Charles Melton Was Passionate About His 'Sun is Also A Star' Role Before There Was Even A Script

Charles Melton, who you know as the best Reggie on Riverdale, is opening up about his next project – playing Daniel Bae in The Sun is Also A Star.

The film, based on Nicola Yoon’s book of the same name, centers on college-bound romantic Daniel Bae (Melton) and Jamaica-born pragmatist Natasha Kingsley (Yara Shahidi), who meet—and fall for each other—over one magical day amidst the fervor and flurry of New York City.

“I was on my social media and I woke up to being tagged in [a photo] Nicola Yoon posted, asking her followers who should play Daniel Bae,” Charles revealed to WWD about how he found out about the book and movie. “I found out that day that she was asking these questions to the fans, that it was being turned into a movie by Warner Bros. and MGM and so that same day I bought the book.”

He adds, “I reached out to my reps, I was like ‘guys, get me the script.’ They were like, ‘Charles, they just announced the news today.’ So I bought the book, read it in two days, fast-forward 10 months, got the script, auditioned for it. I’m very passionate about the role and knew that I wanted to play that role.”

One of the things that drew him to the character was the fact that Daniel was this hopeless romantic, who is trying to convince Natasha that they are destined to be together.

“It was very appealing that the character is such a hopeless romantic,” Charles says. “I strive to be more of a hopeless romantic every day. And I believe in love so, like, it’s been nice to play that.”

The Sun is Also A Star is set to debut in 2019.