Why Justin Baldoni Chose Cole Sprouse & Haley Lu Richardson for Five Feet Apart

Everyone has fallen in love with the bittersweet romantic tale of Five Feet Apart. It hit the theaters a few months ago but a lot of people are still discovering it because only recently it was available on DVD. It’s a movie about a love story between two cystic fibrosis patients. Inspired by an actual YouTuber suffering from the disease, Claire Wineland, the story explains how two people who have CF need to have a six feet distance between them in order to avoid cross-infection. In order to portray this unique love story, director Justin Baldoni needed the perfect cast. It seems like he chose the best leads: Haley Lu Richardson and Cole Sprouse. In an Instagram live Q&A video session, Baldoni explained why he chose to cast the two.

Why Cole Sprouse was Chosen As Will

Justin Baldoni explained that when he came up with the character of Will, he had specific characteristics in mind. For instance, Will had to be highly intelligent, charmingly witty and artistic. The only actor that could fit this description for Justin Baldoni was Cole Sprouse. Perhaps, one of the reasons could be that the character of Will is quite similar to Cole’s Jughead in Riverdale, the loner type with a bit of depth and mystery surrounding him. However, Cole Sprouse himself is much more similar to the character of Will in Five Feet Apart. Baldoni explained how he saw the same dry wit in Sprouse as he needed in his main male lead. Moreover, Cole is artistic himself as he does photography so he could understand the artistic persona of Will who sketches interesting cartoons. The empathy and care that Will had were innately present in Cole as well.

Why Haley Lu Richardson Was Chosen As Stella

Stella was much more inspired from Claire Wineland herself. Her interesting character traits of never taking anything too seriously and always being full of life in spite of her circumstances was what Stella stood for. The warmth and positive energy that Claire had was very much similar to the actress Haley Lu Richardson. Baldoni even stated that she was the one who made the most jokes behind the scenes when filming Five Feet Apart. Hence, this particular similarity drew Baldoni to cast Haley as Stella in Five Feet Apart.

Five Feet Apart is out in theaters now and is available on DVD, iTunes and Spotify.