Actress Madeleine Arthur on Reliving High School in 'To All the Boys: Always and Forever'

Marking a beginning rather than an end, the To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before trilogy concludes with Lara Jean (Lana Condor), Peter Kavinsky (Noah Centineo), Christine (Madeleine Arthur), and Gen (Emilija Baranac) navigating senior year of high school and where they’ll end up after graduation. Based on Jenny Han’s book series, the third and final installment, To All the Boys: Always and Forever, has all the classic senior year milestones—a class trip to New York City, going to prom, choosing a college, and that ecstatic moment of throwing your grad cap up in the air.

But amidst all of the excitement, Lara Jean gets rejected from Standford and her plans to attend with Peter fly out the window. As she explores her other options—one which may put her 3,000 miles away from her boyfriend—she turns to the people who have been with her from the start: her family and BFF Christine ("Chris").

Always an eccentric and lively foil to Lara Jean’s soul-searching, Chris has her post-high school sights set on a gap year in Costa Rica. Her independent streak helps give Lara Jean some perspective and it is a quality actress Madeleine Arthur shares with her character. “I think it’s so important to go after what you want,” Arthur tells L’OFFICIEL. Personally, that’s meant exploring a range of roles for the actress, who has appeared on the Snowpiercer TV series as well as starred alongside Nicolas Cage in the horror flick Color Out of Space.

Throughout the three films as Chris, she plays the opinionated and steadfast sidekick who's always at her best friend's side with Ben & Jerry's when needed. For senior year, the audience gets to see Chris grow up a bit more, too. “I think she’s matured and evolved like all the characters have,” Arthur says. “Chris is coming into her own more and more, and choosing to take a gap year and going to Costa Rica is so Chris. It’s exciting to have the opportunity to track her journey from movie one to movie three, from the middle of high school to graduation.”

Some of the biggest moments come during the senior trip to New York City. Lara Jean admits to Peter that she didn’t get accepted to Stanford, and she also discovers that New York University might be the right school for her. Of course, Chris is right beside her when they stumble onto NYU’s Greenwich Village campus. The best friend even gets swept into the city’s intoxicating excitement long enough to move past the grudge she had been holding against Gen, her cousin and the series’ mean girl who ends up being not so bad after all.

Once the students are back in Portland, prom is the next milestone. However, Chris being too cool for school dances, is not about it. “This is so embarrassing,” Chris says as she descends the stairs with Lara Jean to greet their prom dates. Of course, they have nothing to be embarrassed about as both girls are dressed to the nines, and Chris especially transforms her usual boho look into Old Hollywood-inspired glam. Perhaps it was Arthur bringing her own sartorial touch to her character.

“I am a huge fan of the Hollywood glamour feel,” she says. But Chris’ signature style has also grown on the actress. “What I really like about Chris' fashion is how edgy, bohemian, bold, and playful it is. My personal style is classy with a twist, and I try to keep it chic yet playful, so it was really fun as an actor to get to wear these costumes—the band tees, the hats, the platforms. I think Chris' style really evolves throughout the three movies which was really fun to track.”

And while her character is against school functions, Arthur was all for reliving prom. “It was really fun to dip back into high school in general from a different lens,” the actress says. “And also to redo prom with all of the wonderful actors on set. There was so much dancing, which for me was the best part of prom.”