Even if you don't know her name, chances are you recognize Madeleine Arthur's face. She landed a role in the 2014 Tim Burton feature, Big Eyes, sharing screen time with mega star Amy Adams. In 2018 she recurred on the SyFy drama, The Magicians, as Fray, a teenager who was held captive by the Fairy Queen. And earlier this year, she took on the role of a young teenage witch opposite Nicolas Cage in the sci-fi horror flick, Color Out of Space. But Arthur may be best known — at least to Netflix fans — as the wild child BFF in one of the streaming giant's most-watched romantic comedies, To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before. But Arthur couldn’t be more different than her on-screen persona Christine — Lara Jean’s best friend, who rocks rainbow colored highlights, and ditches homework for parties with boys.
In real life, Arthur is noticeably less out there. Her voice has a song-like quality, and her warmth is palpable. But that doesn't temper her excitement when it comes to speaking candidly about what we can expect to see in the To All The Boys upcoming sequel, P.S. I Still Love You dropping February 12 on Netflix.
“Chris is definitely up to her same old antics,” Arthur laughs. In fact, Arthur has just finished filming the third installment in the series, Always and Forever, Lara Jean, where we’ll see Lara Jean and Christine become even closer. “What attracts me to these complicated characters is that every human is complex and dynamic. I love roles like Christine or Lavinia in Color Out of Space. There’s this side of me that loves these dark roles where you get to explore deep crevices of human emotion.”
The Vancouver native has always had a penchant for sophisticated tastes — she's an admitted Francophile who's dream job is to star opposite actress Marion Cotillard in a period piece. “I went to a French immersion school, so we were exposed to films like Amelie at a young age," she says of her love of French cinema.
That precocious nature has indeed defined the 22-year-old’s career. Arthur went on her first audition at the age of 12, and booked her first guest TV spot at 13. After multiple guest spots on television, she at last landed Big Eyes, in which she plays the teenage daughter of artist Margaret Keane (Amy Adam). Although her scenes are short, they represent a key turning point in the film — the moment Margaret Keane’s daughter, Jane, discovers the truth about how her father has stolen fame and fortune from her mother by claiming her artwork as his own. The devastation in her pale, ghostly eyes communicates the betrayal at the heart of the film’s storyline.
“I’m a huge Tim Burton fan. I loved Alice in Wonderland. It was such a remarkable group of people to work with," Authur says. She cites her co-star, Adams' work ethic and humility as something she hopes to emulate in her own career.
Unlike many people her age in the industry, Arthur is truly a film lover — and she’s not in this business just to create an enviable Instagram grid. Arthur cares deeply about good writing and the transformative power of movies. When reading scripts she always considers whether “it is a story that is relevant to our times.” In this vein, her next project, the Snowpiercer TV series — inspired by the film of the same name and is being helmed by acclaimed Parasite director Bong Joon Ho — fits this category.
Snowpiercer is set to hit screens on May 31, and the show, just like the film, is a study on class conflict, which is similar to many of Ho’s other projects. Set seven years after the Earth has reached an Arctic apocalypse, the last of humanity survives on a perpetually-moving train, with Arthur playing one of the passengers. “What I like about Snowpiercer is this theme of inequality. There’s so much division in the world right now, and I think this show is such a unique way to look at that division.”
Having grown up on Canada’s mountainous West Coast, Arthur has a keen appreciation for nature, so the theme of impending climate doom in Snowpiercer really hits home for her as well. “I don’t want to see any animal go extinct,” says Arthur, who is a vocal advocate of animal preservation and putting an end to slaughtering elephants for their tusks. Arthur, who traveled to South Africa at a young age and saw the gentle mammals for the first time, recently adopted an elephant through the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust.
The open-hearted kindness that Arthur possesses is exactly the thing that has defined the To All The Boys series. After all, it's the romantic comedy’s unabashed sweetness that captured hearts everywhere.
“What I really took away from [To All The Boys] was the importance of honesty, trust and being open to love," she says. "At the end of the day that’s what this film is really all about. It’s about vulnerability and getting outside of your comfort zone.”
Genelle Levy is a writer and contributing editor at Narratively. Her work has also been featured in Shondaland, Teen Vogue, USA Today, and Bustle. Follow her on Twitter @GenelleL.
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