Percy Jackson: Leah Jeffries Reveals Rick Riordan Personally Cast Her as Annabeth Chase

Leah Jeffries’s biggest role yet hits screens in just two days. The 14-year-old actress plays Annabeth Chase in Percy Jackson and the Olympians, one of the show’s core three characters. Casting young was a deliberate decision made by author Rick Riordan, as he wanted to ensure his live-action demigods age parallel on screen as they do on the page. That meant not just finding age-accurate actors but landing talent that have the potential to grow into their roles over the course of a hopeful five-season arc. While none of the Percy Jackson castings are mirror images of their characters’ physical descriptions, all possess the spirit of their respective demigod. For Jeffries as Annabeth specifically, Riordan himself knew she was the perfect daughter of Athena.

“He said, ‘No matter what people will say about you, remember, I picked you,’” Jeffries told ComicBook.com. “That was something right there. The way how he said it too: ‘Remember, if anybody says anything about you, just remember, I’m the one that picked you.’ Coming from the creator of all of this, I was like, I made it now.”

Jeffries went on to do justice by Riordan, as The Lightning Thief author continues to rave about her performance throughout Percy Jackson Season 1. Much of the praise comes from the little things too.

“We were at the top of the mountain for capture the flag. I put the hat on: ‘It’s a gift from my mom,’” Jeffries recalled her connection to Annabeth’s Yankees cap, an accessory that turns her invisible. “My face even was proud. In a lot of scenes, our acting coach Andrew said I have a deep emotion with [the cap]. My hat was always on the side of me. ‘Your only connection to your mother is right here,’ [Andrew] told me. A lot of times, I don’t know if you could see it, but I was definitely tapping the side of my hat and feeling around with it.”

Percy Jackson and the Olympians premieres on Disney+ this Wednesday, December 20th.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 1 is based off of the first novel in Rick Riordan’s critically-acclaimed book series, The Lightning Thief. Starring Walker Scobell (The Adam Project) as the titular demigod, this eight-episode first season embarks Percy on a quest to return Zeus’s stolen master bolt, as he is framed as the prime suspect. If he is not successful by the Summer Solstice deadline, the world bears the consequences of Mount Olympus in-fighting. The series also stars Aryan Simhadri (Grover Underwood), Leah Jeffries (Annabeth Chase), Glynn Turman (Chiron), Jason Mantzoukas (Dionysus), Dior Goodjohn (Clarisse La Rue), Charlie Bushnell (Luke), Adam “Edge” Copeland (Ares), Jay Duplass (Hades), Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hermes), Timothy Omundson (Hephaestus), Lance Reddick (Zeus), and Toby Stephens (Poseidon).