HELLO! India Exclusive: Noah Centineo isn’t done with romance just yet

There was a time when Noah Centineo could make an entire generation swoon simply by looking at someone across a room. A charming smile, a well-timed confession and the kind of earnestness that made fictional boyfriends seem impossibly attainable. Centineo had the rom-com formula down to an art. Recently, the actor who became synonymous with Netflix-era romantic comedies has been making room for a different kind of leading man. From the swoon-worthy Peter Kavinsky in To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before to now, Ken in Street Fighter, Centineo has been testing the limits of the image audiences first fell in love with. The shift has offered a glimpse of his range but there is one question that continues to follow him: will he ever return to romance? The answer, thankfully for the girlies who still have a soft spot for his rom-com era, is yes...potentially.

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In an exclusive conversation with HELLO! India, Centineo makes it clear that his departure from the genre isn’t a permanent goodbye. “Nothing is permanent,” he says, adding that this applies to the genres and characters he chooses to take on. “So I’m very open to featuring in a rom-com.” 

Centineo isn’t closing the door on the genre that helped make him a household name. He is simply allowing himself the freedom to explore what else he can do. For an actor whose early career was so closely associated with romance, that willingness to step away matters. The success of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before made him one of the defining faces of a particular rom-com moment, when streaming platforms were giving young audiences their own roster of romantic heroes. Peter Kavinsky became the sort of character whose appeal extended beyond the story: confident without being unkind, vulnerable without losing his charm, and just self-aware enough to make the grand romantic gestures work.

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When asked about a possible return to romantic roles, Centineo points to another actor who, in his view, is doing a rather spectacular job of keeping the genre alive: Callum Turner. “I saw him in two films, One Night Only and Eternity,” Centineo says. “I gotta say, him and Monica Barbara are just electric. I watched that movie and was screaming. I loved it so much,” he says, praising their on-screen connection. “They’re both so good together, and they’re so sexy and beautiful. Their chemistry is ridiculous.” “I wanna see them go on a run like McConaughey and Cameron,” he says, referring to Matthew McConaughey and Cameron Diaz, whose collaborations helped define a memorable stretch of mainstream romantic comedy. “I wanna see them do more together. That’s what I would like to see.”

For now, though, he is enjoying the opportunity to surprise them. Playing Ken in Street Fighter places him in a very different world from the intimate confessions and carefully timed romantic gestures that made him famous. It is a shift that allows him to explore a new physicality and a different kind of screen presence, while reminding audiences that an actor’s range need not be limited by the role that first made them fall in love with him.

There is also something refreshing about his approach to the idea of a comeback. Centineo doesn’t speak about romance as a genre he has outgrown, nor does he appear to be chasing a return simply because audiences remember him best that way. Instead, he leaves the possibility open, without making promises about when or how it might happen. And perhaps that is the best news for fans. The door to a Noah Centineo romantic lead remains open; it just isn’t the only door he wants to walk through.

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