EXCLUSIVE! Leah Sava Jeffries Is A Real Life Legend

EXCLUSIVE! Leah Sava Jeffries is a real life legend

A real life legend, Leah Sava Jeffries, with long braided hair, sits confidently on a black director’s chair against a green background in a red ribbed sweater and light blue jeans.

Embracing the extra is kind of 16-year-old Leah Sava Jeffries’ thing. “I love big hair, big jackets, big bags and big glasses—obviously,” she jokes, gesturing to the adorably oversized specs she’s sporting for our chat. “For my birthday, I asked for a giant burgundy Jeep. And if not that, a Great Dane.” (Sadly, she got neither.)

Jokes aside, her go-big-or-go-home energy is the real deal—and it extends way beyond her closet or wish list. Case in point: She’s living out one of her biggest dreams as Annabeth Chase, the driven daughter of Athena, in Disney+’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians.

Before her Camp Half-Blood era began, Leah was just a regular kid from Detroit who loved performing and idolized Zendaya (“I promise you, that’s one thing about me that will never, ever change”). Before she even started kindergarten, she landed her fi rst acting gig on Fox’s primetime drama Empire, then went on to score a lead role in the blockbuster action flick Beast.

But even with those early wins, Leah wrestled with self- doubt. “When I was younger, I’d watch other people around my age onscreen and think, ‘I wish I could get where they are,’” she says. “While auditioning, I had to remind myself: You’re not behind, you just haven’t found the role that’s going to get you where you want to go. Yet.”

And just when Leah started to trust that her moment would come, it did. Three years ago, she got the call from her agent that changed everything.

“My mom handed me the phone, and they asked when the last time I went on vacation was,” she remembers. “I’m like, ‘Am I getting a free cruise or something?’”

Not exactly. Leah was told she needed to pack her bags ASAP since she’d be jetting off to Vancouver to play Annabeth. “My auntie and my cousins were all filming my reaction,” she says. “All I remember is my heart beating so fast from shock and excitement.”

Cut to present day, and that same enthusiasm has only grown to Olympus-level heights. Leah’s now gearing up for the premiere of season two on Dec. 10—which she spills will be even more epic than the first installment.

As any loyal fan knows, studious Annabeth has always been the brains of the show’s core trio (which also includes Walker Scobell as Percy and Aryan Simhadri as Grover). According to Leah, that still holds true this season, but even the Wise Girl has plenty left to learn.

“When we see her again, she’s very vulnerable,” Leah says of her character. “This time, there’s no one around to protect her, so she has to step up, lead in a new way and open up to Percy.” The new episodes follow the plot of the second book in the series, The Sea of Monsters, so, as the title suggests, viewers can expect the heroes to face off against fierce creatures…and a whole lot of H2O.

“I can’t wait for people to see these crazy water scenes,” she says. “I could’ve sworn I was at Great Wolf Lodge, because every time they yelled ‘action,’ we got totally drenched.”

If a girl’s gotta brave long hours of adrenaline-spiking stunts (though, to be clear, Leah’s go-to approach to a tough scene is: “let me cook”), at least she’s not doing it alone. The vibes on set, Leah says, often feel like “a big family reunion,” since she’s grown so close with her co-stars.

“My favorite part to film was definitely the chariot sequence, because so many of us got to come together,” she remembers. “There were tons of people in the cast tent, and then we’d shoot surrounded by all this sand, racing around in cars. It was very go, go, go.” (Just your average demigod bonding experience, nbd.)

The best news? The cast and crew ride-or-dies already have the perfect excuse to reunite: The show’s been renewed for season three (thank the gods!), and production is already in full swing.

Without spoiling anything, Leah wants fans to know that Annabeth is stepping into her next chapter “stronger,” “healed” and 100% “ready” for whatever the universe throws her way. And these days, it seems like Leah’s feeling exactly the same.