Riele Downs and Auli’i Cravalho Talk ‘Friendship Rivalry’ in New Supernatural Comedy ‘Darby and the Dead’

*Riele Downs (“Best Man Holiday”) stars in the new supernatural comedy, “Darby and the Dead,” and EUR caught up with the young actress and her co-star Auli’I Cravalho to unpack their new roles.

In the film, Darby appears to be an ordinary teenager if you overlook that she can communicate with the dead. Moonlighting as a spiritual messenger can cause a person to see life differently, and in Darby’s case, she becomes introverted and cut off from her high school peers.

Per the official movie synopsis: After suffering a near-death experience as a young girl, Darby Harper (Downs) gains the ability to see dead people. As a result, she becomes introverted and shut off from her high school peers and prefers to spend time counseling lonely spirits who have unfinished business on earth. But all that changes when Capri (Cravalho, “Moana”), the Queen Bee of the school’s most exclusive clique, unexpectedly dies in a freak hair straightening accident, resulting in the obvious cancellation of her upcoming “Sweet 17.” Capri, however, pleads with Darby from the other side to intervene and convince Capri’s friends to proceed with the party as planned. In order to appease the wrath of the undead diva, Darby must emerge from her self-imposed exile and reinvent herself — which along the way allows her to find new joy back in the land of the living.

Watch the official trailer below.

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I spoke exclusively to Downs and Cravalho about the relationship between their characters, with Downs explaining, “I definitely think there’s more misunderstanding there than they think because they did have a history of being friends. They were close friends as kids, but where we find them both is surprisingly closed off and judgmental of the others around them and specifically of each other because they are such opposites and have taken such different courses in their high school lives.”

Darby undergoes several personal changes to get the attention of her peers and Cravalho shared how this message speaks to Gen Z.

“I think it’s about confidence and putting yourself out there and being open to being seen. But, as Gen Z, we’ve grown up in the age of social media, and so much of our lives are on the internet,” she said.

“There is a certain way to that that people present themselves to get more likes. Darby goes through that. She lets Capri mold her into the perfect image, but perfect is very hard to keep up with, and it’s unattainable because it’s not real. And you see, Darby begins to lose some friendships,” Cravalho continued.

Watch my full conversation with Downs and Cravalho via the clip below.

20th Century Studios’ “Darby and the Dead” also stars Chosen Jacobs, Asher Angel, Wayne Knight, Derek Luke, and Tony Danza. Directed by Silas Howard, the movie begins streaming exclusively on Hulu on December 2.

*Jill Munroe is a Los Angeles-bred entertainment journalist, producer, and host. You can follow her on all social media @StilettoJill or check out JillMunroe.com

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