Katherine McNamara and Joel Courtney have been friends for over four years, and it all started with their movie Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn, which recently came out on DVD! The actors met during their audition for the film – Kat plays Becky Thatcher and Joel plays Tom Sawyer – and have pretty much been inseparable ever since.
When we chatted with the besties about their new movie, they agreed that filming on location in Bulgaria really kick started their long lasting friendship.
“When you end up in a foreign country where everyone speaks Bulgarian…” Kat started. “That’s when you become friends,” Joel finished.
Over the past few years Joel and Kat have pretty much achieved the ultimate friendship goals.
“We’ve [stayed] really close friends. It’s nice to have somebody you can always text no matter what time it is and talk to about whatever,” Kat exclusively told j14
Since the movie wrapped in 2011, both stars’ careers have taken off. Kat recently finished filming the second movie in the Maze Runner franchise, The Scorch Trials, and is working on The Fosters, and Joel’s new CW show The Messengers premiered earlier this month.
“You always want your friends to do well, and you always want the people you really care about to be successful and do what they really love,” Kat said about Joel’s success. “It’s really nice to be able to watch someone grow, and be successful, and do great things.”
And while both actors are incredibly supportive of each other, their busy schedules have definitely limited the time they’ve been able to spend together.
“It’s impossible to hang out with Kat [now] because she’s always working on something,” Joel told us.
“We have to coordinate our schedules because when one of us is in LA, the other’s gone shooting something,” Kat adds. “And that’s why Facetime is a beautiful thing.”
When their schedules do work out, Kat told us that they like to plan “crazy vacations” or do “something spontaneous.” Talk about the cutest BFFs ever!
