Grace Van Patten will neither confirm nor deny if she has an off-screen romance with Jackson White. ET's Deidre Behar spoke with the 25-year-old Tell Me Lies actress, who stayed mostly mum about her personal relationship with her co-star on the Hulu series.
"Fans should just leave it up for mystery, keep it fun," Patten told ET of romance rumors swirling around her and White. "Who knows?"
While she wouldn't feed into the speculation, Van Patten said she has no issue with fans' interest in her off-screen life.
"It doesn't bother me at all. It's fun. It's fun like any other discussion about the show," she said. "It's engaging and it's hilarious. I love it."
As for how she feels about White, 26, Van Patten gushed, "It's so fun getting to do all of this together. It's just great. We never stop hanging out with the cast. We hang out all the time."
White has similarly amorous feelings toward Van Patten.
"I have such a crush on her. I hope so. I hope [us dating] that happens. I don't know," White said on Dear Media's Not Skinny But Not Fatpodcast. "Our lives are built in together. We have so much to do together."
"She's the f**king coolest, most grounded, amazing person IRL that you'll ever meet," he added. "It's crazy... She's the best. I had a huge crush on her... I'm obsessed with her because she's f**king amazing."
The co-stars similarly praised each other's performances on the show. Van Patten plays college freshman Lucy Albright, who falls for and enters a toxic relationship with White's Stephen DeMarco, a manipulative upperclassman.
"He's so brilliant. That part is so hard for an actor, to do all these terrible things [and] to still maintain some empathy," Van Patten told ET. "I remember his first audition, he came in and he was saying all these mean things, all of these questionable things, but you still cared for him and you still were curious and weirdly drawn to him. I think that is what makes it so the audience is passionate about it."
"If he was just only hated, it wouldn't work. It was really important for us to have the audience be... confused by him and just as intrigued and enamored. He just killed it," she added. "We, the whole cast, got so close and it was just endless discussions about the dynamic of the relationship and making each other feel really safe and cozy, so that we could do all these terrible things to each other."
White returned the kind words on the podcast, calling Van Patten "the fearless leader on our show."
"She is 25 years old and she runs a set like she's been doing this for f**king 30 years. She's so consistent and grounded and f**king good at this. I felt like I just followed her lead," he said. "... Stephen is so intense, he's so manipulative, he's so crazy at times that I had a hard time being that guy and then they yell 'cut' and then I have to be myself. That was really hard for me. Grace was so good at compartmentalizing the character and then herself."
In addition to their characters' blowout verbal fights, Van Patten and White also had a lot of intimate scenes together throughout the run of the series.
"There's so much that goes into that. For a scene that's supposed to be spontaneous and sexy, it is the most technical [thing] that requires so much conversation," Van Patten told ET. "There's an intimacy coordinator, so we just go through the whole thing and there's no surprises. It's always very to the book and planned... That always makes an actor feel comfortable and safe."
White echoed that on the podcast, explaining, "There are people who are making it so safe for you. There's a f**king intimacy coordinator who's coaching you on feeling safe and comfortable in the room. She's literally there to make sure nothing is sketchy and make sure everyone is feeling OK."
"We have to have a lot of advocacy and consent... You have camera guys who are so professional. They look away when you're de-robing. You've got costume people there taking care of you, putting your robe on, putting a thing in front of you while you get into the position," he said. "You're talking to the other actor. You're like, 'You good? You good? You all right? Is this cool? Can I touch you there?' And then you just do it and then you stop and then a costumer runs in and covers your little butt up and then you go to lunch."
While White said that the scenes are "very controlled," he did admit that the experience of filming them is "f**king wild."
"That's the closest two people can be in a movie or TV show. That's insane," he said. "You never know what that's like and then it's so weird. It's so intimate and you're just meeting these people. It's the weirdest job."
Van Patten and White's interviews came ahead of the Tell Me Lies season 1 finale, which will be available on Hulu Oct. 26.
"What I really like about the show is that... none of it is stereotypical or is going the way you think it's going. It's very twisty and turn-y, and it's going to take you for a ride," Van Patten told ET. "... Your jaw will drop. Multiple times it will be on the floor... Just strap in. Buckle your seatbelts."
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