Ciara Bravo isn’t an unknown quantity. If you’re of a certain age you recognize the 23-year-old from her role as Katie on the Nickelodeon series “Big Time Rush.” As she’s grown, however, she’s starred on TV series such as “Red Band Society,” “Wayne” and “Second Chance.” And I, mean, she has almost 750,000 Instagram followers. But once her new drama “Cherry” is released she can expect that follow count and her notoriety to take a massive jump.
Directed by the Russo Brothers, the Apple TV+ acquisition is an adaptation of Nico Walker’s semi-autobiographical novel of the same. It follows Cherry (Tom Holland), from his arrival at a state college to his hasty decision to join the U.S. Army which finds him serving overseas in the early ’00s. He makes that decision because he believes the love of his life, Emily (Bravo), has left him. When she reveals she hasn’t, it’s too late and he’s locked into his military service. Upon his return, he suffers from severe PTSD and descends into opioid drug use dragging Emily along with him.
“Cherry” was an independent production with a formidable budget, but, much to her surprise, Bravo booked the lead role off a self-tape. Meaning, she didn’t have to meet the Russos in person or even audition alongside Holland. Pretty rare for a project of this stature.
“I saw the breakdown and the names attached and I was like, ‘Oh, this is so out of my league. There’s no way I’m getting this project.’ But I fell head over heels in love with the sides. And knew I wanted to put my all into it,” Bravo recalls. “I did a self-tape audition with a friend of mine here in Los Angeles, and I gave it a 110%, really left it all on the table, and then forgot about it, just to protect my own sanity. And I got a call from my agent about four or five weeks later. And he was like, ‘I don’t know if you had some sort of intuition or like what was going on, but you just booked ‘Cherry’ opposite Tom Holland.’ And I was truly left speechless. I thought he had called the wrong number.”
Bravo was allotted two months to prep for what can only be described as a grueling character arc. Because there is so much unnecessary shame surrounding it, Bravo was intent on making sure her depiction of Emily’s battle respected those who fight addiction “in the dark.”
“I was lucky enough that a friend of mine had a family member that worked at a rehab facility in Cleveland, and she was kind enough to open up her doors to me,” Bravo says. “And I got to go in and speak with any outpatients who were comfortable sharing their stories and many of the employees themselves who had been through the program.”
Bravo continues, “And listening to their stories and speaking with them, I was able to discover all of these new details and really layer those into Emily and turn her into more of a three-dimensional person. I mean, things that you just don’t know unless you’ve gone through it yourself, like how you feel when you look in the mirror and different traits that you pick up. The way that you dress, the way that you look at the people in your life, and the way that you speak to them, how you appear at your work, how you maintain a normal life while fighting something like opioid addiction.”
The Russos have shot blockbuster “Avengers” films, comedies such as “You, Me and Dupree” and worked on TV series such as “Arrested Development” and “Community” over their careers. That being said, just by its nature, “Cherry” is a massive creative departure for them. Bravo was impressed by how open they were to hear her ideas and thoughts.
“They are collaborators through and through, and it was nice. They give you so much space when you’re filming. Not in that they don’t come in and give you notes,” Bravo says. “I mean, in the sense of time. It’s very rare to have time when shooting any project, but especially a film like this on a smaller budget. They would call action, and there was a few beats to breathe before the scene really began, and they wouldn’t call cut immediately after the scene would technically end. They would let it just sort of stretch on. And that gave us the freedom to move through these scenes in a far more natural way and find all of these new and interesting beats. And I think because of that, the film has turned into something so much more than I know I ever imagined, I’m sure that any of us could have ever imagined.”
Viewers of “Cherry” might also recognize Bravo from her role on FX’s mini-series “A Teacher” which aired in the fall. The program generated a ton of social media buzz and a passionate fanbase. Based on how it depicts an affair between a high school teacher and her 17-year-old student, Bravo was slightly wary of how people were going to respond to it but knew her own reaction meant there would certainly be interest.
“The fact that I wanted to talk to people after reading the script. I was like, ‘I need to discuss. We need to talk about this,'” Bravo says. “And then on top of that, I have so much love and respect for [writer and director] Hannah Fidell. I think she’s an extraordinary filmmaker, and I’m just really happy that people are finally … not finally. She’s always been recognized for her talent, as she should be. But in this way, it really excites me. It was only a matter of time for her. She’s such a talent.”
“Cherry” will premiere in select theaters on February 26, and on Apple TV+ worldwide on March 12.