Lili Reinhart Spills On Her New Mystery Thriller & Friendship With "Genuine" Lola Tung: "I'm The Old B—ch"

The movie is a very heavy watch that uses the presence of absence to its advantage — while you see Daisy's reactions to the horrors of the internet, viewers don't actually see anything too graphic. At its core, American Sweatshop is a movie about human empathy, and how people process the horrible things they see on a screen.

"I went into this movie knowing it was a very plot-focused movie and not really necessarily super character driven," Lili says. "All my other movies and things that I do, I feel like I'm stepping up to the plate, my emotions are right here, my body is right here, and they're working in tandem. Whereas this movie felt a little bit more like my physical body was stepping up to the plate, but my emotions were taking a backseat."

"You see Daisy, you can kind of understand the gist of who she is, but you really don't get that many questions about her answered," she continues. "I think that's intentional in order to let this the plot kind of speak for itself."

But even though it wasn't a highly emotional role, it was still a difficult shoot that included Lili being sick throughout filming and getting COVID near the end. "I was just really going through it, but in a way, obviously it was helpful to what my character was going through, having trouble sleeping and being tortured by something — I was weirdly going through something similar while I was shooting it, but in a physical health sense. So I don't know, life imitates art in a weird way with a lot of projects that I do, and this was definitely one of them."

The end of the film invites the viewer into the conversation that I believe revolves around agency and responsibility. "The movie just genuinely highlights that what you put online is actually seen and digested by other people, and I try to be mindful of that as well," Lili says. "I think just being mindful and intentional, and maybe this is more for people who are posting disturbing content — which probably aren't even watching the movie anyway, or maybe they are — but I think it's just a matter of everything that you post, you post with an intention...We all could use a little bit more thought into what we're putting out into the world that's being consumed by anyone."

Like with any job, I'm a firm believer that unwinding after a long day of shooting is just as important as the work you do.

"It's fascinating to me how people unwind," Lili says, mentioning a makeup artist who has a glass of red wine every night, no matter how late it is. "When I get home, I am trying to get into my bed as fast as humanly possible. I got home at 2 AM last night, so I'm like, I wash my face, I take a shower. Immediately, I'm in bed within 5 minutes of being home, and then my phone's plugged in and I'm going to bed. That being said, it always takes me 30 minutes or more to fall asleep every single night of my life."

She also admits she loves a "gentle scroll" on her phone, and if you've done some gentle scrolling yourself, you've probably seen some of Lili's videos. The actress and producer knows her way around a trend, and my personal favorite videos include another beloved actress: Lola Tung! Lili and The Summer I Turned Pretty star are appearing in an upcoming movie called Forbidden Fruits and made excellent use of their downtime on set.

"I love Lola. I interviewed her for Hero Mag, which was so, it was cute, I'm like, 'Oh no, like I'm the old one now, like I'm the old b—ch who was on the show 10 years ago, it's funny," Lili jokes. "We got very close while we were shooting that movie and [I feel] so lucky to call her a friend, like an actual genuine friend. She's all over my For You Page right now, everywhere. My whole thing is The Summer I Turned Pretty, so I'm seeing her face every day and it makes me smile because she's the cutest and also nicest person alive, by the way."

But even though Lola is the up and coming star, Lili says she's "not very chronically [online]."

"She deletes apps from her phone so she doesn't scroll through them, which I'm like, you are smart," she says. "Forbidden Fruits was her first indie...and she really was there for the ride and loved it and she's just making smart choices. She's doing projects that she's drawn to. I don't think she's doing what a certain set of people are telling her she needs to do to stay famous or stay in the zeitgeist. She's just kind of like following her instinct as well, so yeah, she's a smart girl."