Have you seen Upgraded on Amazon Prime yet? It’s one of the latest romantic comedies to arrive on streaming, and just in time for your Valentine’s Day viewing, no less. The movie not only stars Riverdale cast member Camila Mendes, Upgraded also serves as the actress’ first producing credit, and it sounds like her input made all the difference to her and Archie Renaux’s palpable chemistry.
When CinemaBlend spoke to Camila Mendes about Upgraded, which is now streaming with an Amazon Prime subscription, the actress shared the effect she particularly had on the new rom-com as a producer. In her words:
Yeah, a lot changed. The structure always stayed the same, but the dialogue changed a lot, mainly just because we were trying to give it sort of a younger voice and make the comedy feel more modern. And, I think there's such a nuance to how people flirt these days and a lot of it has to do with teasing and kind of like poking fun at each other. I really wanted to make sure that the flirty banter was feeling really authentic and specific to me and Archie's dynamic.
In the new release, Camila Mendes plays Ana Santos, an intern in the art world who gets upgraded to first-class on a flight from New York City to London for a work trip. While in the fancy airport lounge on her way to the spaced out seating experience at the front of the plane, she has a meet-cute with Archie Renaux’s William and they hit it off. During their early conversations, she says a white lie that she’s really the director of her company rather than the lowly intern that she is, which obviously spirals as the movie progresses.
As Mendes told us during our interview, as a producer on Upgraded, she paid a lot of attention to the banter between Ana and William to make sure the pair’s chemistry was believable to modern audiences and felt true to her and Renaux’s own dynamic. As someone who throughly enjoyed the movie, I can see how her involvement behind the scenes elevated the film and made all the difference to it feeling genuine.
Also during the interview, Mendes shared that the movie allowed her to draw from her own past experience as an intern where she gave a “white lie” of her own. Camila Mendes also expanded on what she has learned from her first producing project, saying this:
I mean this whole experience was like a series of firsts for me. It was like my first time being an on-set producer, my first time being involved in an editing process for a movie. I really got to see behind the scenes in a whole new way. And, I'm very grateful to Bill and Mike from Gulfstream, two of our producers. They gave us so much creative freedom too. They really valued our opinions and I don't think we were expecting to be valued that much, especially as like first time executive producers, so that was a beautiful surprise. And, what I realized along with my best friend and producing partner, Rachel Matthews, is that we thrived in chaos. Like anytime things were going wrong, she and I were so excited by the idea of problem solving and finding ways around the problem. And, that was a really empowering feeling to know that like, even when things are going wrong, we're gonna find a way and we trust that we will find a way.
Here’s too many more producing experiences for Camila Mendes! Following Upgraded, the actress is set to star in another movie for Amazon Prime, called Música, which has been in the works since 2022, per Deadline. It’s another romantic comedy that will allow Mendes to connect with her Brazilian roots. The movie hits the streaming service this April 4. Until then you can check out Upgraded now and look at what other great movies are on Amazon Prime right now.
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