Joseph Zada on The Hunger Games, Playing Tennis and Becoming Johnny Sinclair

Words and Videography: Charlotte Amy Landrum | Photography: Lewis Vorn | Creative Direction: Ione Gamble | Special thanks to: Mackenzie Rutledge and Allie Hall

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This is part of our cover feature on your new favourite TV show, We Were Liars. To read the full story and enter the world of The Liars, click here. 

The phrase ‘rising star’ is thrown around a lot, but sometimes it’s necessary, and that’s the case with We Were Liars’ Joseph Zada. The 20 year old Australian actor may have already been on your screen in the queer drama series Invisible Boys, but he is soon to be in cinemas next year in The Hunger Games prequel Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping as young Haymitch. Before that, though, he’s taking part in bringing the E. Lockhart novel to life as Johnny Sinclair.

Like the rest of his family, Johnny is blessed with gorgeous summers at the Massachusetts Sinclair estate, and at first glance he embodies the preppy rich boy most of us outside of that world would be wary of: mischievous, overly confident, and unapologetically basking in his luxurious lifestyle. Despite the optics, Johnny has problems he can’t wash away with his parents credit card as he joins the other three Liars, Cadence, Mirren and Gat, in their messy network of secrets against the backdrop of the idyllic Beechwood island summer. 

To celebrate the show's release, I sat down with Joseph nine months after my trip to the set of We Were Liars to discuss tennis stars, filming East of Eden, and being tribute. 

Polyester: Hi Joseph! What was the process of being cast as Johnny like?

I was shooting Invisible Boys and I had two days to turn over the audition tape in the middle of shooting; it was a hectic week. I'd seen the script going around about a year earlier as one of my friends had auditioned for it, but I wasn't old enough at that point. I only recently turned 18 when I got the audition through, but it had all been stopped for the strikes which allowed me to get my shot in. I was probably one of the last people to audition. 

About a week after I got an email saying they wanted me to jump on Zoom in 24 hours. I was on set at my lunch breaks reading over my lines and secretly getting other people in the cast to read it with me, which is probably not very appropriate, but man’s got to work.

I fell in love with the team immediately. I remember jumping in to the last call back and it felt like I had already gotten it. The showrunners Julie [Plec] and Carina [Adly MacKenzie] were so happy to have me there, and I felt like I was already part of a family. I found out I got the role on a random morning on my day off - it was probably the happiest I've ever been.

What was your favourite day on set?

We had this one brilliant day on set where it was the hottest day of summer in Nova Scotia while we were there, and it's where we had a lot of the scenes in episode three where we're at the beach. I'm either coming out of the water or I'm half wet, so it meant every time between filming, I was either sunbathing or swimming. It was a great day. I loved that because I didn't really get to swim much in Nova Scotia, because the water is freezing, but it was the perfect day for it. 

Congratulations on being cast in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping. How are you feeling about it?

Very excited, very nervous. It feels like I am a tribute and the capital is all the viewers watching to see whether I'm ever going to act again. But I'm so excited, the cast is incredible, and I'm excited for everyone else to see who else is in it.

You have East of Eden coming up too. You have so much lined up.

We just finished filming so I spent the last six months back and forth from New Zealand shooting. That's a very exciting project.

I haven't stopped working in a year and a half. I was telling everyone on set of East of Eden towards the end that I was excited for a break but as the universe does its thing, I'm working again, which is so amazing but I am a little tired. I do find energy with each new thing to sink my teeth into though.

What would your ideal holiday be?

I just want to go to London and watch Arsenal. I’m a massive football fan. I’ll just sit in London, I don't care what they say about the weather, as long as I get to watch the football every weekend, I'm happy.

How did you prepare for your We Were Liars role? Were there any specific performances you looked to?

I have a lot of ways of preparing but I'm also very new to the game, so I don't want to set anything in stone right now. I'm young, I want to be able to experiment with a bunch of different ways and a bunch of different processes.

For this I played a lot of tennis. I feel like that was a way for me to physically get into the character and also get some physical exercise in. I’ve been playing tennis since I was very young, until I was about 14 but then I stopped. When this came around, I was able to pick it up again. 

I watched a lot of John McEnroe as well. He's a famous American tennis player, and I feel like him and Johnny have a lot of similarities. I watched a lot of him to try and feel his energy and the way that he talked. I feel like Emily [Lockhart] pulls from F. Scott Fitzgerald a lot, so I read Gatsby too.

Do you have any words for the We Were Liars fans?

Get excited, tell your friends, and if they ask you how it ends, just lie about it.