With award shows being held via Zoom and WFH attire replacing the usual red carpet dress code (unless you’re Zendaya, wearing Armani in the comfort of your own lounge room), Hollywood looks very different right now. And for Josephine Langford—the Australian star of the After franchise—that has meant a momentary break from strutting a red carpet and posing for photographers, a ritual she admits she usually finds uncomfortable.
“I think I really struggle with self-promotion, it makes me feel uncomfortable and narcissistic. And it’s something that I’m not, at this moment, good at,” Langford said, speaking to Vogue from Los Angeles. “And also, no one tells you how bright it is (on a red carpet), you squint your eyes, they’ll save that photo and it goes out … it’s a whole art. It has really made me respect modeling, it’s a skill.”
Although Perth-raised Langford, 23, who has reprized her role as Tessa Young in After We Collided (the sequel to 2019’s After), says there is one aspect of the Hollywood machine that she does miss in the midst of quarantine restrictions. “I miss the interaction that we got to have with the fans of this story. I don’t miss the actual red carpet.”
The first movie in the After series made nearly $US70 million at the box office last year, prompting the sequel After We Collided. And Langford and her “Hessa” cohort Hero Fiennes Tiffin (aka Hardin Scott) recently announced that two more movies will follow in the franchise: a third film, After We Fell, as well as a fourth, After Ever Happy. (In a recent video posted on Instagram, Langford and Fiennes Tiffin said they were “excited” to officially reveal a “third and fourth movies are officially going into production”).
“In the first film, when we left off, she (Tessa) had just been through her first experience with love and heartbreak (with Hardin),” Langford says, of where viewers find Tessa in After We Collided. “And now, she has come out of her bubble a bit and she’s more in touch with the reality of the world, and she is transitioning into adulthood. She’s starting an internship and she’s trying to move on with her life. Teenage to whatever that’s called (afterwards).”
And with that has come a more grown-up wardrobe: the pastel tees and floral, cap-sleeved blouses have been replaced with a plunging scarlet dress and Victoria’s Secret underwear, as worn in one notable scene. “In the first film, there was this vision to have Tessa in pinks and pastels and for a lot of it to reflect her growth over the course of the movies and change her style,” Langford says. “With this one, we’ve grown out of the pastels and the pinks, I feel like I am saying that wrong? Pastels,” she says with a laugh, repeating the words. “So in this film, her style is more mature – she has grown up and come into her own and we wanted to reflect that (in her outfits).”
Of his bad boy attire, part-time runway model Fiennes Tiffin chimes in: “Hardin likes to wear boots that are black, socks that are black, jeans that are black”.
“Boxers that are really dark, they are basically black,” he deadpans. “Black leather jacket. I am always down to put in any shred of color, even if that color is white as opposed to black. But it is so fitting for him. Everything is black. Very tight-fitted trousers.”
The After franchise’s dedicated fan base has propelled Langford to role model status, though she insists it’s a label more fitting to her on-screen alter ego. “I think there’s a big difference, a very, very big difference, between a character being a role model and me, the actor. I do not think I am,” Langford says.
“I think that she is a good role model, in the sense that she has taught a lot of people about self-worth and the value of self-worth and confidence. And even if you have everyone around you, and this is more pertinent in the first movie, if everyone around you is going, ‘you are so annoying! You are so uptight! Why aren’t you drinking?’ It doesn’t matter—it’s so important to be who you are, and that’s a really long journey, learning to love yourself.”
Still, it’s clear that fame does not necessarily sit easily with Langford, the younger sister of 13 Reasons Why star Katherine Langford. The pop culture juggernaut that is the After movie series—based on Anna Todd’s bestselling young adult books (that started as One Direction fan fiction inspired by Harry Styles aka “Hardin Scott”)—has prompted Twilight-esque fandom on social media.
“For me it’s still a difficult concept to grasp – that there’s people out there who are so supportive of you and your work, which is so nice,” Langford says. “It’s something I am struggling to wrap my head around. I just think it’s so wonderful in so many ways.”
