TV & Movies
Ella Bright Isn’t Bothered By The Off Campus Cast Age Gap
At 19 years old, she is the youngest member of the show’s core cast.
The core cast of Off Campus feels like a genuine bunch of college friends — their easy camaraderie turning the fictional Briar University into a truly immersive backdrop for future stories. But despite that natural rapport, the real-life ages of the TV friends are throwing some fans for a loop.
During a May 26 appearance on the Not Skinny but Not Fat podcast, host Amanada Hirsch told Ella Bright (who plays Hannah) about videos comparing her age to her castmates and “having to defend” her. Bright is 19 years old, while Belmont Cameli (who plays her love interest, Garrett) is 28, and the rest of the main cast is in their mid-to-late 20s.
But as Bright explained, fans needn’t worry. “I came into this job and during the chemistry reads with more than enough information and knowledge and understanding of what this role required,” she said, adding that she “fell in love” with her character and the scripts right away.
“There was never a question that I wouldn’t want to do this,” Bright continued. “I get people’s concern, but also not once did I feel left out from being younger than everybody. We’re all such a family, and everyone was just more than perfect, and I couldn’t be more comfortable on set with these people ... like, I’m good. I’m completely good.”
Bright also pointed out that her character’s partial nudity (compared to Allie’s more exposed scenes) was a story decision explained to her early on by creator Louisa Levy, not something specific to her casting.
“For Hannah, obviously, given her backstory, she dresses more innocently, and she’s got the skinny jeans and the hoodies,” she said. “It just shows the dichotomy between the characters. That was always from the beginning, the idea — all the Hannahs auditioning knew it was just gonna be partial, and for Allie it was gonna be full, so everyone had full understanding of what we were going into.”
Indeed, as Levy previously told Bustle, considerable care went into approaching the show’s most physical moments — not only its love scenes but also, for example, the moment when Hannah storms into the hockey locker room looking for Garrett and finds herself surrounded by very naked players.
“It really becomes an externalization of what Hannah and Garrett are both feeling internally,” Levy said of the awkward scene. “[We had] a lot of intimacy coordinator work to make sure everyone felt comfortable and safe.”
