“I didn’t like Jackson,” she admitted on the Call Her Daddy podcast in October. “Jackson, I had heard, was the favorite. So, I’m excited for his thing. He gets on, and—I’ve told him this—I’m like, ‘Oh, this is like a serious actor, like, actor-y actor.’ So, I was just like, ‘Ugh, God.’ But he was so good.”

“I was like, ‘Alright, it’s fine, maybe we won’t get along, but he’s, like, perfect for the part,'” Grace, who was doing chemistry reads with all the actors auditioning for Stephen, continued. “He’s so talented and great.” 

Once they finally met in person for the next round of auditions, however, Grace, 29, admitted that everything changed. She added, “It was a completely different energy. He just told me he was really nervous for the Zoom.”