LOS ANGELES, May 7 (UPI) -- Netflix's Forever, premiering Thursday, adapts Judy Blume's 1975 teen romance novel and updates the story to focus on two Black teens living in 2018. Lovie Simone, who plays Keisha in the series, says the show addresses social media culture and racial issues.
In a recent phone interview with UPI, Simone, 26, described how the series portrays modern-day teens living with social media.
"I definitely think that Forever does a good job at capturing the peer pressures of today," Simone said. "I'm just happy to have had the chance to tell a story with so much insecurity and love and heartbreak and relationships."
Simone, who graduated high school in 2016, said social media takes up a lot of mental space in teenagers. By contrast, the characters of Blume's novel did not have constant real-time demands on their attention.
"I think their issues were a bit more in person and direct," she said.
Forever centers on Keisha and Justin (Michael Cooper Jr.), who meet at a party. Justin comes from a wealthy family, while Keisha lives with a single mom struggling to make ends meet.
Justin and Keisha frequently communicate with each other, and their friends, via text messages. Simone said the text messages demanded the same reactions as scenes she performed with co-stars in person.
"It's not much different to reacting to situations or something that a character said or something that a character did," she said. "It's just a response or a reaction to something that's happening so it is very similar in that regard."
One advantage of the TV format is that Forever shows some messages Keisha deletes before sending. This allowed Simone to portray Keisha's thought process leading up to what she decides to say to Justin.
"It's nice to have that communication with the audience, them knowing exactly what's in my brain at that moment," she said. "Rather than just silence or a look, which is also very effective, but I do like that."
Other conversations happen over FaceTime. Because of the way video is captured in film and television, Keisha's phone contains a green screen and the video of Justin or her friends is added in post-production.
"There's a lot of life in these phone calls," she said. "There are so many ways that technology is taking up space for people and how we communicate every day."
Forever also captures the on-again, off-again nature of teenage dating. Each episode of Forever could include a breakup or reconciliation, which Simone considered accurate.
"There's never really on or off," Simone said. "It's just a whole bunch of that back and forth. It's really a tennis match in love."
In addition, Keisha and Justin both block each other's phone number at certain points -- another modern aspect of communication, according to Simone.
"Blocking is a very big part of our culture nowadays," she said.
Blume's book was sometimes banned for its depictions of teen sex, and Forever goes there too.
Keisha and Justin's first date leads to an intimate scene. Subsequent scenes show Justin frequently confirming he has Keisha's consent by asking, "Is this okay?"
"It also shows how much he was wanting her to be comfortable and wanting that moment to stay comfortable and intimate," Simone said. "I do wish that on any teenager that is getting intimate in those ways, just to be able to feel comfortable and not forced to do anything or anything of that nature."
An intimacy coordinator worked with Simone and Cooper on their love scenes. In addition to the discussion of comfort level, Simone appreciated small details she brought to the work.
"She always had mints for us," Simone said. "She was there [saying], 'This whole thing is going to be pleasant. Everything is going to be smooth. It's going to be efficient. It's going to be everything that we want it to be so that it could look beautiful.'"
Keisha is also a track star, and Simone said there was no way to fake her running scenes.
"I was not the fastest in real life so I really did have to put in a lot of effort to be with these girls who are very, very talented and very, very fast," she said.
Forever captures a year in the life of Keisha and Justin. In success, Simone hopes to follow Keisha into the year 2019 as well.
"I would really love to see Keisha in college and living in everything that she's worked for this entire season," Simone said. "I would like to see that but I'm not sure yet."
