Photo: LARA SOLANKI/NETFLIX
ForMaitreyi Ramakrishnan, playing protagonist Devi Vishwakumar inNever Have I Everhas been a dream opportunity — but it doesn’t mean that she always agrees with her character’s choices.
Ahead of the Netflix show’s season 2 premiere on Thursday, Ramakrishnan spoke to PEOPLE about the new episodes, and whether she agrees with Devi’s approach to decision-making. This season, Devi finds herself entangled in a love triangle after struggling to choose between popular jock Paxton Hall-Yoshida (Darren Barnet) and her former nemesis, Ben Gross (Jaren Lewison).
The Canadian actress continued, “For me, when I play [Devi] and do the scenes where I have to do these crazy things that I don’t think are the right thing to do but I have to make it convincing, I focus on why Devi’s doing them, where is she coming from, where’s her head at? Like, what is she thinking about and why does she think this is the right [decision]?”
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And while Devi “still messes things up,” and is a bit of “a hot mess,” Ramakrishnan believes the high school teen is slowly growing up. “I will say, despite her constantly ‘Devi-ing things up,’ she’s maturing a little bit,” she said.
“I trust them as much as I trust the rest of the crew, all of the departments, and as much as trust the rest of my cast,” she continued. “So, as soon as I actually was real with myself and laid it out, laid out the facts, I was honestly having a fun time and there was no pressure.”
According to the actress, in the new season, “all of the characters are actually just diving in deeper, rather than hopping into something new.” As for Devi, Ramakrishnan said, her grief following her father’s death in season 1 “isn’t just like, ‘Okay, done with. Gone.’ It’s, ‘Okay, you started this. Let’s dive deeper.'”
Season 2 ofNever Have I Everis streaming on Netflix.
source: people.com
