Cree on belonging and community

In the last year, Cree starred alongside Isabela Merced and Felix Mallard in the film adaptation of John Green’s Turtles All the Way Down. The young adult novel follows the spiraling narrative of a teenager (Merced) navigating love and life amidst a diagnosis of obsessive compulsive disorder. 

“It was a beautiful experience that I will treasure forever, and I imagine Daisy will always be one of the most beloved characters that I’ve played,” she says. “We really enjoyed working with each other and had a lot of fun every day.” The positivity set forth by director Hannah Marks built an ideal working environment of faith and trust, cultivating strong relationships between the cast and crew. 

Prior to shooting Turtles, Cree characterized herself as reserved and introverted, even mildly antisocial. Tasked with cracking jokes and extracting humor from an otherwise heavy script, it was Daisy’s outgoing persona that helped Cree break out of her shell. “Daisy’s sparkly, pink-haired energy woke up a loving and adventurous part of me that hadn’t been active in a while.”

Green’s involvement as an executive producer allowed Cree to effectively honor her role as Daisy, attuning her performance to his original work. She intended to do the character justice and defy the typical best friend trope, portraying Daisy’s complexity as three-dimensionally as Green had written. “I wanted to walk the line that John and Hannah and our screenwriters wrote so beautifully,” she says. “All of us on set recognized how strong the book reader fanbase was and how much it really meant to people. It immediately meant so much to us as we had all read the book.” 

Working alongside Merced, her friend and longtime partner in the industry, allowed for an even more enjoyable experience on set. “It was really special to go into a project playing a best friend to someone where there is already a level of history and comfort,” she reflects. “We were on children’s television together at the same time. We’ve spent many years at the same parties and the same dinner tables. This was our chance to really develop our own dynamic one-on-one and get to know each other on a more personal level.”

Cree holds the values and messages behind the project close to her heart. A central theme of Turtles is mental health, something she’s always valued growing up. “In my family, with my mom in particular, we’ve always had really open, honest conversations about mental health,” Cree shares. “It’s definitely been a big aspect of my coming of age and my growing up, and it was an honor to be part of media that discusses it in the way Turtles does.”

Cree praises screenwriters Elizabeth Berger and Isaac Aptaker for handling the delicate topic of mental health with care — ultimately producing an honest portrayal of mental health in teens. “We thought of the book and the film as part of a broader conversation on mental health,” Cree says. “It was so important to us that a huge part of that conversation was the very uncomfortable aspect of how one’s struggle with mental health affects the people around them.”