INDIANAPOLIS — Two best friends make a pact at 13 to have the perfect senior prom.
That's the premise of Hulu's coming-of-age comedy film, "Prom Dates."
Watching the 85-minute movie, you would think Tony nominee Julia Lester ("Into the Woods," "High School Musical: The Musical: The Series") and Antonia Gentry ("Ginny & Georgia") have been best friends for ages.
"Antonia is just the most wonderful scene partner," Lester said. "It's so funny being thrown into this really crazy-fast movie-shooting process and being like, 'Oh, we have to portray lifelong best friends and we met two seconds ago.' We hit it off so well."
Director Kim O. Nguyen ("The Other Two," "Never Have I Ever") echoed the praise for the film's co-leads.
"What we loved was not only could they be funny and real, but also heartbreaking and devastating at times, too," Nguyen said. "Their ability to be able to access so many different nuisances was something we both loved."
The best prom for these characters means finding new dates with only 24 hours left until the big event after they both dump their boyfriends, played by Kenny Ridwan ("The Goldbergs") and Jordan Buhat ("grown-ish").
"Greg is obviously a hopeless romantic. He's in love, and he doesn't know how to get out of it," Ridwan said. "Greg has this lovely arc in the movie where he realizes there's many different forms of love."
"Luca is that person in everyone's life who you think back and you're like, 'You know, you don't quite align with my ethics and my moral, and I learned a lot and became a better person because I knew you,'" Buhat said.
This is screenwriter D.J. Mausner's ("Baroness von Sketch Show") first feature film, and she pulled from past experiences to come up with the premise of "Prom Dates."
"I'm very lucky to have two lifelong childhood friends. We met in the fifth grade, and we're friends now," Mausner said. "I know nothing truer than their friendship, so let me write that as the heart of this script."
Lester's character's coming-out journey is an important aspect of the film, and it's refreshing to see the unwavering support from her childhood best friend.
"I thought it was a really great piece that didn't center on queerness, but it just inherently was part of it, a showcase," said Terry Hu ("Never Have I Ever"), who plays Angie.
"Prom Dates" is now streaming on Hulu.