Walter Boys Star Nikki Rodriguez Reflects on ‘Pinch Me’ Experience at Golden Globes with Costar Noah LaLonde

Nikki Rodriguez’s life has been a “whirlwind” since the release of the Netflix hit, My life with the Walter Boys – but “in the best way”, she says.

“We thought [the show] it was something special when we shot it, so I’m happy that it was received in that way,” Rodriguez, 21, tells PEOPLE while at NYLON Nights: Fashion Edition, a New York Fashion Week event in collaboration with Kate Pik. “It was the best, craziest, most exciting time of my life.”

Much of that excitement comes from the various star-studded events she attended for the first time — including NYFW. In January, she and co-star Noah LaLonde attended the 2024 Golden Globes together, an experience she calls “crazy.”

“I constantly find myself in a room where the moment pinches me and I wonder: ‘How did I get here?’ ” she says of star-studded nights like the Globes, which she and LaLonde followed up with another red carpet appearance together at Sunday’s 2024 People’s Choice Awards.

Noah LaLonde and Nikki Rodriguez at the 2024 People’s Choice Awards.

Rich Polk/NBC via Getty

My life with the Walter Boys: All changes from book to screen

While she’s still getting used to the glitz and glamor of red carpets, spending time around her co-stars in real life has become routine.

“We hang out all the time,” she says Walter Boys clan, which includes seven other boys, hence the name of the series and the book by Ali Novak that it was based on.

Rodriguez says it’s the most with LaLonde — who plays her lover Cole Walter — and Ashby Gentry — who completes her character Jackie’s love triangle as younger brother Alex Walter. “They are both such amazing and beautiful people and I just love them so much,” she says. “I love them both.”

“I was super, super lucky. Everyone in the cast is — from the bottom of my heart — the most genuine people,” she adds. “I couldn’t have asked for a better cast.”

Nikki Rodriguez attends NYLON & Kate Spade New York Present NYLON Nights: Fashion Edition at LAVAN Midtown on February 8, 2024.

Eugene Gologursky/Getty

Last month’s Golden Globes was also a “reunion” for the actress, who had a brief stint at Netflix In my block before landing her role in the teen romance, while she and LaLonde were hanging out with Sarah Rafferty at the awards show. It was a night full of encounters for Rafferty (51), as well as her Suits actors Gabriel Macht, Patrick J. Adams and Gina Torres presented the award together.

“Sarah is amazing. She’s the best,” Rodriguez enthuses about Rafferty, who plays the matriarch of the Walter family who takes Jackie in after she tragically loses her family. “She’s the best scene partner. She’s so sweet live. Sarah is amazing.”

Sarah Rafferty shares Suits Cast group chat reaction to series revival: ‘Wait, what?!’ (Exclusive)

Rafferty similarly raved about Rodriguez to PEOPLE just after the series premiered.

“She made it like I didn’t have to do anything, I just had to look her in the eye and just be present,” she said.

Their current chemistry “speaks to who she is and how accessible she is as an actress, how accessible her heart is,” Rafferty added.

Nikki Rodriguez and Noah LaLonde at the 2024 Billboard Golden Globes After Party held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 7, 2024.

Anna Webber/Billboard via Getty

Yet Rodriguez is still finding his footing in the public eye. She admits she feels some “pressure,” especially when it comes to her off-screen relationships with LaLonde and Gentry, 22, as they both vied for her heart on the show.

“Of course, I feel that there is pressure in every sense of the job, but I try not to take it too personally or to heart, and I just don’t think about it,” she says.

“I just try to live my life every day as honestly as possible, and that’s the best I can do. It’s really easy to get wrapped up in everything, but I’m really just trying to live my life as authentically as possible.”

Noah LaLonde as Cole, Nikki Rodriguez as Jackie in episode 4 of ‘My Life with the Walter Boys’.

Courtesy of Netflix

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

The cast is now gearing up for the show’s second season, though Rodriguez is playing coy about what’s next for Jackie, who ended season one by returning to New York City and leaving Cole and Alex in Colorado.

“I wish I knew,” she says of what the second installment will bring. “I like to be familiar. But I don’t know anything.”

My life with the Walter Boys currently streaming on Netflix.

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education