For Millennials. By Millennials.
One of the most heartbreaking romantic movies of this year was probably Five Feet Apart. The movie starred Cole Sprouse as Will, cystic fibrosis (CF) patient who falls for another CF patient, Stella. For this outstanding role, Cole Sprouse just won the People’s Choice Awards!
Sprouse was receiving many congratulations. His co-star from Riverdale Lili Reinhart ( who happens to be his on and off-screen girlfriend) shared sweet words at this victory.
Meanwhile, Five feet Apart’s director Justin Baldoni was also proud of Cole Sprouse for getting this win:
Congrats to @colesprouse taking home a @peopleschoice for @fivefeetapartfilm!!! Cole, this is so deserved my man. You worked your ass off to get it right. To capture both the pain and the joy of living with a chronic illness. You cared deeply and you wanted to honor Claire and it shows. Thank you for always remembering the WHY behind this film. For honoring our friends living with CF and for raising awareness with your platform.
Five Feet Apart Was About Raising Awareness for CF, Something Cole Sprouse Honors!
The movie was inspired by someone Justin Baldoni knew in real life: Claire Wineland.
She was battling CF ever since she was a young girl, though she didn’t give up and continued to spread positivity and hope around the world. Wineland even became a YouTuber and gave several TedX talks as well.
Stella, played by Haley Lu Richardson, is very much modeled after Claire’s vibrant and cheerful personality. Wineland was a consultant for the movie too and Richardson spent a lot of time with her to understand more about CF.
Unfortunately, Claire Wineland lost her life to CF on 2nd September 2018 so she could not see the released movie. The movie is dedicated to her and hopes to honor her memory. The whole cast and crew wanted to raise awareness about Cystic Fibrosis and they managed to do it well considering the success of Five Feet Apart.
Cole Sprouse mentioned this in his acceptance speech:
It’s [CF] a really underrepresented disease and, thanks to all you guys who came out and watched it, I think it hit its mark and we really hit our goal
Furthermore, Justin Baldoni highlighted this fact in the same post where he congratulated Cole Sprouse:
But most importantly, if this film touched you. Please consider learning more about #cysticfibrosis and donating to @clairesplacefoundation to help families and individuals living with the disease. We made this film to honor her and to raise awareness so that one day #cysticfibrosis and stories like this would simply be the work of fiction and not reality.