Get your tissues ready, guys, because Haley Lu Richardson and Cole Sprouse star as Stella and Will in the movie Five Feet Apart. The story is about two teenagers living with cystic fibrosis, and it’s based on the book by Rachael Lippincott. Watch the video above to see Haley dish to J-14 all about her role in the film, her days as a dancer on Disney Channel’s Shake It Up and so much more!

But what made us smile the most was hearing what the 24-year-old leading lady had to say about working with her costars Cole and Moisés Arias.

“Sometimes you get lucky with the people you work with and they’re actually great people — and you really get along and are all on the same page while you’re working together. And then you also have fun together aside from that. And I felt that with both of them,” she said.

And as it turns out, her first impression of the 26-year-old Riverdale star totally surpassed her expectations!

Haley added, “I said this earlier to his face… I think he was offended. But honestly, I was expecting like, you know, he was a child star — maybe he’d be kind of closed off and bitter. Just mad at the world ’cause of everything he’s been through in life. But he is so open. He’s such an open guy. He can have a conversation with anyone. He’s funny. He’s really talented and very artistic. I’m glad that we made this movie together ’cause we both cared about the same things — doing the best we possibly could with these two characters.”

Five Feet Apart Trailer
Courtesy Photo

The actress even admitted that there was some pressure that went into portraying a character diagnosed with cystic fibrosis.

“A lot of research went into that, like Googling, learning all of the medical stuff — like what the treatments they do are and why they do them,” Haley continued. “I think the most important thing for me, as a person trying to portray this as accurately as possible — and with as much truth as possible — was talking to people who have CF and having them be honest with me.”

Five Feet Apart hits theaters March 15.

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