Why Noah wishes to ‘move beyond just being a heartthrob’

Noah Centineo

Noah Centineo is appreciative of his success as Netflix’s “heartthrob of the moment.” His body of work on the streaming network speaks for itself: “The Perfect Date,” “Swiped,” “Sierra Burgess is a Loser,” “SPF-18,” “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” and its eagerly anticipated sequel “To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You.”

If you still haven’t had your fill of Noah’s swoon-worthy charm, there’s more to come when “To All the Boys: Always and Forever, Lara Jean,” the third part of the series he finished shooting recently, is released.

After the distraction provided by Josh Sanderson (Israel Broussard) and John Ambrose McClaren (Jordan Fisher), will Kenny from summer camp and Lucas from Homecoming—the two other recipients of Lara Jean Covey’s (Lana Condor) supposedly hidden love letters to five of her former crushes—also be making their presence felt?

Will they also get in the way of LJ’s “happily ever after” with Peter Kavinsky (Noah) in the third and final installment of the rom-com franchise? That we’ll have to wait and see.

Lana Condor and Centineo

Meanwhile, Noah will soon be seen as He-Man in Aaron and Adam Nee’s big-screen adaptation of “Masters of the Universe,” scheduled for release in March next year.

It isn’t hard to see the reason behind his reliability as a matinee idol who makes girls’ hearts skip a beat—he makes the dreamy guys he portrays accessible and relatable to his target audience. But doesn’t Noah’s reputation as Netflix’s No. 1 heartthrob hinder his versatility and growth as an actor?

“You mean being typecast as a heartthrob? Yeah, absolutely,” he told us when we spoke to him and Lana during our recent two-on-one interview. “You know, the roles that I’ve worked on over the last five years have been pretty similar to each other.

“The farthest from any of those has been that of (ADHD-afflicted son) Jesus Foster in Freeform’s family drama series, ‘The Fosters.’ This is particularly true about Jesus’ story arc in the show’s last season (Season 5), where I have traumatic brain injury.

“To be honest, the writing really does a lot of the work for you—and I look forward to playing other characters that are written in a certain way so that I can stretch and move beyond just being a heartthrob.

“Like I said, it’s a lot about the projects that are on your plate—you say no to the wrong ones and fight for the right ones.”