![]() My mom, a single parent who, at the time, was very low-income said I had to go to a better school. High school Darren was a kid from across town, known for a really bad school that had a gang riot the first day it opened. High school was a little while back for you. Being Team Devi – she doesn’t need a guy to define her or make her better or fulfill her. Paxton’s always turned a blind eye to her and thinks he’s better than her and cooler than her, so there’s something there where maybe Paxton doesn’t deserve her. Ben has been so awful to her the entire time and, at the end, he still has a girlfriend. I love that because there are so many arguments for both but at the end of the day, I think Devi could get whoever she wanted. Maitreyi told us that she wasn’t Team Paxton or Team Ben, but Team Devi. And it’s something he tries to deny until he can’t anymore. I think that really catches his interest, and he doesn’t understand why. The fact that she can pull herself up by her bootstraps and just go for it is probably one of the sexiest things Paxton has ever seen. How she’s willing to go for whatever she wants to go for is a turn-on for him. In a way, she does have a facade but is also just very comfortable with being herself. I think, at face value, it’s someone he’d never thought he’d go for. Why do you think he has feelings for Devi? And the fact that people are taking it so well, I would love to incorporate it as much as possible now. It’s so nice to see the response of people knowing my ethnicity because I am so proud of it. I think he might look even look a little more Caucasian than I do, so I’m sure he’s struggled with that, too, like, “You’re a white guy.” “No, I’m actually part Asian.” I’d love to chat about that with him. Because in real life, he’s part Asian, isn’t he? He is. I was watching “Hollywood” the other day, and I had no idea that he is, in the show, an Asian American that’s passing. I’ve been compared to him a lot by casting directors I’ve met and some of my agents, like, “I see a bit of a Darren Criss vibe in you, maybe with a bit of an edge.” I’ve always really respected Darren Criss’s work. Both of you are on shows on Netflix right now (Criss stars in “Hollywood”), where your heritages are organically incorporated into the roles. It’s interesting, too, because there’s another Darren – Darren Criss – who has also dealt with that. So, I think that is an identity of its own, where you look at someone, and you can’t tell, and you guess and usually get it wrong. I’ve been guessed for every ethnicity on the planet. There’s a lot of people like me around the world that you can’t tell what they are up front. I was just really scared that a lot of people that are of mixed Asian American heritage were going to be like, “Wow, they went with this guy when they could have picked a lot more ‘Asian’ of a person.” I was kind of worried about that, but there’s been zero flack. I was honestly very stressed about it at first because when Mindy had asked me if they could include my heritage, I was down but I was also like, I really hope I don’t piss people off because I know looking at me, that’s not the first thing you see. Have you been surprised that people have resonated with this so much? Much has been made about including your own mixed heritage in “Never Have I Ever.” Mindy and all of them, I’m sure they saw people better looking than me, in better shape than me, all that, but they took us all aside, saying, “We chose you for this role because of you and what you bring as a person.” That was an honor to know because they wanted Paxton to be more than just abs. It got to the point where I got so close and so close and so close and just kept being denied denied denied, I was like, “I guess I’m just not hitting the mark on this one.” It has been the number one thing I’ve seen on breakdowns for auditions since I started this career. But you’ve been up for heartthrob roles in the past? I’m honored that they feel I accomplished that. So, that’s been some pressure, but I’m blown away because a lot of people are saying, “You went past being a heartthrob, and you did things with the character that I think only you could do.” And that was making him human, making him likable. I did not expect my character to be such a focal point. You’ve pretty much cemented your status as a “teen heartthrob.” How does that feel?
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