Exclusive Interview
‘School Spirits’: Kristian Ventura Explains Simon’s Feelings for Maddie in Season 3
What To Know
- School Spirits star Kristian Ventura discusses the dynamic between Simon, Maddie, and Wally in Season 3.
- He explains if Simon has any romantic feelings for his best friend.
Since School Spirits began, fans have debated whether or not Simon (Kristian Ventura) and Maddie (Peyton List) should get together or remain platonic best friends. There hasn’t been any overt romantic tension between them, especially after Maddie fell for Wally (Milo Manheim) when she was trapped in the afterlife. They’re still trying to make their relationship work in Season 3, despite Maddie returning to the land of the living.
But where does that leave Simon? The start of the season finds him stuck in the ghost world, and the newly-acquainted Simon and Wally are prickly towards each other. Ventura told Swooon it’s because Simon thinks “‘you took my best friend away from me,’ and then [Wally’s] subtext is, ‘Well, you’re trying to take my love from me,’ and you can’t really be too comfortable with someone who does that to your own life.”
Eventually, Simon and Wally find their groove as investigative partners. “Not to make it too weird, but when you both love the same girl in a way — one’s the best friend and that’s his girlfriend — she lives through them,” Ventura explained. “There’s a reason that Maddie and Simon are friends, but there’s also reason why Maddie likes Wally, and there’s some kind of connection to where it’s like, ‘Alright, you’re cool. OK, you’re cool.’ They understand each other.”
Still, we couldn’t help asking Ventura if that friction manifested in part because Simon has unexpressed feelings for Maddie. “I do think that the love triangle is inevitable just because of that’s how life is,” the actor answered. “We only have so many hours in the day, and if hers are delegated to Wally in the afterlife, versus her real life and friends with Simon, there’s going to be that tug of war.”
Ventura pointed out that since it’s two “different kinds of love,” Maddie doesn’t need to make a choice. “I feel like Wally is actually purely ‘I love being with you because you make my life pink.’ I think that Maddie loves Wally because it is so hilarious and romantic. But with Simon, it’s a different sort of thing where it’s like the atoms in her body can just comfortably rest with Simon. They know each other too well. They could finish each other’s sentences. It’s the kind of love where you can’t really go without that person, otherwise you forget who you are. It’s that need, that north and south pole. So I think that they can work, but it always will be a triangle of time, but I think it’s just a different kind of love.”
Regardless, Ventura doesn’t know if he wants Maddie and Simon’s story to go in a romantic direction, at least from an acting standpoint. “I’m not trying to cop out, but I just know that the writers, Megan and Nate [Trinrud], they love each other like that, and they’re brother and sister,” he said. “They need each other. Everything that they do creatively, they collaborate in tandem all the time, and there’s that need. And [Maddie and Simon] could be romantic, but it’s almost kind of more fulfilling to receive something in a film or a television show where it resembles something other than, like, ‘I want to take you to bed.'”
School Spirits, Season 3, Wednesdays, Paramount+
