Behind-the-scenes fun! Kendrick Sampson revealed how he and his Something From Tiffany’s costar Shay Mitchell bonded on set.
“[With] Shay, it was always about food. We are big foodies,” the Vampire Diaries alum, 34, exclusively told Us Weekly while promoting the Prime Video film last month. “Anywhere the food is, we’re looking at restaurants around, we’re like, ‘What can we order for snacks?’”
The Texas native continued: “At one point, I think Shay told me about this Jamaican restaurant around the corner. And I was like, ‘All right, well, it’s time for patties.’ So, we got patties for everybody.”
Sampson said that his dynamic with all of his scene partners — including Zoey Deutch and Leah Jeffries, who play his love interest and daughter, respectively — was playful.
“It was party time. It was fun times, it was laughing, it was a lot of gut-busting, a lot of cheeks hurting and a lot of good food eating,” he shared, adding that he had “so much fun with Zoey.”
In the romantic comedy, which premieres on Friday, December 9, Sampson’s character, Ethan, buys a Tiffany’s engagement ring for his girlfriend, Vanessa (Mitchell), but soon discovers that he left the store with the wrong box. Meanwhile, Gary (Ray Nicholson) thinks he’s giving his girlfriend Rachel (Deutch) a pair of earrings, only to accidentally give her the diamond band.
Sampson told Us that the film asks its viewers to consider “all those questions that people will start to think about during cuddle season, including “How do you find the person that you’re meant to be with?” and “Are you [really] meant to be with them?”
In terms of preparing for his role, the Insecure actor shared that he likes to think of every character he plays in terms of their zodiac sign — and he has Ethan pegged as a libra.
“[Libras] can be people pleasers to the point of wanting to please people so bad that they’ll sometimes bend the truth or sacrifice certain things to make sure that people are happy and that there’s no conflict,” he explained. “And that’s kind of how Ethan is. Ethan runs around trying to please everybody and then he learns that that’s not the healthiest way to be.”
Reese Witherspoon served as a co-executive producer for the film along with Sampson’s costar, 28-year-old Deutch.
“She’s amazing,” the Before I Fall actress said of Witherspoon, 46, while promoting Something From Tiffany’s during a Thursday, December 1, appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live. “About four years ago, she tweeted that she saw a movie I did called Set It Up and she loved it and wondered why there weren’t more great, feel-good romantic movies. And a couple years later, here we are.”
Sampson previously said that he and the Not Okay star nailed their first chemistry test for the movie, forming a connection right off the bat.
“There was no need for an icebreaker which was great,” he told CineMovie on Tuesday, December 6. “We had chemistry on Zoom … and we didn’t have to try.”
With reporting by Leanne Stanton.
Something From Tiffany’s premieres on Prime Video on Friday, December 9.
