The question at the center of the new movie Oh, Hi! is a universally upsetting one: What do you do when you like someone a lot and they simply do not like you as much in return? It's enough to drive any sane, rational person to their limits. When Iris (Molly Gordon) and Isaac (Logan Lerman) go on their first trip together as a "couple," Iris finds out that actually, Isaac doesn't think they are a couple. To him, they are merely casually seeing each other. Iris freaks out, and her solution is to strap Isaac to the bed and spend the next 12 hours trying to convince him they should be together.
The movie is an exploration of what that kind of rejection does to someone like Iris, and why someone like Isaac chooses to reject someone who he seemingly really enjoys. In an interview with Cosmopolitan, Logan and Molly spoke about whether they find that feeling as relatable as the rest of us, how they kept empathy for Isaac and Iris, and what the movie, directed by Sophie Brooks, taught them about love.
When did you guys meet for the first time? You have such natural chemistry, and I was wondering if you were friends before.
Logan Lerman: Oddly, our paths never crossed in LA.
Molly Gordon: We met Thanksgiving time like a year and a half ago. It was pretty immediate. Logan is the best, really funny and curious and just as weird as I am, maybe weirder.
LL: Definitely weirder.
Logan, I'm curious how this movie was pitched to you. Like, you're shirtless 80 percent of the time, you're chained to a bed. What was the brief that you received?
LL: I don't look at any materials or anything. I look at the script, that's about it. So if there was something sent to me that I did not read, I'm sorry to whoever took the time to put that together. I just read the script, and I thought it was really, really great, and it was exactly what I wanted to see in theaters. This is the version of a romantic movie that is exciting to me, and I really wanted to be a part of it. It was evident on the page that I would have to be in the position that I'm in throughout filming, and that doesn't bother me at all. It didn't scare me much.
How many cumulative days did you spend on that bed? And how did your back feel afterward?
LL: I'm guessing 10. My back, it was not great. My shoulders, everything, it hurt a little bit. But it's not that bad. I've had to be on things where I'm running around, learning fight sequences and shit like that, getting hurt. And my job on this was to show up and lay in bed every day. That was fairly easy. And the material was really fun to play with.
How did you both maintain empathy for each other's characters? Because I feel like to do this movie, you really have to understand where both people are coming from.
MG: Logan and I are both more naturally Iris, so we had to really push ourselves to have empathy for Isaac. That was the only way the movie was going to work. I've dated so many Isaacs, and so has Logan. And we really wanted to breathe life into that type of character and understand why, hey, this thing is really good, why don't you want it? Like, what has happened in your childhood, or what are you working through? Or also, do you just not like me enough? That felt the most exciting to me. I didn't want it to feel like a takedown of avoidant men. I wanted my guy friends who struggle with that to also feel seen by it. But it was directed by a woman, written with women, and it is a little more weighted on Iris's side.
When you were doing that thinking about Isaac in particular, where did you land? Why can't he commit to her?
LL: Like Molly was saying, I'm much more of an Iris. And I've dated people in the past that have been like Isaac. I've had a lot of time to think about why things ended the way they ended, exploring my personal issues at those times and why I maybe wasn't the right person or in a good place for that relationship, but also exploring why they might have been running away from something. All that time thinking about it became a foundation for Isaac, for me to go deeper, peel away the layers, and understand who he is at his core, and why he gets the instinct to run when things get serious. Like everything in life, it goes back to the parents, and how we are all working through our relationships with our parents throughout our lives. Not to sum it up in an easy way, but I started thinking about what scared him, and it was probably a fractured home.
This movie really does capture that feeling of when you like someone and they just don't like you back. Is that relatable to both of you?
MG: Yeah. It's the worst feeling when you're like, but they like me enough, and it's so good when we're together, but they just aren't making the effort in the way I am. What do people say? 'If it's not a fuck yeah, then it's a no.' That's what the movie is exploring. Like, if I cook for them and dance for them and if they got to just see all these parts of me, then they would want to be with me. And it's like, no, there's some block. Maybe they want to be with someone else. Maybe they'll never be with anyone else.
That feeling is maddening. I think the biggest thing that I've realized in the last few years is that love is how you feel about another person, but it's also how you feel about yourself when you're with that person. And when you're with that type of avoidant person, you don't feel that good about yourself, even though you like them so much, you always feel like you're chasing them liking you. That's obviously not healthy.
The reveal that they had been together for four months altered how I was thinking about the dynamic. Do you think the timing of their relationship will impact how audiences perceive whose side they're on?
LL: Yeah, I think so. In my opinion, four months means you should know where the hell you're going.
MG: We want the audience to be completely taken with Isaac, and think he's amazing. And then when that fight happens, they're like, What the fuck, it's been four months? And then we're on her side. We wanted it to be dials that are cranking back and forth. I know people that have fallen in love in a month. I know people that have worked in a situationship for two years before they committed. But I love that conversation between them. I think it's really juicy. We've all been there where we're drunk at 1am and then it's like, wait, record scratch, we are not on the same page.
