Noah Beck finds a new rhythm.

The content creator, who was among the first wave of influencers to go viral on TikTok in 2020 and became an instant star after amassing 20,000 followers overnight (and nearly 33 million to date), is taking his talents to a bigger screen.

Now the 23-year-old Beck is making his film debut Offside: The QB and mea Tubi original film that premiered on November 30th. In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE ahead of the release, the social media star discussed his role as Drayton Lahey and the heartthrob title he is considered to be.

“I came into it with this very adaptive approach of starting from scratch — and I liked that,” Beck tells PEOPLE exclusively about acting, as he had no professional experience before taking preparatory courses. “I just threw myself into it… and we all shot the thing and we had a blast.”

Beck’s character Drayton is the star quarterback of his high school football team, who serves as both a bad boy and a heartthrob, and falls in love with Dallas Bryan, a cute cheerleader played by Siena Agudong. The actor tells PEOPLE he pulled “pieces” of himself for the role.

“Some things are easier to see,” Beck says of the character traits he adopted, including Drayton’s “family-oriented” nature, which is evident in the film. “I think Noah has a great family, and so it was easy to instill a love for that family dynamic, if you will,” he explains.

Growing up in a football family puts a lot of pressure on Drayton, another character similarity that resonates with Beck to some degree. “The pressure of wanting to succeed, not even his father’s approval, but just feeling like he has to succeed,” the social media star begins to explain.

“He’s the cool guy at school. He shouldn’t have any problems,” he continues. “And I think I can say that… I’ve felt this way before and thought, ‘Yeah, I’m supposed to act like everything’s fine because on the outside it’s supposed to be,'” Beck says.

“I think there were things where I thought, ‘No, things aren’t right. I have baggage and I’m not always who I seem,'” he admits. “I think that was something that was a little more relatable, I would say.”

While Beck could identify with his character on various levels, there was one particular quality that he couldn’t quite nail. This partly influenced the renaming of the film’s title (which is based on Tay Marley’s novel). The QB Bad Boy and me).

Beck recalled the one “recurring” comment a producer told him on set: “Turn down the sound. “Stay calm,” he says with a laugh. “That was probably my impetus to be a little more arrogant.”

The “behavior” that makes Drayton “who he is” is a trait that “Noah doesn’t always have,” Beck says. “So much so that they took it out of the title,” he quips, referring to the “bad boy” description.

While the “bad boy” aspect was a little harder to understand, according to Beck, he can get behind the “heartthrob” label! “It has a nice sound. I can’t lie. I will wear it with pride,” he says of the title.

Beck was modest in acknowledging the label attached to his good looks and charming demeanor, describing the feeling as “out of body.” He explains: “I wasn’t really called that, at least not on my face, I guess.”

He concludes: “I think it’s something that I will definitely wear with pride and that I won’t take for granted – but I’ve always wanted to play a role like this and I’m so happy to have this.” was my first.”