‘Off Campus’ Star Mika Abdalla Reacts to J.Lo Showing Love for Allie & Dean's Dance (Exclusive)

“Extra” chatted with Mika Abdalla, one of the stars of the breakout Prime Video hit “Off Season,” based on the popular Elle Kennedy book series. 

Mika, who plays Allie Hayes, talked about why she thinks the show has resonated with fans.

She said, “Obviously it has very deep important themes and we talk about a lot of really important stuff, but it also has this kind of fun like reminiscent of an early 2000s, 2010s romcom vibe to it. It's fun, but it's also extremely real."

In one episode, Allie wears a lookalike of Jennifer Lopez's iconic Grammys dress, as she and Dean De Laurentis (Stephen Kalyn) dance to "On the Floor"... and J.Lo herself took notice!

Mika reacted, "J.Lo followed us all on Instagram last night. That's crazy."

She added, "It's so hard to wrap my mind around... Yeah, the J.Lo of it all is so, so crazy, so strange. I have like all my family members, like my mom, my aunts, and cousins texting me being like, 'Hey, did you see this?' I'm like, 'Oh, yeah.’”

Of filming the scene, she recalled, "We actually worked with a choreographer... I have a little bit of background in ballroom dancing... and it had to be replicable and it had to make sense story-wise." She emphasized, "We had like a full minute and a half routine set, and they were like, 'You know, we're not gonna use all of this. It's just so on the day, when we're getting all this slo-mo and we're getting all the shots that we need, you guys aren't just sitting there like wondering what you're supposed to be doing.'"

"It took quite a while to film," she continued. "Not only was it a big day with a lot of background actors, but there was also a lot of, we did a lot of takes, we did a lot of different shots, angles, frame rates. It was really intense."

As for whether the focus of Season 2 will be on Allie and Dean, she played coy, saying, “I don’t know."

She would say this, "I am very excited about shooting Season 2. I think we're going to get to know a lot more about all of the characters.”

Abdalla added, "We're still going to follow along with Garrett and Hannah. You know, keep up with what's going on in their lives, but you know, they're happy now. They were in love and now it's kind of time to see what's going on in the rest of the hockey house. I'm excited to revisit these characters that we love so much and we spent so much time with last year and get back to set with my buds.”

She also shared what scene from Allie and Dean's book "The Score" she hopes to see in the show.

Mika said, "There's a scene where Allie, where it kind of becomes revealed to the group that Allie and Dean have been seeing each other, where Allie's like having an emotional moment and she asks Hannah to call Dean and everyone's kind of like, 'What are you talking about?' But it's this really sweet, like, turning point, not only in the public story of their relationship, but also in Allie and Dean's relationship in general. It's the first time that they really admit that they need each other or care for each other or, you know, have that deeper connection."

Mika shared her take on comparisons between “Off Campus” and “Heated Rivalry,” saying, "It's such an honor to be compared to that show, you know?… I think there are a lot of similarities between the two. There's also obviously a lot of differences. ‘Off Campus' is set in college. We have a little more of like a poppy feel, but I think they both explore very similar themes of the violence of hockey and the hyper masculinity of it and how that kind of becomes intertwined with love and romance and vulnerability.”