

I got right as well because I feel like that--

that has a huge impact as well, and obviously, the addiction's

more of a knock-on effect of that.

[Louise Lombard] [VO] Filming took place

over five months in Bulgaria, in the dead of winter,

right in the middle of the COVID crisis.

Production thought that it could make these movies

as a surprise for the fans.

Production was wrong.

[Brian Pitt] [VO] One of the downsides

to having such an amazing fandom,

they-- they are detectives.

They find us everywhere we go when we're shooting.

I'll give you a quick example. We're in Bulgaria.

We didn't tell anyone why we were going to Bulgaria.

We have full media blackouts with social.

We don't talk about the movie on social.

We don't talk about where we are.

And that's primarily just so we can have

a little bit of surprise to everybody.

So, a lot of the fandom knows all of the players

that have been around.

So, Taylor Conrad, who's my assistant,

now is associate producer on the newer films,

she took a photo randomly in her hotel room of her outfit,

posted it on Instagram, and within hours,

the fans recognized the pattern on the hotel curtain,

cross-referenced it with every hotel in Bulgaria,

found out where we were, and I had a crowd of people

out front of the hotel.

-[Chance Perdomo] Hi, guys. -[fans] Hi.

[cheering]

-I wish I could give you guys hugs, but uh--

I'm not allowed; COVID.

But thank you for wearing your masks.

I thought I'd come outside and say hi.

You guys have been here all day?

-[fans] Yes! -Hey, folks.

All right.

My name is Chance.

And what are your names?

[fans] [indistinct]

-It's nice to meet you. [shouts]

-[cheering]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] Fans of the series

even have their own name: Afternators.

-[fans cheering]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] After conducting

their own investigation,

they gathered en masse outside the cast and crew's

hotel in Sofia, Bulgaria,

waiting for a chance to see their beloved stars.

-[fans cheering]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] For Hero and Josephine,

who burst into the spotlight in their early 20s,

the popularity of the series

could sometimes feel overwhelming.

[Hero Fiennes] [VO] Lockdown came at a good time

for me to kind of just sit down,

take a bit of time to reassess and--

I feel like I've come out like raring to go,

feeling really comfortable with it.

But I feel like it's also easy to say at this point but I--

I never set out for like--

for like fame or trying-- trying to be this big.

You know, I just kind of wanted to make cool movies

and see what happened.

And-- and uh-- it definitely--

"overwhelming" is the perfect word.

It was-- it was like a huge change in lifestyle.

You know?

It's not-- not something that I anticipated or was used to,

but, you know, quickly-- quickly had to learn on the way.

And, as I said, now--

now I feel great but-- but, yeah.

A hundred percent, it was an over-- overwhelming process,

but um, you know, an-- an amazing one, nonetheless.

-[cheering]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] Over time, Hero has learned

to accept his celebrity

and appreciate the attention of the Afternators.

He loves seeing them connect with each other on fan forums.

-[chanting] Hardin! Hardin! Hardin! Hardin!

-You notice that a lot of them

make friends with each other,

which is an amazing thing to-- to be able to-- to,

I guess have been a part of, um,

because making friends through something you love is a--

is a magical thing

and is-- it really does bring people together.

[ambient music playing]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] On September 30th, 2021,

Nicky Boyer is getting ready

as she waits for her friend Theresa

to arrive for an exciting evening at the theater.

-I think I'm ready.

[object clattering]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] Today is the premiere date of

AFTER WE FELL,

a day these fans have been eagerly awaiting.

-Let's go.

Hi!

[laughs] You ready?

-[Theresa] Yes, I am. -[Nicky] Yeah. Okay. [laughs]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] Nicky and Teresa head out

to meet their friend Hannah

at the multiplex in Riverside, California,

to watch the movie together.

They're not the only fans who have organized viewing parties.

[Nicky] Yeah, they're all seeing it.

And then my friend Nicole,

she has a couple of our other friends,

Tori and Brittany, are in Texas seeing it with her

and our friend Stephanie and yeah.

So, it's cool, like, everybody is seeing it everywhere.

It's just wild because I feel like last year,

we couldn't do this. -[Theresa] Right.

[Nicky] Like, we couldn't go to the theatres;

we couldn't do all of those things.

So, it's just so freaking cool.

It feels like we've been waiting forever.

-[Theresa laughs]

-It really does.

[car door thuds]

-Oh. Hi, how are you? -[Theresa] Hi.

-Hero, are you there? -Hello? Hero? [laughs]

-Jo? Jo? Is that you?

-[laughs]

I'm ready. We've waited over a year.

A year.

A year. -[Theresa] I'm so excited.

-[club music playing] -[Nicky] Yeah. I'm so excited.

[Louise Lombard] [VO] At 7 p.m., the three friends

settle into their seats.

AFTER WE FELL is about to begin.

[ambient music playing]

[Nicky] It was seriously the best one.

[Theresa] The best one. The best one.

-[Nicky] Absolutely. -[Hannah] Without a doubt.

-I would watch it again right now.

-Yeah. -It's that good.

-In fact, if they're playing it again,

we'll probably go back. For sure.

-We might just go back in there right now.

-It was seriously so good. -Actually, it was so--

it was the best one for sure.

-Uh-- It was seriously worth the wait.

One thousand percent

worth the wait. -Yeah. It was-- it was great.

-Yeah. I cried three times.

Yeah. -[laughs]

-Yeah. I actually only cried once; I'm impressed.

I only did once. -I cried three times.

[Louise Lombard] [VO] There are fans like

Nicky and her friends all over the world.

Fly with us to Dallas, Texas, to meet Nicole Thomas,

a mother of four in her 40s,

who surprised herself when she became totally

obsessed with AFTER.

She stumbled upon the romance by chance,

when a few friends dragged her to the movie.

[Nicole] [VO] So, we walked in the theatre,

and I was dead tired.

And so, the girls just wanted to watch the movie.

I was gonna sleep.

And so-- just take a long nap

because I had worked a lot that week.

And then, instead of that--

I saw that first little bit of them walking into the lake,

and then Tessa going to go to the college

and stuff like that.

When Hardin--

walked in-- when he was laying on the bed,

from then on, like until today, until infinity,

I just became completely obsessed.

[Louise Lombard] [VO] Nicole explains her obsession started

because she identified so deeply with the lead characters.

-My husband, I met him in high school,

and we've, like that's, your heart like,

opens so much and all of your kind of--

you relate to it so much.

And for the way Hardin and Tessa,

their struggles in their relationship

are so real and so things that you've been through

and for it to be, you've got it on screen,

and you're seeing the movie,

like it's one thing in your head

and it's completely different on screen.

For me, like, it means a lot that they could make it,

I think, and it gives you a little bit of hope for that.

It's super relatable, and it gives you kind of that escape.

[peaceful music playing]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] It's an escape

that she takes very seriously.

Since becoming a fan, Nicole has amassed

an impressive collection of AFTER memorabilia.

-I have a couple of things. I have just cups and mugs.

My Hardin mug. Hero's favourite drink

is iced caramel macchiato with extra caramel drizzle,

and it looks gorgeous in this cup. [laughs]

I do have more in my room. I have posters.

This is an actual French poster

that they sent-- that Voltage sent.

And it's just gorgeous. This is my favourite.

This is my favourite one.

This is from my friend Kathy.

She ended up sending me this for Christmas.

So, this was sent to me

from one of my girlfriends, Jessie.

I have so much more.

I have a Harden drawer-- just Harden t-shirts.

My Ramones shirt. This is iconic.

He wears this in the scene for the--

when they have a little disagreement

over Pride and Prejudice . He's wearing this shirt.

-That was exciting.

-No, it was annoying.

-I enjoyed it.

-These are just my candles

one of my girlfriends made for me.

This one's Hardin Scott.

It says, "Smells like haunted past, truth or dare,

stars collide, and whatever our souls are made of,

hers and mine are the same."

[Louise Lombard] [VO] As one of the most active

Afternators on social media, many of Nicole's collectibles

were given to her by other fans.

For her, the book has opened the door to a community.

[audio over speaker]

-Just being part of the fandom,

like all of the people that you get to meet

because of these awesome movies and books,

it just opens yourself to this whole other dynamic of people

who are just like you,

and some of them are not like you at all,

and so you learn from them too, so.

-[audio over speaker]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] Nicole nurtures her friendships

with other fans,

setting up viewing parties to connect with Afternators abroad.

Here she is watching AFTER WE COLLIDED

with friends over Zoom.

-I'm on Wattpad.

We gotta go back to the beginning for now...

[Louise Lombard] [VO] For these fans,

sharing their passion

leads to an even greater appreciation.

-Excuse me, sir, can you hold that elevator, please?

[bangs] Asswipe!

-I love this part with Jo.

-Yes. Call me Asswipe?

-[laughs]

She looks so gorgeous.

Oh, shit.

-He's like, oh, I like seeing

the hands on the mirror. -Aw... [giggles]

[friend 1] Yes, yes.

-The hands on the mirror that--

[ambient music playing]

I cried at this part in the movies.

[friend 2] I did too.

[Richard] Hey... [grunts]

[Tessa] Hardin...

Dad?

-Dad?

[Nicole] Oh, my god.

And then that's it.

And then that's where they're going to pick up,

is having Richard...

[claps] [giggles]

[friend 2] Richard is forced--

[friend 1] Richard!

-[claps] Richard, Richard, Richard.

You guys, it's like it's better every time.

-[friend 2] I know. -[friend 1] I know.

[friend 2] I know.

-I've watched this movie probably

three to four times a week. [laughs]

[friend 2] Yeah. Me, too.

Me, too.

-I love you guys.

-I love you. I love you, too. -[friend 2] I love you.

-[smacks kiss]

-We're just kind of there for each other

in a way that your family are your own friends.

Because, I mean, I have my friends too,

but they're there in a different way

than your family or friends. And so, it's the fandom.

The fandom is amazing.

And it's, yeah, it's incredible.

It's changed my life a lot, given me a little bit of,

you know, more people to bring in, I guess. [laughs]

-[chanting] Josephine! Josephine! Josephine! Josephine!

[Louise Lombard] [VO] AFTER fans have created

a unique online community

that is as passionate as it is supportive.

Josephine and Hero are incredibly grateful

to these fans, who they know are the bedrock of AFTER's success.

[Josephine Langford] [VO] These films are really for the fans.

And uh-- they're a thank-you to the people

who've supported us and-- and been around

and just followed these movies. And-- and--

Not just the films,

but for people who are fans of the books too.

So, I think I would just wanna say to people

who've been with us for this long, thank you.

-Just thank you from the bottom of my heart for--

for helping us, you know,

create a story that has changed so many lives

and ultimately changed mine.

And um-- I will be eternally grateful for--

for the platform and opportunity that they've given me.

[indistinct chatter]

[waves splashing]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] The filmmakers shared

this gratitude,

and they knew that after four movies,

thousands of pages, and countless new friendships,

the fans deserved a satisfying end

to this epic romance.

[man] Okay. Standing by!

[Louise Lombard] [VO] So, here we are on a beach in Portugal,

far from Atlanta or Bulgaria,

on the set of AFTER EVERYTHING,

the final chapter of Tessa and Hardin's story.

[man] Hero, you're going to enter frame.

[Louise Lombard] [VO] Brian Pitt and the film's other producers,

including David Shojai and Taylor Conrod,

are working hard on set

to make sure there are no loose ends.

Getting this story right is their highest priority.

[Brian Pitt] [VO] After the first movie,

they decided to make a second, and a third, and a fourth.

But it was always gonna end on movie 4.

But it also seemed like we left some--

some unanswered questions.

[Louise Lombard] [VO] To answer these questions,

they conceived of AFTER EVERYTHING,

a film that explores a difficult episode of Hardin's past

in order for him to heal,

and for fans to get an even more meaningful conclusion

of Tessa and Hardin's love story.

They began shooting the fifth film

during the summer of 2022.

[technical chatter]

[David Shojai] It was, I think,

an easy decision in that

we get more, you know, we get more of these characters,

more of this story.

And then, it also-- gives us more insight

as far as what-- again, what Hardin has to go through

to really move forward in his relationship with Tessa.

So, we have to go kind of into his past

in order to move forward.

[dance music playing]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] And so, we follow Hardin's search

for redemption to the beaches of Portugal.

-[woman laughing]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] When asked to return for the fifth film,

Hero wanted to make sure

he was staying true to his character.

[Hero Fiennes] [VO] The only reason there was

a slight hesitation was because

I think we'd-- we'd planned to wrap the film

[stutters] --to wrap the whole story.

So, we-- we were with the understanding that--

that we were done.

So, for me, I felt like, are we going to ruin it

by-- by doing too much?

You know, when you draw a picture and it's perfect,

and then you just want to add one more, and one more,

and you step back and you've ruined it?

You've done too much!

But I realized with what the script was,

I read it the first time and I was instantly drawn to it

and felt we really needed to explore

this side of him and this story and I thought it was--

it was-- it was necessary, I think.

I think the fans will understand that it makes a lot of sense

to add this kind of last missing puddle-- puzzle piece.

Nothing matters in this world if Tessa's not here.

[tense music playing]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] The story of AFTER EVERYTHING picks up

where AFTER EVER HAPPY leaves off.

Tessa and Hardin have broken up,

and, without her, Hardin is lost.

In order to heal,

he must leave behind what he has known,

confront his past,

and find his way back to himself.

The work is hard, but he knows he has to do it.

-There's a constant battle within him

to be the best version of himself and to improve.

And I think he's become very co-dependent

because of how important Tessa is to him

and how much she means to him.

He's become quite co-dependent on her

being the reason for his healing.

And I think he is slowly trying

to come to terms with the fact

that he may need to do this on his own, ultimately,

and you're right, it's a very interesting,

different dynamic to explore more of his own inner self

because it's such an important thing,

as we know in life, you can't come into a relationship

with 50 percent and the other person is 50 percent,

you both need to come at 100 percent, and you know...

So yeah, it's very interesting to-- to play that,

and it's actually really nice to-- to explore that

within the character for me.

[Louise Lombard] [VO] Hardin's journey of redemption

takes him far from home and deep into his past.

-Oh. F--

[Natalie] Um--

[Louise Lombard] [VO] He starts by making amends

with a young woman named Natalie.

-[chuckles]

-I'll come back. -[Hardin] Yeah, you do that.

-Fucking look. All right.

All right, I'll bet you this. -[Hardin laughs]

Done.

-But I'll need proof.

[Director] Cut!

[Louise Lombard] [VO] In the past, Natalie fell victim

to the same kind of bet

that started everything with Tessa.

Except this time, a video of her affair with Hardin

was posted online.

The impact on Natalie's life was so significant

that she had no choice but to leave her home.

[Mimi Keene] [VO] The last thing you expect in life

is your family to turn against you

and everyone's opinion to change on you

based on one thing you did that, you know,

should be a private thing, you should be able to do it.

And it shouldn't be a big deal but this one tiny thing

that she's done-- this one mistake--

has turned everything upside down in her life.

So, she has to come here to start again,

and I think that's what she's done.

-[indistinct chatter]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] Hardin goes to find Natalie

in Portugal

but quickly makes an enemy of her friend Sebastian:

a rebel with almost as much attitude as Hardin,

and even more tattoos.

-I'm this, uh-- let's say bad boy but good boy,

that's very protective towards Natalie.

And when-- Hardin comes back in the equation,

I really get very upset about it because I know what Hardin did.

Even if she--

kind of forgive him, I-- I'm not forgiving him.

So, I'm very mad about it.

-You like to fuck with girls, right?

How about I fuck with you?

[grunts]

[Natalie] Both of you, stop!

-[grunts] [spits]

[grunts]

-[girls shouting]

-[Sebastian grunts]

Get up, you little shit!

-[Hardin grunts, coughs]

[Director] And cut!

-[man] Did I get you? -[Hero Fiennes] Yeah, bro.

-[woman] I'm so sorry. -It's okay. No, it's okay.

Making movies, living the dream, guys.

[woman] Sorry. I apologise.

[Benjamin Mascolo] [VO] He's such a great guy.

So, the funny thing is that we-- we would like, you know,

do our moves, play the scene, and at the end of the scene

when it was cut, I was always like, "Are you okay, bro?"

And he's like, "Are you okay?" Like-- it was a lot of love.

But during the scene, a lot of fighting, you know.

[man] It actually looked good.

[Louise Lombard] [VO] Dealing with the consequences

of your actions can certainly be painful--

-[Benjamin] Are you okay? -[Hero Fiennes] Yeah. Yeah.

[Louise Lombard] [VO] --but Hero sees that pain

as important.

[Hero Fiennes] [VO] I think it's a big part of growing up,

isn't it?

Taking responsibility and-- and not shying away from--

from issues and things

that you may have caused and not being a coward towards--

I mean, it takes-- it takes--

it takes a lot to admit that you're wrong and that you've--

you've, you know, made a mistake. And...

And sometimes it's not as easy as saying you're sorry.

Sometimes people don't wanna hear sorry.

Sometimes you need--

people just wanna see that you've become better.

That's the best apology that you can give, is--

is for them to see that you-- that you, you know,

that you really-- you really are sorry to yourself

and you wanna change

and you don't wanna be like that anymore.

That's almost the most meaningful apology you can give.

[Mimi Keene] You were going...

[Louise Lombard] [VO] The AFTER series has never been afraid

to grapple with serious themes,

and AFTER EVERYTHING is no different,

this time addressing a very real problem for today's youth:

online bullying.

As always, the film's approach to this issue

was not taken lightly.

[Mimi Keene] I just hope he's gonna get it...

-Online bullying, addiction,

are real issues that people deal with.

And when you make a movie that is

as influential as AFTER is on the next generation coming up,

I think it's very important to talk about those issues

because those are things that maybe they know someone

or that they're dealing with themselves.

And to have somebody you relate to dealing with that on screen

and seeing how they handle it,

and then also in this movie showing him

come out of that in a positive way

and seeing things turn around in his life

I think is extremely important.

Because not everyone has a good role model in their life

or someone to show them that it's possible to

get out of their current situation.

So, we take our job very seriously

when it comes to that,

knowing the responsibility of influencing people

through cinema.

[Louise Lombard] [VO] But as serious as its themes are,

AFTER EVERYTHING is also a lot of fun.

Its sun-kissed seaside location

provides an interesting counterpoint

to the first four films.

[Brian Pitt] [VO] We were picking a location;

we wanted somewhere that would open the film up.

So, the last few films,

especially shooting in Bulgaria for-- for Seattle and--

and doubling it for the US,

we kept the scope very small, a lot of interiors.

The exteriors weren't quite as big. Uh--

So, what we wanted to do is really open this up

and go for more of a vacation style vibe

and really allow the characters

to get out into, you know, the world,

and this beautiful environment.

And we looked at a few countries,

and somebody had a friend in Portugal.

[laughs]

So, I started looking at some photos and was like,

"Oh my God, this place is amazing. This is perfect."

-It's interesting. I think it's really nice to show them

in a completely different environment,

to show Hardin in a different environment.

And what was actually quite interesting

is showing the transition between what he wears

because we're so used to seeing him in head-to-toe black,

lots of layers, skinny jeans. But out here, obviously,

the costume actually plays a big part in how--

in how that changes.

So, it's actually really nice to--

to bring him to a completely different part of the world

and-- and kind of see how he-- he responds to

that environment. And I mean, yeah.

I-- I couldn't ask for a better place to be "working."

I mean, yesterday we had a scene on the beach

where I'm just working opposite some lovely talented actors

and just having a lovely conversation.

They called for lunch, I swam in the sea,

and after lunch, we're just doing some walking scenes.

And I honestly said to everyone, "This is and probably will be

the best working day of my life forever."

Honestly, yesterday was, yeah--

I'm so lucky to be able to do this job.

But-- I do think back to the days in minus temperatures,

getting in and out of a hot tub in Bulgaria and--

and some other less pleasant filming scenarios.

So, maybe I've earned this, maybe not.

But no-- I'm so-- I'm so grateful.

I'm so lucky. Portugal is beautiful.

I'm so-- I'm so happy that they've allowed us

to come here and shoot the movie.

-[tense music playing]

-You know, I read your book.

So, what happened with Tessa?

[Louise Lombard] [VO] Now that Tessa and Hardin's story

has concluded on the big screen, is AFTER really over?

As true fans know, nothing in this world is

ever simple and decided.

-This is a real universe. We can expand it. We will.

-We are working on some other versions.

There is the-- series BEFORE.

There's the Landon series.

So, we have a few things in the mix.

We have the next generation in the mix,

and that's where we-- we go on the journey with

Tessa and Hardin's kids.

So, there-- there's a lot of little things in the mix

and we're just waiting for the right moment, and right time,

and the right cast, and all the things to come together.

-We feel... it has a long way to go.

-[laughs] It's all right. It's not too bad.

[Louise Lombard] [VO] And so, the AFTERVERSE

may continue to expand,

though the faces in front of the camera will probably change.

Then again...

-Never say never.

Last time I said it was the last one

and we came to do another.

But really, I think eventually I have to step back

and let someone else come and take the story

or a spin-off or something. But I'll always be around.

You know, AFTER will always remain in a--

in a really special place in my heart.

So, I think it will be the last one.

But-- it's always gonna be a part of my life.

[Director] And action!

[ambient music playing]

[Louise Lombard] [VO] AFTER has not only

has changed Hero's life,

it has changed the lives of everyone

who has been part of this adventure,

including the millions of Afternators around the world.

For all of us-- writers, directors, producers,

actors, and fans--

there was life before the AFTER saga, and then,

there was everything AFTER...

-Pretty much, every few months,

I still have a moment of "This is my life?"

The first movie, I feel like the publications of the books

and the first movie just went so fast

that I never really had the chance to soak it in.

But I had no idea what I was getting into.

In the best way.

-It's a big part of my life. [laughs]

It's a very, very big part of my life.

It is, yeah.

One day, you read something and then, next thing you know,

it's taking over. But it's-- it's sad in a way

that it's-- it's close to coming to an end.

But we'll see! I don't know.

-I think from the first day on set of AFTER until now,

I've learned so much just in terms of filmmaking

and the behind-the-scenes process of movies.

So, I'm just really grateful to have had that experience.

-The most beautiful thing for me about playing this character

and making these movies is when I meet people

who say that AFTER has changed their life

and sometimes, they say it's saved their life.

And I honestly feel like setting out to do a romance story,

even though it has these darker aspects,

I never expected people to take such strong motivation

and advice and encouragement to try and, like Hardin does,

be the best version of themselves.

And the amount of fans I've met whose lives have changed

and they tell me their lives have changed because of AFTER,

I would have never expected it

and it's the most beautiful thing.

And I'm-- I'm just-- I'm so proud and honoured

and grateful to be able to-- to ultimately help people.

When you're making a movie,

you think people are just gonna watch this,

and they'll be entertained, and they'll talk about it.

But no, people have lifelong friendships,

people really heal holes within themselves, and honestly,

I'm-- I'm so grateful for the opportunity

to be able to do that and-- and help people.

I never thought when I said, "Yeah, I'll do this audition"

that I'd be helping so many people in this, you know--

It's the most beautiful thing about my job, hands down.

[ambient music playing]

[Tessa] [VO] There are moments in our lives

that seem to define us...

moments we keep going back to.

My life before him was so simple and decided.

And now after him...

there's just...

AFTER.

[♪]

[Tessa] Come on. Get up.

We're gonna be late.

-Cause I--

-[Tessa laughs]

-You haven't had your spinach, have you?

[♪]

[music fades out]