Anna Cathcart Features in Rollacoaster's SS26 Issue

Anna Cathcart is a realist.

She’s not into manifesting; she doesn’t rely on the laws of fate. Her sister says her greatest skill is killing inspirational quotes.

And yet, her life reads like something she wouldn’t quite believe in.

I connect with her via Zoom while she’s still in LA—soaking up the last of the sun rays before she gets back home to a “freezing” Vancouver in a few days. We soon realise we’re chatting exactly a fortnight until XO, Kitty’s third season makes its much-anticipated premiere. I put it down to kismet… But Anna has other ideas.

“It feels very unromantic for me to say this, but I’m not someone who necessarily believes in destiny or thinks that everything happens for a reason,” she shares from her kitchen table. It comes as a shock… Much of the 22-year-old’s journey thus far feels like the ultimate example of the stars aligning in perfect sequence, after all. “Honestly, I believe it’s a mix of luck, being at the right place at the right time, talent and hard work,” she attributes to her success story. But that doesn’t make it less magical to her. Quite the opposite; it makes it all the more unbelievable.

In the beginning, Anna was shy. “That also surprises people,” she says. “Especially a lot of people in my circle when I became an actor, because they were like, ‘Is this the same kid that hid behind her parents’ legs and would cry if she had to speak to someone she didn’t know?’” Attention was not her MO as a child, opting to make fake commercials and music videos with her sister—the only audience being her parents. The co-stars she had came in the form of her toys, spending her play time making up a new story for each of them. Eventually, the obsession with storytelling grew. Namely, devouring every show aired on Disney Channel (Shake It Up, she informs me, being the favourite)—“I joke now that I’m so grateful to my parents for letting a kid watch that much TV,” she laughs. She’d memorise every word, re-enact every scene. And yet, that shy streak never allowed her to imagine a world in which she’d be the star. “I was so invested in that world, and it felt so sparkly and magical, but it also felt unreachable,” she clarifies. “I never expected to even put my foot into that world. At that time, I had never acted at all.”

Yet, by 13, Anna didn’t just have a foot in the door—she was all in. It was her wide-eyed eagerness, her genuine excitement for a great story, that made her the perfect fit to play Kitty Song Covey. She was cast in 2017 before the To All the Boys I've Loved Before franchise made its Netflix debut. “At the time, it was one movie—it wasn’t even three yet. It wasn’t even a Netflix film when we shot it; it was pretty independent. It was not at all in my mind that it could become something that lasts this many years,” she recalls. The career she’d embark on, taking the part, wasn’t something Anna could have ever dreamed of. At the time, she simply regarded it as her ticket to becoming “a real life Hannah Montana”. What’s more, she almost didn’t take the role altogether.

“I almost didn’t even do Kitty,” she reaffirms. “Not because I didn’t love the character, I loved her from the start, but there were scheduling conflicts. At the time, I was a stubborn 13-year-old, and I didn’t want to dye my hair—and they originally wanted me to dye my hair black to match Lana [Condor] and Janel [Parrish]. I was so not realising the impact this was gonna have.” Luckily, Anna soon realised Kitty had “all the fun lines” of the script – and sported a “feminist” necklace in every outfit – and so, stubbornness aside, she gave in. “And then it turned into this, which is just crazy,” she grins.

What resulted was unprecedented. To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before boasts a success story like no other, earning a title as one of Netflix’s most-viewed original films, with more than 80 million subscribers globally tuning in, again and again. The reception soon allowed for another two films from Jenny Han’s original book trilogy to actualise. And on set for the third movie, it was proposed that Kitty should have her very own spin-off series—the first in Netflix’s history.

“I thought they were not serious,” Anna shares. “They were probably so annoyed because it took years for me to believe them.” Despite chats on potential scripts and talks of contracts, Anna once again struggled to see herself as a star. “It goes back to me being a realist; I truly wasn’t letting myself think it was true.” Even so, COVID hit, and in its aftermath, Anna had no time to doubt anymore as she flew to Korea to film season one of XO, Kitty. “Literally, only until that point did I think, ‘Oh my god, it’s actually real!’ I had to tell myself to let this sink in and enjoy the fact that this character has brought me on this crazy journey and helped me build a career as an adult. I’m just so grateful someone saw this much in Kitty and in myself to continue her journey like this.”

The journey – as unbelievable as it was – wasn’t easy. Anna had spent the entirety of her teenage-hood playing a character beloved by the masses—navigating an industry that is almost as hard to sustain as it is to break into. “I look back now and think that I was so lucky to start when I did because, as an adult now, I have a lot of trepidations. I have anxieties, I overthink, and I have this expectation of myself and imposter syndrome and all of the things you can mentally experience in this crazy industry. But at 12, 13, I didn’t. Every day was exciting. There was a lot of concern [about entering the industry] from the adults in my life, but me to myself, I was just like, ‘This is the coolest thing ever!’” For Anna, it remained that way until she became an adult. “It started changing when I felt like it was a career versus a fun, crazy hobby I got to do. That’s when the fears flooded in—the fears about the job never really hit me until much later. But that, I think, was kind of my superpower: getting to jump in headfirst and not be scared.”

Juggling her own coming-of-age, career-heights and confidence-lows, Kitty soon became more than just a character who launched Anna’s career: she was the mirror she had to confront. “It definitely helped me learn about myself. I’m really grateful to Kitty in a lot of ways. When you’re growing up and experiencing your teen and young-adult years, it can be confusing, messy and strange. You’re trying to figure out who you are, and you feel all this pressure. I’ve almost gotten to share that with someone else and had the space to explore that. Season one was really impactful for me because I had just graduated high school, and I was feeling quite lost in my personal life. Then getting to go across the world to somewhere new and dive into the craziest experience I’ve had thus far and live in the shoes of a messy character who is also figuring things out really helped me—it literally transformed my life,” she says. It’s a unique experience, for sure. But the empathy Anna shares with Kitty is what inevitably made the series an overnight success upon release in 2023, with Netflix recording 72.1 million hours of viewing within its first week.

It comes as no surprise, then, that Anna often hears Kitty’s name called from the street before her own—not that she minds. “If it ever gets frustrating, I try to remind myself that the only reason it’s happening is that I’m doing something that has reached so many people, and that they’re engaging with her and loving her. That’s such a beautiful thing in itself because it means my character has made an impact.”

The reasons Kitty has made such a large impact are hard to pinpoint—due to abundance, rather than lack. For Anna in particular, however, it is how the show handles her queer storyline that resonates most. “I really like that we explore Kitty’s sexuality and figure out what that looks like. She comes to this realisation in season one, and then she comes out to her dad and community, and they all accept her so beautifully. It’s shown as just another part of who she is—and she starts season two proudly knowing that,” Anna shares. “I think it’s so cool to see a young person and a young Asian girl go through that—especially in the storyline with Yuri [Han, played by Gia Kim]. I’ve had fans bring up how impactful that’s been, and how watching her story has helped them feel understood and validated in their own life. That’s always gonna be my favourite part,” she adds, beaming.

Due to Kitty’s ever-evolving identity, the anticipation for what her next season of life entails has been a hot topic ever since the third instalment was announced back in February 2025. Reddit chains have been inundated, chat rooms have been flooded—all to theorise what Kitty’s next move might be. “Regan [Aliyah, who plays Juliana] was just telling me the other day that someone thinks Kitty’s gonna be polyamorous and end up dating six people by the end of the show,” Anna shares before quickly adding, “And you know what? Kitty would probably love it!” But theories aside, season three meant more to Anna than another twist in the plot line—it was the chance to embody the character she had gotten to know for nine years in a way she never had before.

“Coming to the show compared to the movies was a challenge at the start. I had to think, ‘Who is this girl as a teen? Who is she as an adult?’ I felt like I knew her so well, but only in one stage of her life from the movies. So I had to unlearn and relearn her, which was a continuous process. But now, coming back for season three, it felt very instinctual—I feel like I know what she would do,” she explains.

Part of the reason Kitty feels so instinctual to Anna now is largely due to the character finally catching up in age. Though younger than the actress, season three Kitty is now feeling the side effects of adulthood once shared by Anna: the imposter syndrome, the pressure, the self-doubt. It culminates in scenes that Anna shares were some of the most emotionally risky to film to date. And yet, they were the episodes in which Anna shone the brightest.

“There were a few times this season, like in The Lotte World episode – when she’s scared to go on the rollercoaster – where in the first draft, we didn’t have any dialogue from others explaining how out of character that was. And I was like, ‘We need to talk about this and for her friends to notice!’ I know Kitty, and I know she’d usually want to be at the front of every ride she could go on. So we worked together to figure out the small moments to have Min-ho [Moon, played by Sang Heon Lee] question that, for example. It was very cool to collaborate on that.”

Across the season’s eight episodes, that collaboration between Kitty the adult and Anna the adult becomes all the more tangible. She’s finally in a happy relationship—but worries constantly about it being too good to be true. She makes big dreams for herself—but falters at believing they could happen. “It goes back to what we were saying earlier,” Anna responds. “When we get older, the doubt starts creeping in and that insecurity and need to fit in. It’s important to show that even a character like Kitty, who carries those traits of being confident and fearless, can sometimes waver in that and need help from their friends. That’s what makes this season so real and relatable—and I definitely think it’s a good thing for people to see.”

Much like Kitty in season three, Anna has “learned to become friends with the unknown.” Right now, she has no idea how audiences will react to the third season’s release. After that, the script is quite literally unwritten. Even so, Anna is finally allowing herself to dream bigger than before. “I really want to play a grounded character in a world similar to our own reality,” she shares—citing Greta Gerwig’s Lady Birdas the perfect muse. “Then in another lane, I love musicals. I’m working on trying to become a better singer because I’m not a confident singer at all, but I have a dance background, so I would love to try. Same with an action movie, I’d love to train my body to do stunts. There’s a never-ending list of new things to try.”

XO, Kitty has been Anna’s proudest achievement to date. As for what’s next for the actor who doesn’t believe in fate?

“I don’t know,” she answers, smiling. “But I have a lot of reasons to believe that good things are going to happen because so much already has. I’m definitely a lucky one.”