Rachel Boudwin discusses leading "Boot Camp"
Rachel Boudwin is taking on her first leading role in a feature film with the upcoming movie Boot Camp, an adaptation of Wattpad's success novel. Boot Camp is about Whitney Carmichael, an unathletic young woman who falls for her off-limits personal trainer, Axel Tanner. Boot Camp is a story of body empowerment, and Rachel Boudwin discusses the importance that plays as a theme of the film and how she stepped into her role as the beloved character.
Culturess: What drew you to acting?
Rachel Boudwin: I think ever since I can remember, I wanted to perform. Even when I was five, I was very performative and always dancing or singing. So, my parents thought that putting me in musical theatre would be a good outlet, and they were right. I think being from a small town, it kinda pushed me away from it for a bit because it wasn't normal there or practical. But, then, I think at a certain point in high school, I really just fell in love with filmmaking in particular, and I knew that was the only thing I wanted to do with my life. So, I knew I had to do it.
Culturess: What was the audition process like for Boot Camp?
Rachel Boudwin: It was a very interesting one. So, I had just signed with my first agent like two months before I got the role. It came out of left field for me, for sure. I think my first audition was a little more than a year ago. I auditioned for it, and I loved it so much and had such a good feeling about it, which was odd considering it was the fifth audition I had with my agent. But, I was really optimistic, and then a week later, I had my callback, and I remember I read the script before my callback, and I cried at the end of reading it. I felt very scared because I already was very personally connected to it, and if I didn't get it, it was gonna hurt, and the chance was I wasn't gonna get it. Then I did the callback. They had me in there for maybe fifteen minutes. So, I thought that I had bombed it and that I didn't get it. But, I don't know why, it was very odd, but I had this feeling like it was gonna happen for some odd reason even though I felt like I had bombed it. Then I also got my passport for this role. I didn't know that I was gonna get it, but I thought I may as well have it just in case. On my way out of the passport office to get my first one, my agent called me and told me that I got it, and it was very surprising. I was with my dad. He was in town. Then I think maybe ten days later, I was in Vancouver shooting. So, it was a very fast process. I think from late July, I was in Vancouver a month later. So, it was very fast.
Culturess: What made you feel connected to Whitney's journey?
Rachel Boudwin: The thing about Whitney, I feel like a lot of people can relate with her, is that at the start of the film, she's very self-conscious, and I think a lot of us were in high school, if not now. I know I was very much like that in high school and most of my life. I was pretty introverted except for performing and very self-conscious about my body, and it pushed me to want to move to LA and become an actor even more so because I just wanted to get out of what I knew. That's what Whitney does in this story, which really is what made me feel personally connected to her. The first time I read the character description, I don't think I have ever connected with a character like that before. I remember after reading the script, before my callback, I read it, I cried, and I just remember thinking this is me on paper. If you could write a script, this is me.
Culturess: How did you and your co-star Drew Ryan Tanner establish your on-screen chemistry?
Rachel Boudwin: Well, luckily, with Drew, we did get a chem read. I think from the moment he popped on the screen, because we did it over Zoom, I just kind of knew. He had that mysteriousness that Axel needed, I think. But also that charming attitude that he just naturally has. I think we were both really excited to be doing a movie like this. I think it was, for both of us, a really big opportunity. We went to dinners before shooting. I was only there for a few days before shooting. So it was very fast. But, I remember one night Drew got the whole cast together, and we went to go see a movie together, and then we got dinner and ice cream, and he showed us around Vancouver. But, we were usually shooting on location, so it was very much camaraderie, and the cast got very close, and I think with Drew, it was pretty instant. I think we just had chemistry from the start, and it was the best time ever.
Culturess: You have also done on-stage work. How does having a live audience influence your performance in comparison to making a film?
Rachel Boudwin: I would say they're very different. When I was younger, I was very much in love with performing on the stage, and I still do love that. I think one day I would love to go back to the stage. But I think a part of me has also always been in love with movie-making and movies. When I was a kid, me and my brother would just watch movies all weekend, and we'd pop our VHS tapes in and keep going all weekend over and over again with movies. I've always had that love for it. In filmmaking, I like the collaborative process of it. On stage, it's a little bit more every man for themselves. But, on a film set, you have so many people coming together and collaborating on one thing. It feels like everyone's on the same journey, trying to get the same product out, and I think you always tend to build a good connection with people, and I love that part of it.
Culturess: Boot Camp is your first lead role in a feature film. How did you prepare for the responsibility of leading a movie?
Rachel Boudwin: Well, I'm not gonna lie. It was very scary at first. Before this, I had only really done student films. Although I had been acting for four or five years before that, I was terrified. I remember my first response after getting the call was just a little bit of anxiety, and I'm so glad that I had my dad there and I think it was serendipitous that he was there in town for that because I was very scared. I remember telling my dad this is what I've wanted since I was five years old, but not that it's here I'm afraid that I might not be up for the challenge. My dad kinda put it to me like this where he knows that I perform well under pressure, so he was kind of like, you're either gonna sink or you're gonna swim, and I think you're gonna swim. It's one of those things where you don't know what you're capable of until it's right in front of you. I think for most of the shoot, my adrenaline was just kicking in. I don't think I've ever been that tired in my entire life, but it was completely worth it, and I'm glad that I swam at the end of the day.
Culturess: As you move forward in your career, what actors have been an inspiration to you?
Rachel Boudwin: I would say when I was very young, I loved watching Shirley Temple movies. I had almost all of her movies on VHS tape. So, I would pop those in, pretend that I was a tap dancer, even though I was very much not, and looking back, I think I've taken a lot from her. I always loved her charisma, and also, at the age of four or five years old, she was able to be the lead in how many films. I would say later on, maybe around the time the first Hunger Games movie came out, Jennifer Lawrence has been such a huge inspiration for me since then, and I think the same for a lot of girls my age. Having a character like Katniss come out at that formative time. Seeing a young woman who was strong and rough, and vulnerable was a really powerful thing. I think also getting to be able to play Whitney's alter ego Irabel, was really special for me because she reminds me a lot of Katniss, and that has just always been a dream to play a character like that. Then, I would also say, at the end of high school, I think what really pushed me to want to go to LA was I watched Call Me By Your Name with Timothée Chalamet, and I think that changed a lot for me. I loved his acting style, and I just fell in love with how natural he was, he was definitely an inspiration for me of what a young actor in Hollywood can do.
Culturess: In what ways do you think it is important to highlight the message of body positivity?
Rachel Boudwin: I think it's an extremely important topic that we should be talking about right now. I'm just deeply honored to not only to be a part of a film that covers that but also for it to be my first leading role. I mean, that's what really captured my heart when reading the script because I've gone through that struggle for a lot of my life as, not only a lot of young girls have, but, everyone has gone through a time in their life when they felt self-conscious in their body or just not confident in themselves in general. One thing that just really touched my heart was my dad ended up reading the script as well, and he kinda stressed the fact to me that, hopefully, this theme can not only touch young girls but also everyone. Everyone that's felt self-conscious in life and whether it's me finally being able to feel confident enough to go to the beach in a bikini, and I remember my dad saying like, 'You haven't been able to do that in years, and I'm so proud of you.' It gives me almost the confidence to feel happy in who I am and in myself, so I really hope that people can see themselves in Whitney, and I hope that message gets across.
Culturess: Had you read Boot Camp before auditioning or filming the movie?
Rachel Boudwin: So, I actually did not know that it was based on a book until I got the part, ironically. I'd like to say I think it actually helped me in my audition process because there wasn't that huge pressure of it being such a huge Wattpad book. I think if I had known that it was this huge Wattpad novel that had twenty-seven million reads based on a character that people loved, I think I would have been very scared, even more than I already was. But I'm so glad that it did have that fanbase and also that I could relate to Gina Musa's book and it wasn't hard for me to see why so many other people related to Whitney as a character and how I saw myself in Whitney, and then to see that twenty-seven million other people had read it, for a lot of people it was one of the first books they had read on Wattpad, and it was almost like the most beautiful heartwarming feeling to know that so many other people felt this way towards this character. I hope that in the film, people feel that way as well.
Culturess: What did you learn from this on-set experience that you can take with you in future projects?
Rachel Boudwin: I would say one of the biggest things that I've learned from kinda having to be a fish out of the water and take on the role of being high on the call list is that sometimes you get the privilege of setting the atmosphere for the set, and I think that's such a blessing to, if some people were having a bad day, to be able to come onto the set and make people laugh or smile. I think I really would love to take that with me for the rest of my career and hopefully, just be a good person on set point blank. I think that was an amazing lesson to learn for my first project.
Boot Camp premieres on August 2, 2024. Catch the new rom-com on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, and On Demand.
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