In her upcoming flick Mother’s Day, Britt Robertson plays a young mom struggling with cold feet in her relationship. Um, maybe some of us out there can relate, but this is *not* a case of art imitating life. The actress has been in a relationship with Teen Wolf actor Dylan O’Brien since 2011 when they co-starred in the film The First Time. We’re so used to celebrity breakups that we had to fact check this one when we chatted with Britt — and get her tips for keeping a long-term relationship going strong.
Real talk: Dating as a 20-something faces several challenges. This is the point in many people’s lives where career can often take the driver’s seat. For Britt and boyfriend Dylan, they’re definitely not immune to these challenges either. Currently, Dylan is starring in the Mazerunner franchise, and Britt is playing Julia Roberts’ daughter (!) in Garry Marshall’s upcoming flick.
Even so, Britt’s number one piece of advice is a pretty simple one that we can all keep in mind: communication. “I’ve learned all of my little tidbits about relationships from people who’ve been in relationships for a long time. Everything I always hear is just communication — you should be talking about almost everything,” says Britt. “And I know some people are like, ‘yeah there’s something he said I’m too scared to talk about,’ but I’m not that kind of person. The thing I have to be in any relationship is I have to be informed.”
“This is how you can understand someone else’s side — if you communicate and understand where they’re coming from,” she tells us. “I would say, talk about everything, even if it’s not something that you find important. It’s important to talk regardless.” That’s certainly good advice – even for the less-than-chatty Cathys out there among us.
While communication is SO vital for her, that doesn’t translate into being overly communicative with each other on social media. Britt has a pretty matter-of-fact stance on the whole thing. “I don’t find use for it anymore. It didn’t really do anything for me,” Britt says. In fact, her last tweet was from two years ago and, for her, not tweeting has become something of a game. “I find it really cool now, like how long can I go on Twitter without tweeting?”
This doesn’t mean she rules out all platforms, however. “I like Instagram because you can post pictures and look at pictures. The tweeting, I don’t really have anything important to say on a regular basis that I feel like I need to share with however many followers out there following me. I kind of, aside from Instagram, just like laying low.”
And laying low is certainly something she’s planning on doing a lot of now that Mother’s Day has wrapped. She’s going to be hanging in her favorite pair of Roots sweatpants ($68) — a gift from her agent and her “favorite person on the planet” — and catching up on her Netflix queue (“Fixer Upper is genius!” she shares). “I don’t even know what I’m going to be doing tomorrow,” she tells us. We can guess one thing she won’t be doing. Tweeting.
What’s the best relationship advice you’ve received? Tweet us @BritandCo!
(Photos via Jeffrey Mayer/Getty + George Pimental/Getty)