Noah Centineoâs fanbase is growing â and he has no complaints.
The actor, 28, broke out on the scene as Jake T. Austinâs replacement in The Fosters and then reached heartthrob status with his role in the To All the Boys Iâve Loved Before movies. He now plays CIA lawyer Owen Hendricks in Netflixâs The Recruit, and the espionage thriller is scoring him a different kind of brownie points.
âWhatâs really cool is that, when I go visit my father, he lives in Arizona, his friends wanna have beers with me now,â Centineo said on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Wednesday, Jan. 28.
Thereâs been a total âdemo changeâ heâs noticed, which has been âinteresting and coolâ to experience as his fans have gone from primarily lovestruck teenagers to a wider group of people. âIâll be at an airport and, you know, itâll be parents and kids and theyâll know me from different things,â he continued. âWhich sounds a little bit narcissistic for me to even say that out loud, but itâs different.â
Season 2 of the hit series, which premieres Jan. 30, comes more than two years after season 1, which saw Centineo play inexperienced CIA lawyer Owen Hendricks, who was dragged into an international blackmail scandal somewhat accidentally.
He told PEOPLE at the time that he wanted to take on an action role as he âgot older after the rom-com phaseâ following the success of the To All the Boys⊠trilogy, which he said he was âso blessedâ to have experienced. âTo be able to be a part of something that impactful, that was rare,â he said. âIt was a really special experience.â
Of The Recruit, he continued, âAnd we found an interesting way into that, playing a superhero [in Black Adam] and then into The Recruit. My character is a fish out of water in an action show, which I thought was an interesting way to move out of romcom and still maintain it.â
In season 2, his character is âpulled into a life-threatening espionage situation in South Korea, only to realize that the bigger threat just might be coming from insideâ the CIA after all. This time, Past Livesâ Teo Yoo joins the fun as a South Korean intelligence agent who crosses paths with Owen and leads him on yet another dangerous adventure.
âTeo is so funny,â Centineo told PEOPLE of the BAFTA-nominated actor, 43. âHe was hilarious. This season in particular, it was very hard not to break.â
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The Recruit season 2 premieres Jan. 30 on Netflix and season 1 is now streaming.
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