In After always happy, Hardin finds solace and redemption in writing. Yes, he makes the ultimate literary protagonist move to write a book about his life and, of course, his love affair with Tessa, who is understandably pissed that he never told her about the book. (Move over, Dan Humphrey.)
Hero sees the beauty of being able to question whether or not Hardin was right to publish the book, but he agrees that he really should have told him beforehand. “If he wanted it to be a surprise, he could have at least turned around and said, ‘I’m about to be published. What do you think?'” Hero said. being already too late… it’s kind of like the bet revealed in the first one. It’s like, ‘Bro, you could have anticipated this and said it a little earlier, you know?’ But he’s still beaten to death, isn’t he?
For what it’s worth, Hero isn’t sure he’d ever write a book about his own life. “I don’t think that would be very good,” he says bluntly. “And when I look back I’m so lucky that doing all this press and working in movies you have so much footage of yourself and especially with social media and everything up there and that lasts forever, sometimes it feels like a bad thing, but it’s actually really nice to know that I can look back and track my progress through this. If I do something remotely interesting at the Beyond that, then maybe I’ll have more to write. So far, it would be a pretty short book, I think.
Longtime Hero fans will know he got his start playing young Tom Riddle in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. But the After movies continue to be one of the most pivotal experiences in her career development. He is 24 now and continues to chart the kind of career he wants to have.
“I feel like I was able to not only make four movies that I’m really proud of, but also practice my acting and social skills and learn more about the industry,” he says. “So now when I go on to do any other work, I’m so aware that After accelerated my learning and understanding of how movies are made and how movies work.
Hero recently starred in another romance, First love, next to Sydney Park. He also branched out into other blockbusters, with a role in the Viola Davis-directed historical epic The female king. Next, he’ll play a zombie in the heartwarming comedy The loneliest boy in the world. “The best way to sum up the projects I want to do next is to keep changing,” he says, “to keep changing and trying to do a bit of everything.”
After Ever Happy is now available for on-demand streaming.
