Ella Bright and Josh Heuston learned piano and guitar from scratch while filming Off Campus, and Bright said the pair were determined to do it without hand doubles. The 19-year-old actor, who plays Hannah Wells in the eight-episode series, said she can now look at the finished work and know the music on screen was theirs.
"I feel very happy to say that it was all me," Bright said of the performance work that went into the role. Heuston plays musician Justin Kohl in the series, which is set to debut all eight episodes on May 13 on Prime Video.
For Bright, the part arrives after a fast climb that began when she started performing at 8, joined Malory Towers at 12 and finished that run at 18. Born in New York City and raised in London, she was cast as Hannah Wells at 19 after a final Zoom call that turned out to be the one that mattered most. "They weren’t there to talk about music," she said of that call, before adding, "I just sobbed my eyes out" when she learned she had the role.
Off Campus was announced in 2024 as an adaptation of Elle Kennedy’s novels, which have sold more than six million copies. Season 1 follows Hannah Wells and Garrett Graham’s fake relationship, set against the elite men’s hockey team at the fictional Briar University in Massachusetts and the women in their lives. The music lesson sequence may sound like a small production note, but it points to what this adaptation is trying to sell: a young cast that had to do the work itself, not just play the part.
The question now is whether that effort translates when the series lands on Prime Video. With all eight episodes arriving on May 13, the show will quickly find out whether viewers come for the book brand and stay for the performances, or whether the promise of hands-on authenticity is what gives Off Campus its edge.
