The breakout star tells PEOPLE how that “special” moment for Ellis and Annie came to be on the day and reacts to the “insane” fan response to the scene
Credit: Prime Video
NEED TO KNOW
- Sterling Point star Jacob Whiteduck-Lavoie breaks down the viral first kiss scene his character, Ellis, has with Annie (Ella Rubin) in the hit series
- He tells PEOPLE they knew the moment “had to be special” as he shares how the scene came together on the day — and that “everyone was freaking out behind the screen”
- Sterling Point is now streaming on Prime Video
Jacob Whiteduck-Lavoie didn’t know that his first onscreen kiss in Sterling Point would become such a moment.
The long-awaited kiss between Ellis (Whiteduck-Lavoie) and Annie (Ella Rubin) comes in the penultimate episode of Megan Park’s new hit series, after Annie initially sparks a romance with her old classmate, Rory (Daniel Quinn-Toye). The scene has quickly taken over social media, with one fan even dubbing it the “perfect first kiss.”
The Quebec native, 23, knew that it was going to be a big moment, given that it was “my first kiss of the show,” but he tells PEOPLE, “I don’t think I realized in the moment how big it was going to be.”
“It was a pretty special day, and it was obviously really fun. It was fun to shoot with Ella,” he says of his costar, 24, who leads the series as a 17-year-old New Yorker whose world is turned upside down when she learns the grandfather she never knew named her — and her twin brother (Keen Ruffalo) — as heirs to the Canadian island of Sterling Point. “I mean, every scene with Ella was really fun.”
Whiteduck-Lavoie does want to clear some things up about the viral scene, though. “I’m seeing some false rumors online saying that it was improv. It wasn’t improv. I didn’t just pull out that move. That’s insane.”
Credit: Prime Video
“It was very well choreographed by Megan and our [director of photography] when we got on set,” he says, referring to Ellis pulling Annie across the floor and into his arms in the closet.
Originally, the scene wasn’t going to take place in a closet at all. “It was in the cottage, but somewhere else initially. And then it was Ella and Megan’s idea to have it happen in the closet. So when we got on set, our DP [Kristen Correll, or] KII, and Megan were like, ‘Okay, we have to find a way to make it feel special because it’s Ellis and Annie’s kiss. It has to be big. It has to be special.’”
“We were trying a bunch of stuff and it just wasn’t working,” he recalls. Kristen Correll, or “KII” as Whiteduck-Lavoie calls her, was the one to come up with the idea of Ellis pulling Annie into him. “She was like, ‘Okay, watch this. What if you guys are sitting in front of each other and you just…’ And then she grabs Megan and pulls her in, and everyone was like, ‘Oh, wait, that’s good. That’s good.’ And then we ran with that.”
“I remember the reactions on set of the whole hair and makeup department. Everyone was freaking out behind the screen. They were like, ‘Oh my God, this is so good.’ It was a pretty special day, and it was obviously really fun.”
Credit: Prime Video
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
How an audience would interpret the moment was the furthest thing from Whiteduck-Lavoie’s mind that day on set. “I wasn’t thinking ahead of the reactions or stuff like that. I was just like, ‘Yeah, I guess it worked out good.’ I didn’t really think much of it.”
“Seeing everything online 1787271834, I’m like, ‘Holy s—. This is insane,’ ” he says — and that’s true of not only the kiss scene. “I don’t know what I was expecting, but the love is just insane. I have no words. It’s so crazy,” he says. “I’m still pinching myself every morning. It’s wild.”
Sterling Point is now streaming on Prime Video.
Read the full article here
