“I felt very possessed by Nick Robinson,” Leah McKendrick tells EW.

*Voicemails for Isabelle *director reveals the surprising fun fact that played a part in Zoey Deutch and Nick Robinson’s casting

"I felt very possessed by Nick Robinson," Leah McKendrick tells EW.

By Tiffany Kelly

Tiffany Kelly

Tiffany Kelly is a staff editor at **. She has been working at EW since 2024. Her work has previously appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Wired, GQ, and Ars Technica.

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June 26, 2026 1:18 p.m. ET

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Nick Robinson as Wes and Zoey Deutch as Jill in 'Voicemails for Isabelle'. Credit:

Diyah Pera/Netflix

- *Voicemails for Isabelle *director Leah McKendrick talks to EW about finding the perfect leading man for her rom-com.

- Stars Zoey Deutch and Nick Robinson have known each other since high school, but they had never worked together.

- “I felt very possessed by Nick Robinson," McKendrick shares.**

When Leah McKendrick was searching for the perfect leading man to costar with Zoey Deutch in the rom-com *Voicemails for Isabelle*, she had one requirement.

The filmmaker wanted Deutch, with whom she was friends before making the Netflix film, to feel really comfortable with the lead actor. Ideally, the love interest was someone Deutch already knew.

"But the problem is, there’s a lot of actors that she loves and has a history with," McKendrick tells **. "She’s been in the game for a long time."

McKendrick says she met with a lot of actors, but Nick Robinson stood out to her right away. Robinson actually went to high school with Deutch in Los Angeles, but the pair, both 31, had never worked together. The fact that they had known each other since they were teenagers, however, ended up being a factor in deciding to cast them together.

"It was pretty clear to me that she had something really special with Nick," the* Scrambled* director shares, "and when I met him, I was blown away by how just sweet, sincere, genuine, Pacific Northwest homegrown sweetheart he was. But also every time he would smile, I would get butterflies."

McKendrick also felt like she was getting signs from the universe to cast Robinson, who previously starred in *Love, Simon* and* Jurassic World*.

Nick Robinson as Wes in 'Voicemails for Isabelle'.

Courtesy of Netflix

When she had a breakfast meeting with the actor, she learned that he was from Whidbey Island in Washington (where *Practical Magic *was filmed) — and she was coincidentally headed there later that day for her cousin’s bachelorette party.

"We were texting, and I remember being, like, on the beach in this beautiful little beach house, and it was the most magical place and unlike anywhere I'd ever been," she says. "And I was looking out at the water, and I remember thinking that he was just everywhere."

"I felt very possessed by Nick Robinson that weekend," she adds.

At the chemistry read with Deutch and Robinson, it became clear that the writer-director found the right leads for the film.

"Even before they did the read, when they were just laughing together and talking, you could just see that there was just such a beautiful spark and trust and warmth," McKendrick tells EW. "And I was like, 'We're just gonna bottle this up and put it on screen.'"

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With the success of *Voicemails for Isabelle — *the film sits on the streamer’s No.2 global spot a week after its premiere — will Deutch and Robinson team up for another rom-com?

McKendrick says she’s definitely interested in working with the pair again in the future — when they all have time.

"We had so much fun, but we're all busy," she shares. "We have projects, and we all need vacations at some point. Someday, we're gonna pull this together. We just need to round up."

McKendrick has been tapped to write and direct a Shania Twain biopic for Sony Pictures, while Deutch next stars in the comedy *Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass*. Robinson, meanwhile, plays Joe Kennedy Jr. in Netflix’s upcoming *Kennedy* series.

Nick Robinson as Wes and Zoey Deutch as Jill in 'Voicemails for Isabelle'.

Diyah Pera/Netflix

"It's not about if, it's just when," says McKendrick on working with the actors again.

For now, McKendrick is enjoying the response to *Voicemails for Isabelle*.

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"I've been getting messages about people who have lost loved ones and thanking me, telling me that it's a reminder that grief and joy can coexist," she says.

*Voicemails for Isabelle *is now streaming on Netflix.

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