Since Amazon’s hit series Off Campus premiered in May, the show has become a phenomenon while its cast members have risen to star status – especially season one lead, Ella Bright.
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Bright plays the role of Hannah Wells, a college music major who suddenly has to enter (and ideally, win) a campus Pop Showcase to keep her scholarship. While her character is a longtime singer-songwriter, such skills were totally foreign to Bright herself. Yet, her vocal moments throughout the show are some of its greatest highlights, from her belting Elton John’s “The Bitch Is Back” in a multicolor boa to crushing “Cherry Pie” at the fictional bar Malone’s during karaoke night. The former saw a 577% increase in weekly official on-demand U.S. streams (for the tracking week ending May 21) according to Luminate, while the latter enjoyed a 122% boost. “Cherry Pie” even scored Bright her first Billboard chart entry, reaching No. 18 on Hot Hard Rock Songs this July.
And while both covers took off outside of the show, neither could compete with “Girl That I Am,” the sole original song that provides the series’ emotional peak. Co-written by Grammy-winning songwriters Amy Allen and Ethan Gruska, the soaring pop song has raked in 4.9 million official on-demand U.S. streams, according to Luminate. The show’s deluxe soundtrack, which arrived July 23 on Island Records, includes a rendition by Suki Waterhouse – who this August welcomed Bright on stage during her Vancouver tour stop (where the Off Campus cast is currently filming season two) to perform the song together.
The experience, says Bright, only affirmed her desire to dive deeper into her artistry outside of the show. Having learned guitar and piano for the role of Hannah, she says she’s “obsessed with it now.” She even bought herself an amp – “that was the first thing I did when I got home after filming season one.”
Speaking from her Vancouver apartment (which she lives in while filming), she shares that her acoustic guitar is always nearby – which Allen is pleased to hear. “I want to hear any and all music that she ever works on, because I’m a huge fan now,” says Allen over Zoom in Los Angeles. “I just think you’re a star.”
Below, Bright and Allen reveal how “Girl That I Am” came together, whether Bright’s character Hannah will share more music in season two and the moment that made Bright herself want to record music as herself.
“I will do it – I think,” she says. “Which is something I never thought I’d say.”
To which Allen replies: “We’ll do it someday soon.”
Read on for a condensed version of their conversation.
You two recently met for the first time in L.A. Tell me how that went.
Ella: It was at the Island Records party in L.A. and it was a celebration of the music and the soundtrack of the show. I’m such a huge fan and have been for so many years, so it was a pinch me moment, for sure.
Amy: I didn’t realize how many music people were going to be there that night. I wanted to sit down in the corner with Ella and just ask her a million questions, because I fell in love with the show. And I told you that night, Ella, I was like, “I think one of the hardest things, in my opinion, to do as an actor, is to play somebody that is a songwriter.” Because it’s such an intimate thing, and to be on screen doing it… When I saw the first 10 seconds of the show, I was like, “Oh, she’s phenomenal.”
There were so many people there, but we got a little bit of quality time. And I told her that I want to hear any and all music that she ever works on because I’m a huge fan. I said to you, “We need to write together now, obviously. You tell me when.”
Amy, what is it about Ella’s voice and her delivery that sold you on her as a songwriter and artist in the show?
Amy: I feel so lucky in the way that I get to work with a lot of artists, and with a lot of people who are getting into music at such a vulnerable time in their life. Late teen years is such fertile ground for going through huge emotions. And I think there’s so few people that can channel that in such an honest, direct way.
And I just immediately — with [“Girl That I Am”], they sent me a video of you, Ella, when you were filming it. There’s so many moving parts all around her, but I just felt so much honesty and vulnerability coming from her the very first second that I saw her performing it. When you’re singing I immediately believe you, and I want to know everything that you have to say. And I feel like that’s such an exciting feeling to get when you’re watching an artist perform. And then watching you do it with Suki! I saw videos of it the other night. I love Suki. You guys sounded incredible together.
Ella: Oh, that was so amazing. That was such a fun experience. She’s the best.
Ella, did you catch the bug now? Do you want to be back on stage?
Ella: Yeah, I knew that was going to happen. t was completely organic how it happened; [Suki] just DM’d me and was like, “Hey…I’m coming to Vancouver if you want to come to the show let me know.” And then she was like, “Would you want to come on stage?” And I was like, “Well, I cannot say no at all.” I knew as soon as I got off that stage it was just the coolest thing ever. I would love to do that again, for sure.
Amy: Did it feel so different, Ella, when you were performing on stage versus when you’re on set?
Ella: It’s so immediate, performing and then having an audience react at the same time, where it’s not filmed in separate parts – it was a completely different experience. I was very nervous, but the whole cast showed up, that meant the world to me. That kind of calmed me down. But yeah, singing and watching people react at the same time is something so special. Because on set we were filming in completely different parts. Most of the parts when I was singing and looking to Garrett or Allie, it’s me looking at some tape on the camera box.
Amy, did you get to see edits of the show when you were writing the song?
Amy: No. I think they sent me the pilot at one point. Maybe after I had done the first draft of the song, but I had gotten a lot of materials before that. I had gotten big chunks of the script just so I could understand the character [of Hannah].
The reason why I love writing for film and TV is it’s so different than when you sit down and write with an artist or for an artist because there’s so many beats to try to incorporate. It’s not just somebody sitting down and being like, “This happened to me last week. I need to write about it.” It’s like, “So when she was 17, this happened, and now she’s here,” and it’s this huge thing of pulling pieces together and still making it feel honest and vulnerable. When I heard Ella’s voice, it made so much more sense to me in who I was writing it for and how to fit all those pieces together.
Were you guys shocked, Ella? Of course you guys knew it was an amazing piece of work while you were doing it, I’m sure, but the response was just wild.
Ella: What I’m really grateful for is I had 24 hours – less than – in London between press and filming season two. I didn’t really get to be home and experience what was going on, we just went right back to work. And yes, when we go outside people do recognize us — but we’re [there] as a group, so it makes sense to me. It feels surreal, I don’t think I’ve even processed it myself.
Amy: It just hit a nerve with so many people in the best way possible.
Ella, you mentioned hearing “Girl That I Am” for the first time while filming. At what point were you told Amy Allen wrote it?
Ella: So that was before. What happens is, I’ve never been on a show like this, we get two episodes at a time per block. So we all signed onto the show having only read the first two, having literally no idea what was going to happen in the course of the show.
What’s happening right now [for season two] is we’ve only gotten the first four episodes, so we’re here until September. I don’t know what we’re filming, which is really funny. I had read the book, and I knew that Hannah has a showcase, and I kept asking [showrunner] Louisa [Levy], “Are they going to do it? Are they going to do it?” And she was like, “Yes, and we’re having this really exciting songwriter.” And I was like, “Who is it? Who is it?” And then I remember I was on set and they were like, “Okay, we’ve finally gotten the green light to tell you.” And I was just screaming. I was like, “There’s no way.”
Amy: That is so funny. Did you know about songwriters though, Ella? I feel like it’s such a new thing. I’m so intrigued by people knowing songwriters, which I think is awesome for visibility. But it’s such a new thing that people are catching on like, “Oh, I love this songwriter.”
Ella: No, literally. It’s really cool because I think with the Grammys, I love watching all of that. And having the songwriter category, obviously, I love how visibility is [increasing]. It’s amazing. You guys are the most talented people. So I was properly excited, and I was like, “This is just unbelievable… This is crazy that this is an original song that I get to sing.” I don’t know how your brain works to do any of this. It’s so cool.
Amy: We’re gonna do it someday. We’ll do it someday soon.
Ella: Yes. We are. I’m so excited.
Ella, going into this, did you have any friends who are songwriters or artists that you could consult with?
Ella: Not really. To be fair, I have a best friend group that I grew up on a show with, and we would always do karaoke night. They’re all musical theater kids and incredibly talented. And while growing up, I would never have called myself a singer. I was always the one recording them, I would never sing with them.
Amy: Stop.
Ella: And so I remember they were the first people I told about this job. And the mic drop at the end of telling them all about the character was like, “Oh, and she’s a singer.” And they all went, “There’s no way.”
Amy: Stop.
Ella: And they were just laughing. And I was like, “No, I’m cooked. I can’t do it.” And then I remember coming back home after doing the whole of the show, and I was like, “I have a couple of the songs that I can play you guys” — because they would send me on Dropbox the somewhat-finalized version before even the show was cut together. And I played it, and a lot of them cried, which was really such a special moment for me.
Amy: Were you playing guitar and piano before the show?
Ella: No. I had very mediocre guitar skills — and then I learned [how to play] for the show, which was stressful.
Do you find yourself still picking up the guitar outside of when you’re Hannah?
Ella: Yeah, I’ve got my guitar [here]. I’m obsessed with it now. We have a couple music bits for the show, so I have my piano set up. Doing piano and guitar is what I’ve fallen in love with. I got to keep the pink electric guitar that [Hannah plays] in “Girl That I Am.” They gifted it to me at the end of the shoot, so it’s up in my wall at home and I started playing it all the time. I bought myself an amp, that was the first thing I did when I got home after filming season one. And I got my acoustic that I brought here.
It felt like we were all in some sort of training camp. The guys were doing hockey lessons and I was doing the music, and we were all learning for our characters. And I loved Louisa’s want to have it be as authentic as possible. No hand doubles were used for any of the music bits. I’m really proud of that.
Amy: There is one part, I forget what episode it was, but you’re writing and kind of in the air playing guitar. I would even struggle with that, having played guitar since I was, like, seven. That was legit. I’ve watched so many shows that incorporate music and songwriters, and sometimes people get it, and then other times you’re like, “It’s hard for a reason.” It’s so hard to use that really intimate skill and have that transfer over. But I thought you were phenomenal. Sorry, I’m just fan girling now.
Is songwriting something that you want to explore as well, Ella?
Ella: I’d love to. I used to write songs when I was younger, like 13 to 15. Nothing that I would’ve ever shown anybody. But I always loved it. I loved English in school, writing stories and poems. And I had my four power chords that I knew. So that’s definitely something I’ve gotten more into obviously since doing the show. I’d love to learn more about it and refine that a lot more.
Is it difficult while you’re filming the show to write songs that aren’t inherently inspired by the character?
Ella: I love Hannah so much because I do feel a lot of similarities between me and her. Like coming home and playing guitar, it’s very therapeutic for me. And even though I’m writing or just playing songs and that’s super Hannah Wells coded, it still feels like a separation. And there’s less music this year just because it’s not a focus on Hannah and Garrett’s story; Hannah’s really thinking about her future and music producing and what she wants to do after college this season.
So that’s really fun, because I do feel [a throughline of] season one, her finding a voice – me too. And season two, wanting to think about the future and I feel that too with my music, which is so cool. I love that it’s also carried through when I’m not filming.
In addition to performing with Suki, Niall Horan also hopped on your cover of “Baby Now That I Found You” from the show. How did that feel?
Ella: I knew that they had some sort of collab planned, but I didn’t know who it was and I didn’t even know what song it was. Also, Hannah Wells is a huge One Direction fan. Obviously, I am too. So that was very full circle. It was unbelievable, and he DM’d me.
Amy: Niall is the sweetest boy in the world.
Amy, who else do you think would compliment Ella’s voice on “Girl That I Am?”
Amy: I love how inherently girlhood that song is. And Suki, when I saw the video, I DM’d her and she was like, “I felt like I was singing to my teenage self.” Which is so beautiful. Honestly, Stevie Nicks [would complement Ella]… Somebody that is a version of you that is at a different place in life, and singing that song to somebody. Almost like when Sabrina did “Please Please Please” with Dolly [Parton]. There’s these two iterations of women that are singing a song so beautifully together, that are at different places and have seen so many different things and can connect through this very relatable constant that you’ll probably feel forever. And so that would be my dream.
So, Ella, do you want to record a proper album? Have you started dreaming about what an artist career would look like for you?
Ella: I don’t think I imagined I would be thinking about this, even when I was filming the show. It just felt so Hannah. And then when the show came out a lot of the messages that I got about the songs really took me aback…It was my first time hearing my voice back, and it was just really overwhelming. So to hear from other people, thinking that I’d sung for a long time was just really crazy. Pursuing that myself is something I never thought that I would be able to do or felt confident enough [to do].
It’s been very special to dream big about that, and that’s been very recent for me in the past month. And obviously, I think performing [capped] that off. I was like, “Yeah, I literally will die if I don’t get to do this again.” And how cool would it be to sing a song that is about my life, that I walked through? So yeah, I’m definitely thinking about it now and will do it – I think. Which is something I never thought I’d say.
