Noah Centineo Made His Directorial Debut With This Music Video Starring Lily Collins

After winning over audiences everywhere in To All The Boys I've Loved Before, Noah Centineo has decided to venture behind the camera and show off his cinematic chops as a director. Centineo made his directorial debut with a music video for producer ARTY's song "Save Me Tonight," and its guaranteed to charm viewers just as much as he did as Peter Kavinsky.

According to Billboard, Centineo came up with the concept for the video for "Save Me Tonight" — which also stars Lily Collins, as a high schooler who moves to a new town and is bullied by a group of cool students — organically, while hanging out with his friend, ARTY (a.k.a. Artem Stoliarov). "What I love about 'Save Me Tonight' is that it came to be through friendship," Centineo told the outlet. "It was a perfect scenario for friends to come together and create. That’s truly what I’m here for."

The video's origin story is fitting, considering the clip follows Collins' loner as she makes friends with Centineo, who, along with his group of close-knit friends, help her enact revenge on the bullies who have picked on her the whole time. "ARTY and I built the storyline from the ground up without preconception," Centineo said in the interview with Billboard.

"The bullies weren’t even a part of the picture at first. I remember taking a couple of weeks to flesh out various forms that the video could have taken," he told the outlet. And after coming up with the initial idea for the clip, the actor explained that the whole story came together within a few hours: "Ultimately, we actually stayed in the entire night with friends and finalized our video. It was insanely celebratory when we locked it all in," he added.

And the pair's collaborative nature extended to casting the video as well, as they chose their friend Collins to play the main character. "I had met Lily in late 2018, and we immediately connected," Centieno said told Billboard. "She’s an intelligent, passionate and engaging human being, one hell of a conversationalist, a visceral actress, and quite a fantastic dance partner."

The actor explained to Billboard that Collins' performance helped bring the clip's story to live, praising her skills and her ability to portray the journey that her character goes on over the course of its run. "Lily effortlessly introduces us to a subtle vulnerability that lives in every frame, and grounds the hyper-reality displayed in our video," Centineo gushed in the interview. "She shows us an evolution that transcends fear, alienation and apprehension through self-discovery by means of friendship, trust and a bit of paint.

While Centineo evaded questions about continuing to step behind the camera in the future — noting that he's "looking forward to a bunch of possibilities in 2019, and a few releases" — the year ahead will bring plenty of major career milestones for Centineo. In addition to reprising his role as Peter Kavinsky in the To All The Boys I've Loved Before sequel, the actor will stop by the Fosters spinoff, Good Trouble, to play Jesus once again.

The actor will also play a "key role" as one of the love interests of the new Charlie's Angels in the upcoming reboot, which wrapped filming last month. In November, Centineo told Entertainment Tonight that he was having a great time on the film's set, and revealed that the female-led cast was helping him to feel right at home. "They're very loving people," Centineo said. "We were filming in Germany and Turkey, and as soon as I got there, they're like, 'What's good, man! Want to hang out?' I was like, 'Yeah, for sure!' They're all lovely, deeply talented, dedicated individuals."

And when it comes to directing, Centineo found plenty of inspiration in the woman helming Charlie's Angels, Elizabeth Banks. "She's fantastic," he gushed. "She knows exactly what she wants, and she's getting it on Charlie's... And she's very engaged, that's impressive."

And based on his own first steps behind the camera, it seems as if Centineo also knows how to be an engaged and impressive director, who is capable of making his exciting visions come to life. If that happens to come with a message about the importance of friendship, well, we're all for it.