Exclusive Interview: Cooper van Grootel and Marianly Tejada Chat One of Us is Lying and Natewyn

Cooper van Grootel and Marianly Tejada are two rising young stars who are captivating the screen in Peacock’s One of Us is Lying.

Based on the bestselling novel, One of Us is Lying is the story of what happens when five high schoolers walk into detention and only four make it out alive. Everyone is a suspect, and everyone has something to hide.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to speak with Cooper van Grootel and Marianly Tejada about One of Us is Lying, bringing Natewyn to life on the screen, and how they prepared to play their characters.

PC: To start, could you introduce us to your characters in the series?
Marianly: I play Bronwyn Rojas. She’s your archetype of a brainiac. She is so invested in her academics that she rarely focuses on the present and her future is pretty much everything at this point.

Cooper: I play Nate Macauley. He’s your troubled bad boy that deals drugs and wears a lot of denim and leather and rides a motorcycle. But as the show goes on you realize there’s more to Nate than meets the eye. We peel back the layers and see what’s underneath. We see that for all the characters as the show goes on.

It’s a story about these four characters in this murder investigation and how they have to bond and band together as a group against challenging times. They are the only four that understand each other. It’s a beautiful story for exploring that dynamic.

PC: Like you were both saying, we’re introduced to these characters as specific archetypes, but as the series unravels, we see the different layers to them. How did you both prepare to tackle your character’s arc?
Cooper: Karen McManus and the writers did such a great job with this story and envisioning this world. One of the ways that I prepared for the character was through journaling. I would write thoughts and feelings and about past situations that Nate had been through to put myself into that world and into Nate’s shoes. That’s how I prepared. Being able to work with such amazing people makes you so present and involved in the story. We’re such a great group of friends on and off screen. That’s amazing.

Marianly: It makes it so much easier. We had such great source [material] to work with, starting with the book that Karen created. She did such a wonderful job with it and people love it so much for that reason. Then there are the writers of the show and the casting, as Cooper was saying. It’s an insanely talented cast. It makes your job so much easier. It was a matter of putting yourself in those circumstances and exploring those relationships. For Bronwyn, it’s her relationship with her little sister Maeve that I think is at the heart of who Bronwyn is. Maeve is really the reason why she wants to do well because in the book she made this promise that if she did everything right, she would live. That really sparked the empathy and the imagination I needed to embark on this crazy journey.

PC: The relationship between your two characters is a favorite among fans. As you were heading into this project, did that bring any added pressure?
Cooper: [laughs] Once we read the book, I realized the caliber of the fanbase for Bronwyn and Nate. I read the book a couple of days before the producers’ session. After reading that, the pressure was on. We’re so excited for people to see all the Bronwyn and Nate scenes and what we brought to the screen.

Marianly: I do feel a little bit of pressure. I hope people like what we’ve created. I don’t blame them. I’m a Natewyn fan and I want to see Natewyn flourish and be done right. I hope that we’ve done that for people. I remember reading the book after I learned I was offered the role and loving it right off the bat. I understand why people love them so much and why they can’t wait to see them on screen. I also can’t wait for them to see this universe and know what we’ve been working so hard on for some time.

PC: When you’re adapting characters from a popular novel to the screen, is it a challenge to find that balance between paying homage to the original source material but also making these characters your own?
Cooper: Sometimes you do have to be careful with how you go about playing a beloved character in a book. The book was such great source material to pull from. In the book, Nate would lean back on his chair, so I brought that into my character development and into the show. We were able to pull from the book, which was amazing to have, but we were also able to make it our own as well. You can bring a bit of yourself into it. Having such a great relationship in real life, Marianly and I were able to do that with Bronwyn and Nate. We were bringing ourselves into it, riffing, having fun, and playing.

Marianly: That’s so true. Also, having such good guidance from our directors, producers, and our showrunner, Dario [Madrona], was a great thing to have because we’re not alone in this journey. We were hired because an element of ourselves matched the characters, so honoring that was also important, but just trusting the people that we were working with creatively was a big part of that. I know that people will enjoy the results because I have only great things to say about every creative involved in this show.

PC: Social media plays such a huge role in this show. If you had to describe this series in a hashtag, what would it be?
Cooper: #OneCrazyRollercoasterRide.

Marianly: #OneofUsisLying or #AllofUsareLying. [laughs]

Make sure to follow Cooper (Twitter/Instagram) and Marianly (Twitter/Instagram). Stream One of Us is Lying on Peacock today.

Photo Credit: Photo Credit: Nicola Dove/Peacock