To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You Author Jenny Han Knows The Secret To A Perfect Love Triangle

Jenny Han wants you to feel conflicted over John Ambrose McClaren, the sweet Hufflepuff who perhaps makes up just a little bit also much space in Lara Jean's brain in To all of the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You. After all, fans of the successful Netflix franchise have already fallen head over heels for Peter Kavinsky, the lovable jock who won over Lara Jean's heart in 2018's To all of the Gentlemen I've Loved Before. Yet John Ambrose is kind and patient and gentle; he's real friends-to-lovers material.


For Han, if you're shipping Lara Jean and John Ambrose, then she's doing something right.


In this conversation with MTV News, the bestselling young adult author reflects on the success To all of the Males I've Loved Before, the meteoric rise of its young cast, writing compelling love triangles, and why she fell in love with John Ambrose, too.


MTV News: To all of the Gentlemen I've Loved Before became a phenomenon. Each person watched it. My mom loved it. Did you ever anticipate just how several people would fall in love with these characters? 


Jenny Han: I went into it thinking that I just wanted the fans of the books to be happy with it. And then I felt like whichever additional came of that would just be the cherry on top of the complete experience. So no, I think I thought that young people were really going to love it. What was the ideal surprise was how it was so widely embraced by so several different kinds of people — companions of mine who watched it, who really loved it, that was meaningful to me. My agent's daughter was eight at the time, [and] it was her preference movie. And then companions in their forties were like, "I love this movie." So that's been really special.


MTV News: Did the fervor around the initial film change how you approached the sequel? Or was that already locked in and in the works by time the initial one premiered?


Han: It wasn't, no. And the excellent thing is since I had written three books, we already had a real roadmap of where we going with the rest of the story. So that was sort of set. The approach was just wanting to prepare all of the fans happy. I remember saying to the producers, I mentioned, "My dream for this could be a Terminator 2 kind of situation." Terminator 2 is one of my main go to movies — where the sequel is even better than the initial one. The dream was to elevate the full thing.


MTV News: It's a little self-aware of the initial film's success as well.


Han: I think the mistake that sequels make that I've seen, as someone who loves a sequel, is once you try and go for the exact same beats and just make it a little bigger. And I think the perfect way is to prepare something fresh. You still give them what they loved about the opening thing, although it should feel fresh and new and not like you're attempting to redesign the first.


MTV News: Has the success of this franchise on Netflix opened you up to more opportunities?


Han: For sure. I've gotten to do so several interesting things. One of the things was reported. Shonda Rhimes has a TV show called Notes on Love, and it's going to be an anthology of love stories. And thus she asked me do one, and that's something that came my way that was so exhilarating to me. I cried. I was so excited because I'm such a fan of Shonda Rhimes and what she's built. And [I'm a fan of] storytelling overall, and film is just another way to do that.


MTV News: Shonda has Shondaland. Is that what you visualize for yourself? Is that what you want?


Han: I have no idea! Writing novels is routinely going to be a residence base for me because it's so different. With novels, it's just you and the page. Later on it becomes more collaborative with your editor and then figuring out a cover and marketing and all that stuff. However really as soon as the storytelling is happening it's just you. And then building a film is very collaborative. And the exhilarating piece of that is in the event you find astonishing people to work with then they're bringing all their talents, and it's like best idea wins, right? If you're stuck on something, you could just ask somebody else, "What do you know about this?" I love being on a team, so that aspect is really enticing to me.


MTV News: What was it like watching your two young leads, Lana [Condor] and Noah [Centineo], have this exponential rise at the same time because the film? I know you and Lana, in particular, were very close and spoke a lot in the production of the initial film.


Han: It was so overwhelming and I was more protective, where I'm like, "I just want you guys to feel OK." Going from overnight to having millions of followers — people who are watching your every move on social media and all these really excellent fans — it's all good, nevertheless it's also can be a lot, even for a young person. I think it's a lot especially for me, you know what I mean? So I just wanted to prepare ensure that each person felt safe and still solid.


MTV News: Solid enough to come back and make another one? 


Han: Yeah, and people were happy. Everybody was so happy to come back inside the next film, which was the perfect segment of it. I remember Noah was like, "It's like coming back to summer camp." And people were all with each other again, and I think there's something nice about having that time apart from the rest of the world in a way because whenever you're working on a movie set, which I didn't realize up until I was so deep into it, was I was talking to companions back house and I'm like, "Oh my gosh, my whole world is just right here, on this set." It's the bubble, and it's really nice to be in the bubble with such fantastic people.


MTV News: And there's several new cast additions in this film. 


Han: Having Jordan [Fisher] and Ross [Butler], Sarayu [Blue], and Holland [Taylor] — those are our new cast members — each of those brought so much to not just the movie although just the entire vibe. Jordan is an organizer, you know what I mean? So he'd organize game night, or they were doing a lot of movie nights, and I love to be able to see all of the bonding going on. And Ross is the same way. His energy was routinely good on set. I was just laughing all of the time. Everybody rocked so much. I just could not feel more lucky that people agreed to come and be in this movie.


MTV News: Casting of John Ambrose McClaren — certainly, this is a critical role. He's the second male lead and the third piece of this love triangle that you've created. What was crucial for you that this actor bring to the role that Jordan brought?


Han: His warmth. So much of that character is in the way that she looks at him and the way that she thinks about him. It's almost like he is a dream that came to life. He is a memory that she holds dear in her heart, who then comes back inside the picture and it's like, does that person live up to how you considered them to be? And he's also a little shy, nevertheless he's confident. He also likes to read. Although then he also is sporty, and he has a mobile. Social networks. He's all these things. So I think that they really just connect together on a different level. It's a different frequency than she has with Peter, which is just like real life, right? Where you have different people that you connect with in different ways that give you different things. And I really think with Jordan and Lana that connection was apparent immediately.


MTV News: I love their chemistry. They're both pretty and shy. 


Han: Yeah, it's just two pretty puppies.


MTV News: The key to a good love triangle is you want people to root for them. You need people to ship Lara Jean and John Ambrose. 


Han: Absolutely. I want to break your heart. I want you to be so torn as I am any time I'm writing that love triangle. I'm routinely so torn.


MTV News: and you also went back and forth as you were writing? 


Han: Routinely. And the thing is, the full reason I wrote P.S. I Still Love You is due to the letter to Johnny Ambrose McLaren. It was the initial letter that I wrote all of the letters. To me, that was a really critical one that I wanted to give its due. And thus then I called my editor and I mentioned, "I think I need to do another one because I don't wish to just jam him into this one. I think that it's a really key relationship." So I really wanted the focus to be on him in the next book. I was just beginning to write To all of Boys, the opening one, and I was already thinking of these two stories. It's like two halves of a heart.


MTV News: Were you torn while writing it? 


Han: That is proper. I've written a couple of love triangles, and there's habitually a point where I'm really torn and waffling also because I have to fall in love with him just as much as I'm writing it.


MTV News: I know you famously never write with an outline, so are you really just categorizing going through your feelings as you go? 


Han: There have been times as soon as I've called up my best friend, who's also a writer, and I mentioned, "Do I, do I... I don't know. I don't know." I'm beginning to really waver and she's like, "You know what you hope to do. You've had this in your mind." Because although I don't outline, I typically have an idea of what the ending looks like. She's like, "Stay focused." But I do think categorize in attempt to really write it in a way that other people feel just as torn, I have to get to that place as well. I habitually think of it as method writing where I'm like, "Let me just feel the feelings."


MTV News: Yet you habitually knew that this was going to end with Lara Jean and Peter? 


Han: I still think that the story is never over in a way. Do you suggest what I mean? People come in and out of your life, and thus much of it is proximity and timing, that I couldn't mention. I guess you can mention I'm never an endgame sort of person. Because I think your mind can really be changed, and I think time can change you, and circumstances change also. So, who knows?


MTV News: For a lot of young people, Lara Jean and Peter are right now a reference point. What was a formative fictional couple for you? 


Han: You've got your classics. Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy. That's certainly OTP [one true pairing] for sure. I do love to watch different adaptations of that — Bridget Jones's Diary is one of my main go to romantic comedies. And what I love about that love triangle is you do really waiver between those two guys.


MTV News: the opening film was about Lara Jean and Peter falling in love, nevertheless it was also a film about family member and sisterhood. And in this sequel, what I really loved is that you have this really good story line for Gen and Lara Jean. Jen is a character who gets a lot more to do in this film. What was the significance of that for you?


Han: I love that. I really love that story line. It was really critical to me to keep that. Oftentimes, any time as soon as you are looking at your life, you're seeing it from just your own perspective. You can would be the villain or the hero of the story depending on perspective. Lara Jean is the hero of her story, right? But then that doesn't mean that she is a hero in someone else's story. And Genevieve might be the villain in hers, although she's also her own hero. So how does she feel about what went down? I look at that connection between her and Peter as one these sort of foundational first love kind of things. Because they were each other's first loves for so several years. And both of those have come from families that are going through things thus and they connect together on that level. He's habitually been the person that she calls what she needs something, and he comes running because she does the same for him. So looking at that relationship and then looking at Lara Jean and John Ambrose McLaren, they connect on a different level. I was happy that the story could continue and also you can visualize things from her point of view. Because I never like to feel anything so black and white in terms of who's a good guy and who's a bad guy.


MTV News: I really loved the scene between Lara Jean and Gen in the treehouse. 


Han: It makes me cry every time. I tear up. To me, so much of that book is about memory and childhood and saying goodbye to childhood. And the treehouse symbolizes all of that. And honoring those old friendships that maybe they don't fit in your life in the same way anymore, yet that doesn't mean that they weren't essential to you at that time.


MTV News: This film made time for Lara Jean's friendships, both past and present. And that felt really key. It's not just a story about her figuring out which boy she wants to date. 


Han: It's about her just figuring out what she wants and sort of growing into herself a little bit more and letting her world just get a little bigger with each step. Having Stormy and then Trina, who enters the story, her world just keeps getting bigger. And she, in several ways before this point, has had categorize kind of a smaller life and she admired it that way. And she still is who she is. She's still an introvert. She still likes to be at house with her family member. However first herself up to all these different possibilities makes her world just a little bigger.


MTV News: She's so endearing. It's not a character we visualize a lot of on our screens. 


Han: She's just really open-hearted. And I think she is a warm-hearted person. And because of that, the movie, I hope, feels warm-hearted. And I also really feel like the fans are really warm-hearted. It goes from top to bottom. The people who love this story are just good-hearted people.


MTV News: Nevertheless don't you think it begins with you then? Would you call yourself warm-hearted? An optimist and hopeless romantic? 


Han: I'm a romantic. I'm optimistic. I'm a pretty cheerful person. I think a lot of me is in this story. I felt really lucky that since the starting any time Whenever I first wrote these books, readers would come to my events and be dressed up like Lara Jean and would bring me fried goods. That hasn't changed. I'm happy the books have inspired that sort of warmth.