Chloe Coleman on Leveling Up for My Spy Sequel and Learning to Love Her Curls

Chloe Coleman can never stay away from acting for too long. Even in her attempt to take time off in pursuit of a normal ninth grade experience, the 15-year-old ended up participating in three high school productions. "I love it! And I always want to do it," she exclaims from her bedroom during a Zoom call. Coleman has been performing since the tender age of 5, graduating from commercials to Emmy-winning TV shows (Transparent and Big Little Lies) and blockbuster films (Dungeons & Dragons and Pain Hustlers). For the Los Angeles native, home is wherever she's performing.

In the process of building herself a noteworthy career, Coleman has worked opposite some of Hollywood's most celebrated names, learning from the likes of Emily Blunt, Zoë Kravitz, and Hugh Grant, to name a few. None have left a more indelible mark on the young actor quite like her My Spy co-star Dave Bautista. The two made for a dynamic duo in the 2020 comedy-action film about a recently demoted CIA operative named JJ (Bautista) who finds himself at the mercy of precocious 9-year-old Sophie (Coleman) during a mission surveilling her family. The Amazon Prime Video film was a streaming success, and Coleman and Bautista were a perfect pair, leading to this month's sequel—My Spy: The Eternal City.

After a four-year gap, Coleman couldn't wait to get back to the My Spy world. It meant reteaming with director Peter Segal and her "best friend" Bautista, getting to do even more stunts, and shooting on location in South Africa and Italy. Just like Sophie, she is now a teen with more experience under her belt. As viewers, we are watching Coleman quite literally grow up before our eyes, and if this is Coleman at 15, we can only imagine what's in store for the rising star. We caught up with the actor a few weeks before the film's release to talk about collaborating on Sophie's teen vibe, the special bond between her and Bautista, and finally accepting her signature curls.

Let's go back to the first film, My Spy. You turned 10 while filming that movie and had just come off Big Little Lies. What was it like for you to come on to this big action film in a starring role?

I loved it. I think it was one of the first chemistry reads I had ever done. It was with Dave [Bautista]. I remember being nervous because this is a wrestler guy in my mind that is huge and scary. I met him, and he has such kind eyes and such a kind heart, and it was a really lovely scene. I felt all the nerves go away immediately when I started working with him. That was a really great day. I have the video [of the chemistry read], and I went back and watched it after we finished filming the second one. It was emotional [watching it] because it's so crazy to see how long ago that was and to see how much we've both grown together.

[The film] also felt very naughty to me because it was more adult. I was 9 and like, "Oh, we get to do all this cool stuff, and I get to be sassy." Our director Pete [Segal] was lovely and always made me feel so comfortable as a kid, and I was always treated like one of the adults, and that was really nice. I remember I had a swear jar because there were a ton of people swearing, and that was one of the funniest highlights of the first film. I would go around and be like, "I heard you swear," and we ended up donating the money to the Amazon rainforest later on. It was one of my favorite movies to work on, and the second one was just as fun.

When did you start hearing about a possible sequel, and what were your initial thoughts on where they wanted to take the characters?

When we filmed the first one, we were always like, "There are a lot of ways to go with this." But we really didn't know what the sequel would be about at all. I remember our director Pete started to devise this story about his kid's experience in a traveling choir that goes on an Italy trip. He was like, "What if we made this with Sophie, but we make it super cool and this whole bad-ass adventure about saving the world?" We were like, "Okay, let's see it!" … Originally in the script, Sophie was very boy crazy and very girly, and I was like, "This doesn't feel right. This doesn't feel like Sophie to me." She's a spy. She has her priorities set straight, but she's also being let into this new world of all this high school stuff, and that's what she's more timid about than being a spy. That she knows, but this world of boys and friendship and high school is so new to her.

How did you prepare for the second film physically?

They were like, "We need you to do martial arts, do a skydive simulator, and get you scuba certified." That was very exciting. I spent basically a year doing martial arts training. I did wushu under Master Li Jing. She worked with Michelle Yeoh on Everything Everywhere All at Once. She's so talented. She's incredible. Even when I was working on other projects at the time, I would go after work and train at the gym or the apartment I was staying at. We were constantly working at things. It was a lot of work and very strenuous, but it really paid off because it allowed me to do a lot of the stunts on my own, and that's really what I wanted. It made me feel a part of it. It was cool to be able to do that. I'm really proud of all that work. That year went by, and then they were like, "Okay, we're going to shoot now." I went to Cape Town, South Africa, a month in advance to do even more stunt work, to do choreography, and that's where I got scuba certified.

You filmed My Spy: The Eternal City four years after the first film with a little more acting and stunt experience under your belt. How did shooting this time compare to the first? Did it feel like coming home?

That's exactly what I was going to say. I had never done a sequel before. There are a couple things I want to talk about there. … When I did the first one, I had a lot less knowledge. Now that I'm older, I'm able to be so much more conscious and experience it all as a teenager. The best thing about filming this the second time is it's such a comfortable environment because you know everybody, and the people in Cape Town were so lovely. It just made filming so enjoyable all the time. I was so happy to be back because the first one was such an amazing experience, and the second one was more than I could ask for. Everyone was so close, especially our new cast members, like Craig [Robinson] and Anna [Faris] and Flula [Borg]. And we had kids this time. I love being around adults, but adding kids into the mix, it's like, "This is great!"

What excited you about reprising the role of Sophie now as a teen? You are essentially growing up together.

It was a big teenage role for me that I felt a lot of parallels to. It was really bittersweet, though, aging her up, because we had to come at it from a new perspective. We wanted to keep her attitude and her spunk from the first movie, but she's older now. How does that translate? Also … in the first movie, JJ is her everything. That's like her father essentially. But as every family goes through, there's that withdrawal, and she's wanting her independence in the second film. I hated being mean to Dave. She was such a jerk sometimes. Even to Pete, I was like, "Is this too mean? Are we sure?" It was brutal at times.

When I got the script, I was like, "I want to make mood boards. I want to make a playlist. I really want to picture Sophie." I worked with Pete a lot to be like, "What's her vibe like? How is she dressing now?" We kept it pretty similar to the first movie, but I worked with wardrobe a lot to construct her clothes. I worked with set design to work on her room, which was so fun. It all came out beautifully. I loved that whole process because Sophie is such a personal character to me. Reprising her was just so fun. She's just a cool teen. I wish I was more like her. She definitely has less of a filter than I do. She'll say whatever she's thinking.

Can we talk more about the costume piece of it since you were pretty involved? What was the look you wanted to achieve for her?

I didn't want her to be a spy tomboy because I love her style from the first movie. It's a little bit Parisian because she's from Paris originally. The first ideas were that she was more tomboy now, and she's kind of grunge. I was like, "We can do some of that, but she also has a girly aspect to her." She's very well-rounded as a person. Her wardrobe was very colorful. That was my favorite thing. We had fittings once a week, sometimes twice a week. Especially for some of the fighting sequences, we'd have to make a ton of alterations. For wires especially, we'd be cutting holes everywhere for the wires to go. It was just such a fun process. I love the wardrobe department on that film.

The film follows Sophie on a class trip to Italy, so you got to film a lot in Rome in addition to Cape Town. Did you get to play tourist?

We shot at an empty colosseum, the Colosseum. To me, it was like, "Whoa!" It felt like going back in time. We got a great video of me running around [the Colosseum], and then Ken joins in and starts dancing with me. It was so beautiful. I love Europe. We lived in this great part of town. It was on the most beautiful street in the world, according to an article. We would shoot late sometimes, and I remember it was early in the morning, like 3 a.m., and we were like, "Why don't we go see the Trevi Fountain before we go home?" So we did, and there were still people there. At 3 in the morning, there were like 20 people there just having dinner.

Let's talk about Dave Bautista. I imagine you two have formed a close bond working on these films.

He's just so generous, and he's always been so lovely to me. I think what really shows our friendship is he came and saw my play at my school, which meant the world to me. I think about all the time we've spent together from day one and now look where we are, and he's coming out to support me. It makes me smile. He's such a good friend. Filming with him, we just feed off each other's energy, and I never feel like I'm acting with him, especially in the emotional scenes. It was emotional filming the first movie because we had grown so close during that one, and it's just beautiful to think about JJ and Sophie's connection. Filming the second one, it was easy to pull from that because I love him.

When we were doing press for the first one. We were playing a game, like a true-or-false game, and someone asked me, "Do you think Dave has a Winnie the Pooh tattoo?" I was like, "Yeah, probably. That seems like Dave." He was like, "Nope, I don't have one," and I was like, "Oh, I lost a point." And then he went and got a Winnie the Pooh tattoo for me, and I was like, "That's just the cutest thing ever."

Have you talked about a potential third film?

Yes. A strong trilogy, I'd love to. I don't know where it would go, but I'd love to do it.

You have worked opposite some of Hollywood's most celebrated talent. Who have been the people who have really influenced you in your career thus far?

I'm going to talk about Emily [Blunt] because I think that working with her and being with her on set… She's so inspiring. What is so interesting about her is the way she surrounds herself with loving, caring people who she works with. Her makeup team [and] the people who are helping her are all people that she loves and adores, and it makes her happier and work better. It's creating a good environment around yourself, and I think that's so important. It was so inspiring to see that because it really affects everyone around her. Usually, I experience a lot of child-and-father work, and I loved having a mother because I love my mother, too, so that was a big parallel because she even looks like my mom too. I loved filming [Pain Hustlers] because it was a lot of deep, emotional work. She is such a great actress, and her energy is lovely, and filming with her was always so in the moment. I loved feeling in the moment and improvising with her. I really aspire to be like her.

What is something in film and TV you are looking to do next?

You know what? I would love to do more action because I love stunts. It makes me feel super brave and awesome and empowered and confident. I love women in stunts and action. I did three high school shows, the play and the musical. I love musicals. I love a good, performative show. Theater is so different from film, and the audience factor, where you feed off the audience, it's so crazy. But I'd love to do something like a musical, something with dance. I love dancing.

Unrelated to acting, you have amazing curls. I know our curly-haired readers would love to know any hair essentials you swear by.

One thing that I want to talk about with my curly hair is growing up. I used to hate my curls because it was so hard to maintain, and all my friends had straight hair and could come out and do whatever. It felt like such a burden, and I was like, "Ugh, I wish I had hair like everybody else." I never really straightened my hair, but the times I did, I was just so happy because all my friends would be like, "Wow, your hair is straight. It looks so great." In the transition from eighth grade until now, I started doing my own hair because, you know, I'm going to have to handle it myself one day, so I might as well learn. Once I had it in my control and I gave myself a chance to look at it and enjoy it, I was like "Maybe this isn't such a burden after all." So I started doing my hair, and it's one of my favorite things now. It makes me so happy because it's one of my biggest cultural ties as a mixed girl. It used to be a burden, and now, it's something that I really love about myself. I'm always really proud of my hair. I love styling it.

You know what I started using is Gisou. They have great hair oil that I use all the time. I love their leave-in conditioner for when I'm setting my curls, and then I'll go in with an extra gel or cream to really set them. It gives them a nice cast and keeps them from getting frizzy and whatnot. If I have it slicked back like I do right now, I'll use their hair mask, and it will keep it down. I love their hair products.