The reason why Grace Van Patten initially claimed that she didn’t like Jackson White when they first met

First Impressions Weren’t Love at First Sight

Grace Van Patten is quite candid about the first meeting she had with Jackson White. During a Zoom acting session for the Hulu series, Tell Me Lies, the co-stars’ first encounter was far from being instant sparks, the Tell Me Lies star shared.
“I didn’t like Jackson,” Grace confessed on the Oct. 1 episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast with Alex Cooper. “We talk about this all the time. I had done a lot of Zoom chemistry reads because it was still Covid.”

An Awkward First Read

After he Virtual Van Patten was taken several times through performance tests with different candidates for the part of Lucy when she was 28 years old and had just got the lead role.
“I remember that she said Jackson was the favorite,” she said. “So, I am happy for his moment. He goes on, and—I have told him this before—I am like, ‘Oh, this is just like a serious actor, like,actor-y actor.’ So, I was just like, ‘Ugh, God.’ But he was so good.”

From Awkward to Electric

“At first, I was just like, ‘Yeah, it’s good – maybe we won’t get on, but he is the right one for the part,’” said Grace Caroline Currey, the Nine Perfect Strangers alum. “Also, he is so talented and nice.” She explained that her POV changed after their in-person meeting for the next round of auditions. “She went on to say, ‘The vibe was totally different.’” “Just before the Zoom, he told me that he was really nervous for the whole thing.”
Soon, their off-camera rapport was blossoming. “I was so into the mood of the play and being so thrilled about it and like discovering the guy,” Grace said. “My mind was very Tell Me Lies and I kept thinking about him.”

From Co-Stars to Something More

Grace was initially unsure if her feelings for Jackson White were simply the excitement of a new project or something more. However, during a low-key evening with friends in common, everything was perfectly clear.
She told, “We had dinner with people we both know. We connected right away. That evening was the moment when we were both like, ‘We are in love with each other.’ This is probably the worst thing that could happen. We were sitting on the step for I think six hours and went through all the reasons not to do it. And then I kissed him.”
Their off- and on-screen chemistry has only become stronger since then. For Grace, it has been very nice to work with Jackson in Tell Me Lies. As the Amanda Knox Twisted Tale actress expressed, “The best part of the job is to work with him.”