Exclusive Interview: Pop Culturalist Chats with This Is The Year’s Alyssa Jirrels

Alyssa Jirrels is an exciting young actress who’s making the transition from the small to silver screen. She’s best known for roles in Alexa & Katie and Mech-X4 and will next be seen in her feature film debut, This Is the Year, as well as the Saved by the Bell revival. Pop Culturalist caught up with Alyssa to learn more about her career, her transition from TV to film, This Is the Year, and what fans can expect from Saved by the Bell.

Career

PC: How did you discover your passion for acting?
Alyssa: I started off in theater in Northern California. I was doing musical theater, and I loved it more than anything else. I gravitated towards that more than anything I gravitated towards in school. I got lucky. I ended up finding it and having parents who were really supportive of it. And throughout the years, what I love about it really grows and evolves in different ways. It continues to be really exciting and surprising.

PC: Who or what has had the biggest influence on your career?
Alyssa: Everything has. I feel like I learned a lot from this new film, This Is The Year. It’s the first film that I’ve ever done. I really got to experience what it was like to have a full character arc in such a condensed amount of time. I’ve done a TV show before and I had an arc that spanned over six months, which is a completely different experience.

I’ve learned a lot. During quarantine, I’ve been writing a project with six of my really close friends, and that has honestly taught me so much more than I could’ve ever expected. I feel like a different person after that too. So inspiration comes out of a lot of different things it seems like.

PC: You’ve had a lot of success throughout your career. When you look back, is there a particular moment that stands out to you?
Alyssa: It’s funny. I just moved around the corner from where I had my first-ever audition. I run by that building every morning. It was once a very intimidating, exciting place that I would go to on weekends and have to drive up from Northern California. It feels like a full-circle moment for me to recognize that there’s been growth.

This Is The Year

PC: Tell us about This Is The Year, your character, and what drew you to this project.
Alyssa: This Is The Year is a movie about Josh. He’s a senior in high school. In a last-ditch effort to win the girl of his dreams, he goes on a road trip to see her favorite band, and chaos ensues. He finds out that the girl of his dreams may not be the girl of his dreams, and she might have her own dreams.

That’s how my character defines herself. She’s been the dream girl, and not in a sort of egotistical way. She’s seen herself as a conglomeration of other people’s opinions of her. She hasn’t really felt comfortable enough to showcase who she feels she is because she feels like it’s different from what people want her to be. Over the course of the film, we get to see her go through that journey.

PC: How did you prepare to tackle that journey? Did you draw on any personal experiences?
Alyssa: I feel like I was going through something very similar at the time, not in the exact same way. I didn’t feel like I had a label on me, but I feel like associating your identity with other people’s opinions of you is something that a lot of young people deal with. It’s always very difficult to know how to differentiate yourself from others. There are things that we glom onto, like relationships or what people say about us, that feels like that’s who we are. I certainly understand that. I was seventeen when I shot it. I was certainly going through that at the time. It all felt very meta.

PC: There are so many incredible dynamics within the film between all the characters. Which relationship was your favorite to explore and why?
Alyssa: For me, I love them all. I loved doing my scenes with Vanessa [Marano]. She’s such a fun sparring partner as an actor. She gives you so much and she’s a really cool, cool human to talk to on camera. I felt very at home talking to her. I also loved Jake Short and Bug Hall’s storyline. I thought that was such a sweet part of the film. It was my favorite part.

PC: What do you hope audiences take away from the film?
Alyssa: I hope that they feel comforted. This is a group of people that we all grew up with: David [Henrie], Selena [Gomez], Gregg [Sulkin], and all of them. It’s exciting to have these titans of our childhood give us a movie during this time. That’s going to be very comforting to everybody.

PC: You’re also starring in the upcoming reboot of Saved By the Bell. Is there anything you can tease about that project?
Alyssa: I’m not exactly sure when it’s coming out. Everything got shut down because of COVID, and they just went back to filming the last couple of episodes. I wrapped my stuff literally the week before everything got shut down. It’s a really sweet, edgier, raunchier, almost satirical take on the first one. They’re able to poke fun at the things that didn’t make sense about the first one and really hone in on the stuff that did. It’s a really cool new take on it. The young actors in it are really amazing and funny.

Pop Culturalist Speed Round

PC: Guilty pleasure TV show?
Alyssa: Selling Sunset.

PC: Guilty pleasure movie?
Alyssa: He’s Just Not That Into You. That movie is so weird and fantastic. It has every actor that’s ever lived in it. It’s just the most wonderfully, beautifully cliché storyline, and everybody’s fantastic in it. I watch it all the time.

PC: Favorite book?
Alyssa: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is one of my favorite books ever, as well as The Outsiders and The Great Gatsby. I think those are my top three.

PC: Favorite play or musical?
Alyssa: There’s a great play called Danny and the Deep Blue Sea that I love. Musical, Dear Evan Hansen, Rent, or In the Heights. It’s tied.

PC: A band or artist that fans would be surprised to learn is on your playlist?
Alyssa: I had a really intense classic rock phase when I was fourteen, so there’s a lot of Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath on there that people are like, “What? You wear Birkenstocks and you listen to that?”

PC: Who would play you in the story of your life?
Alyssa: I’m just going to keep saying her name because I love her and I continue to project that we’re the same person. So I’m going to say Brie Larson because I love that woman and I know she is ten years older than me, but I believe with her chops she could play me at nine and it would be great.

To keep up with Alyssa, follow her on Twitter and Instagram. Watch This Is The Year out now.

Photo Credit: Aaron Barry