Off Campus Interview: Why Ella Bright & Mika Abdalla "Have To Be Together At Home"

Added: 2026-05-14

[00:00:00]Hi Ella, hi Mika. Thank you so much for chatting to me. I've seen the show, it's amazing. I cannot wait for the world to see it. I'm going to jump right into my questions. The show is obviously a romance, but I am obsessed with the relationship between Hannah and Ally.

[00:00:13]Was there a specific moment off screen where you realized you're going to be obsessed with each other? Literally from the beginning. We So, we stayed in the same apartment complex and we literally organized that before we even started filming. We have to be together at all points.

[00:00:27]But I don't remember. I'm sure there was a moment that we were like, "You're pretty cool." Yeah. I mean, the chemistry reads literally the second we met each other. But yeah, no, I love Yeah, I'm so glad you said that cuz the friendship of this show is like definitely my favorite aspect.

[00:00:41]>> Yeah, it's and it was like my favorite thing to film, too.

[00:00:43]>> Yeah, so fun. Absolutely. Aw, I love that. This season we obviously have a fake dating trope between Garrett and Hannah. What is your personal favorite book trope? Is it enemies to lovers, friends to lovers, forced proximity?

[00:00:56]I've always loved enemies to lovers. I was about to say the same thing.

[00:00:59]>> Yeah. The drama. I love it.

[00:01:02]And what scene are you both most excited for fans to see that you think they're going to absolutely froth over? Oh my god. I mean, for I think all of our scenes are a lot of fun, but the one that we're always like mean the most to me is the one in episode eight. I don't know if I can say much, but yeah, it's like so gorgeous and sweet and their friendship is so beautiful. I love I love that scene.

[00:01:21]>> Yeah, oh my god, it like gives me the chills thinking about it. So, it's so sweet.

[00:01:24]>> Mhm. So, I've watched the show and I can confirm that Ella, your chemistry with Belmont is so electric. Can you talk to me a little bit about how you built that chemistry off screen?

[00:01:34]>> Yeah, I mean, it We were so lucky cuz I think cuz it is such a also an ensemble base cast, it was so rare to have literally every person be really cool and just honestly just a joy to hang out with. And it was kind of immediate. I mean, for Bella and I, like we met at the chemistry reads as well. Everyone kind of met on that day and it was kind of immediately you you feel that energy that these were First of all, everyone was so awesome in their roles and just awesome people. So like we didn't spend one day during that whole filming process that at least one of us weren't together. And like it it was just a great like it just such an honor to be able to have so much fun doing work.

[00:02:11]Like that's so rare.

[00:02:12]So Mika, the fans are already losing their minds over the short snippets of Ally and Dean in the trailer. They're making fan edits, they're theorizing that we're setting up for you two to be the leads of season two. What can you tell me about your chemistry with Steven? My chemistry with Steven was really like so he was not in the in person chemistry that we all did. So we didn't get it to meet him until later and our chemistry was over Zoom which is already super hard but especially when you're trying to cast, you know, the Dean to an Ally.

[00:02:46]Their relationship is so physical and so not being able to do that in person was difficult but he nailed it. He's like the perfect Dean.

[00:02:56]Um meeting him in person for the first time he's the best, he's so sweet, he's so funny and yeah, we also we honestly just have very similar styles of like acting. Like we're both insecure in the same ways and we're both confident in the same ways and so we could kind of like help each other you know when we needed cuz we really understood each other a lot creatively. So it was great. I'm so happy. Yeah, that's so interesting. Now I'm obviously not going to ask you who's season is next because you guys aren't going to be able to tell me but do you know who's next? Have you been told? Do we know? We don't know. We haven't To be fair, we we haven't read the scripts. So I mean scripts.

[00:03:35]>> Scripts. We don't know about anything. I don't know the details of anything.

[00:03:39]>> No, no one tells us anything. Okay. So other than your own characters, who was your favorite character while reading the books and why? Oh, well I I yeah, Ally I'll have to say Ally. Not just cuz Mika's here but like it is obviously it's such a fun and entertaining character to both read and then Mika's portrayal is just insane.

[00:03:57]And like it's so much fun. I love that character. And Charlene, credit to our costume designer, the greatest outfits you have ever seen. Crushed it. Made her dress me every single >> Every day. And I love Sienna. Hey. I love Sienna and Alice is the perfect Sienna. I saw her and I was like, you are perfect.

[00:04:17]So For saying each other. For each other.

[00:04:20]>> [laughter] >> Hello, the book series is obviously huge on TikTok and fans are so excited for this adaptation. Can you talk to me a little bit about leading this season and being the first to do it? And for you, Mika, what it will be like stepping into this role hopefully for a future season?

[00:04:35]I I mean it is it's so cool to have this already kind of base of people excited and invested in this story that we're telling. It's it's so rare that we get to do that and have this like amazing source material that of Elle Kennedy's amazing books that we got to read and pull from. And I think our show does a a really good job at at making it our own as well as keeping that same heart that the books have created and what have people have fallen in love with. And yeah, I mean it it never really felt too much pressure. It was just really just exciting and it's such a great privilege to kind of kickstart everything. But as I said, like it is such an ensemble led cast that everyone gets a moment to shine in their own ways and I I just can't wait to watch everybody's like love story unfold. I'm such a big fan of the books and and the show itself. So I yeah, I can't wait for whatever whatever season is to come next. I am I will be watching and hopefully yeah, have a great time filming as well.

[00:05:30]Yeah, I think it's there's a there's like, you know, certainly pressure to to meet the fans' expectations, but also the fans have been so great and sweet.

[00:05:39]And I think there were it was a little nerve-wracking like pre-casting announcement, pre-production, and like before we got up there and really started working, but I mean like for me personally my entire TikTok became like Off Campus fans and so that was also really nice, you know, like while we're shooting to just like uh get reminded of what the people want and um yeah. Well, that's all my time. Thank you so much for chatting to me. I love the show and I'm so excited for people to see it.

[00:06:06]>> Thank you so much.