In this edition of THR Frontrunners, 'Girls5Eva' creator and showrunner Meredith Scardino and stars Renée Elise Goldsberry, Sara Bareilles, Busy Phillips and Paula Pell sat down with The Hollywood Reporter to talk about the third season of the Netflix comedy series.
Category
✨
PeopleTranscript
00:00Probably the greatest joy I think we have on the show
00:02is watching other people.
00:05Watching their bits are almost more joyous for us
00:09than our own.
00:09Almost more joyous for us.
00:11Ah!
00:12Ah!
00:12Ah!
00:13Ah!
00:13Ah!
00:14Ah!
00:14Ah!
00:15Ah!
00:15Ah!
00:16Ah!
00:16Ah!
00:17Ah!
00:17Ah!
00:18Hi, everybody.
00:19I want to introduce the cast of Girls 5Eva.
00:22First up, we have Paula Pell.
00:24Woo!
00:24Woo!
00:25Woo!
00:25Woo!
00:26Woo!
00:26Woo!
00:27Woo!
00:27Woo!
00:28Woo!
00:28Woo!
00:29Woo!
00:29Yes.
00:30Woo!
00:30Yeah, yeah.
00:32And Renee-Lise Goldsberry.
00:33Woo!
00:33Woo!
00:34Woo!
00:34Woo!
00:35And please welcome back Meredith Scardino.
00:38Hey!
00:38Hey!
00:39Woo!
00:39Woo!
00:40Woo!
00:40This is so cute.
00:41This is so my type.
00:43I love this.
00:44Hi, everybody.
00:44Hi.
00:45Thank you for coming.
00:46Thank you for being here.
00:47Woo-hoo!
00:48Woo-hoo!
00:48Thank you for being here.
00:49We're so thrilled.
00:50I love your shirt so much.
00:52Ah!
00:52Ah!
00:53Wait, what shirt?
00:54BPE?
00:54BPE?
00:55BPE shirt.
00:55Oh, right here, right in the front, BPE.
00:57I'm feeling a little left out.
00:59It's OK.
01:01I don't have BPE, but that's fine.
01:03Yes, you do.
01:04You could.
01:05BPE is a state of mind.
01:07Thank you.
01:07That's right.
01:08Thank you.
01:08Yeah, and anyone can have BPE, whether or not
01:10they have a P, or a B, or a BP.
01:14I mean, technically, you have a P.
01:15Yeah.
01:17It's just a different kind of P.
01:18Yeah.
01:19I'm such a huge fan of this show.
01:21Ever since season one.
01:22I've seen each season multiple times at this point,
01:26not to brag.
01:27But for a lot of us who were fans of the show,
01:31season two ended, and we were very concerned
01:33that we weren't going to get more.
01:35I imagine you two as well.
01:36Same.
01:37We were.
01:37As were we.
01:38So I was very excited when I heard Netflix picked it up.
01:40Can you talk about what it was like when you heard that news?
01:44It was heavenly.
01:46And we really didn't have a long period of just complete despair.
01:51There was some despair, for sure, and uncertainty.
01:55But it had that deep, underpinning,
01:58you can speak more of, like, of hope,
02:01of like, Netflix is probably going to take this,
02:03and we're going to have a second chapter here.
02:05Which, everything in this, it's like art imitating life
02:09of second chances.
02:10Our characters have second chances,
02:12and now we're getting a second chance to do it.
02:15So it's amazing.
02:16We're so grateful.
02:17Congratulations.
02:18No, and I would just add that Netflix
02:23has been really supportive of the show from the start.
02:25Like, one of our executives over there,
02:29who was very instrumental in getting the show acquired by them,
02:33was somebody that we worked with on Unbreakable, Kimmy Schmidt.
02:38And oddly enough, I had pitched the show
02:41to another executive over there, Tracy Bacosta,
02:44when she was at NBC, and she wanted to buy it.
02:47And so it was just like, we had some people
02:51that loved the show from the second it aired in season one,
02:55or when we pitched it.
02:56And so when it was, like, potentially available,
02:59they were very interested.
03:01And so that felt wonderful.
03:03Yeah, it's like the best kind of success story.
03:06It's nice to be wanted.
03:07Yeah, exactly.
03:08I like being wanted.
03:09Meredith, you know, three seasons in,
03:12you know, I've gotten the chance to watch you guys
03:14a couple times today, just interacting.
03:16There was an event earlier, and then earlier tonight,
03:20Oh, no.
03:21No, I mean, just, like, the excitement that you all
03:24have around each other, the way that you interact,
03:26literally singing and harmonizing just out of nowhere.
03:30It's really annoying.
03:32We're always on a high school trip.
03:34It is, as, like, old Lady Glamour over here,
03:36who's been on four billion television shows,
03:38it is the thing that is, like, so exhausting,
03:40where it's like, but we really love each other.
03:43And I have just, I will just fully say that if I've ever
03:46said it before, it's not like this.
03:50You know what I mean?
03:51It is like, this is, like, the realist,
03:53most intense friendship that I, and love that I've ever had
03:56with the people that I make a show with.
03:58They had a sleepover at your house, Paula, right?
04:00Yeah, we had a slumber party.
04:02Slumber party.
04:03You did?
04:04I'm kidding, I'm kidding, I was in bed.
04:06She was there.
04:09Well, Meredith, I'm curious, like, as you're crafting,
04:12you know, a season and thinking about how these
04:15characters are interacting, like, do you use their own
04:19kind of characteristics, the way they interact
04:21with each other?
04:22Does that inform how you write at this point, knowing?
04:24I mean, we, yeah, we sort of glean little,
04:27I mean, they have a joke that I have in weekly meetings
04:30with their therapists, because sometimes, like,
04:33things that feel true to, you know, their own lives.
04:36Meredith wrote, did you know?
04:38Yeah.
04:39Meredith writes, like, I don't even know what's happening.
04:41You're channeling some other.
04:42I'm a witch.
04:43You're a witch, a little bit.
04:44I'm a witch.
04:45Yeah.
04:47They're a joy to write for.
04:48I mean, it's bananas, they're just all so talented.
04:51And it's just fun, like, you know, yes,
04:54we do sort of pull different things in from life.
04:57Like, this season, On the Road, Paula's character,
05:01Gloria, is, like, picking up every animal that gets
05:06hit by the van or whatever and resuscitating it back to life.
05:09Some are dead.
05:10And, you know, I feel like that's very true.
05:14You know, she has basically an animal,
05:16elder animal sanctuary, and is such an animal lover.
05:20And so, like, we do kind of put little parts of them
05:26into their characters.
05:27And also just, like, you know that when they're all
05:32together on screen, it's kind of going to be,
05:35like, bursting off the screen.
05:38Like, they just have such great chemistry,
05:41and it's just really fun to watch them.
05:43So, Renee, I read a quote that you talked about
05:45how, you know, as a female actor,
05:47you're often playing characters in support
05:49of other people.
05:50But in this case, you're supporting other women.
05:53But you're also, I feel like, each one of these
05:55characters is so just completely,
05:58fully developed in their own people,
06:00you know, kind of separately as part of a group.
06:02I'm kind of curious, like, if you could tell me a little
06:05bit about what makes that so wonderful to be with
06:08this group of women and support each other on screen.
06:12There's so much that's wonderful about it.
06:14Yeah.
06:15I think it's something that people say about women,
06:21that somehow or another there's always a competitiveness.
06:24And it's like this lie that there's only so much,
06:28as opposed to the fact that there's just abundance.
06:31And in my career, I've always tried to debunk that.
06:36Anytime anyone ever put me in a situation,
06:38I was going to compete with somebody.
06:41I feel like there's always been this thing between
06:43me and any other woman that was like,
06:45it's not me against you, it's us against them.
06:49And I feel that way here.
06:52I feel that way all the time.
06:55It's the only sanity that kind of exists for us.
07:00And what I love about this show is that it proves
07:03this so amazingly, because there are really four
07:07leads on this show.
07:10How many minutes are in each episode?
07:13About 24.
07:1424 minutes in a show, and somehow or another,
07:17I don't think any of us are watching it feeling like,
07:21how come she gets to, and why is she?
07:24That just does not happen on other shows.
07:27It feels probably the greatest joy I think we have
07:31on this show is watching other people,
07:34watching their bits are almost more joyous for us
07:39than our own.
07:40Almost.
07:41Wait, I will say, witnessing Renee watch,
07:45what do you have, a master's in what?
07:47Jazz.
07:48Vocal jazz.
07:50And watching her watch Busy scat for,
07:54guess what guys?
07:56Like an hour.
07:57Two years of Loyola Marymount University,
08:00and honestly, second semester sophomore year
08:02didn't really go.
08:03It is the greatest, I mean three seasons in,
08:08the greatest joy I have, and most of it didn't
08:10even make the show, but literally.
08:12It was so long, it was impossible.
08:14I wish we could just put out an hour of it.
08:16Her scatting brought me so much joy.
08:18I think that's what we love, and it's easy for me
08:20to say because my character gets to have all this
08:23really bad behavior, because my character always
08:26kind of gets to be in the middle,
08:28or wear the craziest outfit, or sing after the song
08:31is over.
08:32Just keep licking and riffing and singing higher.
08:37I'm not going to lie, there have definitely
08:39been times in my life where there was three of us
08:41and I was like, how am I going to get in the middle
08:43of these three girls?
08:44And I don't have to do that here,
08:46because my character is obnoxious.
08:48So it just frees me up to love them so much.
08:52But there's also an ease, for me at least,
08:55I feel like there's an ease and a trust in the writing
08:58and a knowledge deeply that because Meredith
09:04and the writing team are so great at the story
09:10that they're servicing, that I don't ever even think
09:16about is this going to pay off?
09:20Is there a thing?
09:22How is this going to work for my character?
09:25Because I just inherently have this trust in the
09:29hospices and the team that is telling the story,
09:32which is like, that's the freedom too,
09:34because I have been in situations before
09:36where you feel like, well, I better come to set
09:39with 10 extra jokes prepped, because I also know
09:43that the dude is going to try to steal my fucking
09:45punchline, so I better have another one at the ready,
09:48because that guy's going to fucking take it.
09:50And I won't name names, except I will in my next book.
09:53No, I'm kidding.
09:54I'm just teasing.
09:55But you know what I mean?
09:56That, I think, is part of it as well.
09:59Sarah, I feel like you're often playing
10:01the most grounded of this crew,
10:03this team of cartoon characters.
10:05As in life.
10:06Yeah, yeah.
10:07I mean, does that come naturally to you in a way?
10:10I mean, is it hard to kind of maintain a composure?
10:14I wish you slowly fell off your chair.
10:20Oh, gosh.
10:21You know, I think what's been so fun,
10:23I have to say, having a career as a solo artist
10:28for so much of my life, this has been such
10:32a tremendous joy to feel like a part of a team.
10:36And it's something that I got a taste of when I first
10:38started working in the theater, and especially
10:42when I went on stage in Waitress, was what I went
10:45on stage with, and just getting for the first time
10:51to really feel like you're just a part
10:55of this whole ensemble.
10:57It's even different than playing with a band,
10:59which I have played with incredible bands
11:01over my career, but this job in particular
11:05is just, like you were saying,
11:07it just is such a beautiful ensemble piece.
11:09And I think that we all get to be so shiny
11:11in our own ways.
11:13And one of the ways I feel most realized
11:17in this character is in her sort of taking in.
11:21I get to be a little bit of the bridge to the audience
11:24of taking in the insanity and the delicious
11:30antics of these women, who we all are just
11:34a little bit on the fringe.
11:36And I'm just maybe one micro-step planted
11:40in reality, but less and less so as we go further
11:44and further into the show.
11:46And it's fun.
11:47As you do, you sort of start drinking the Kool-Aid.
11:51And I think it's been so lovely,
11:53especially in this season,
11:55as my character is pregnant this season.
11:57And also, it doesn't become the centerpiece.
12:01She gets to stay really vibrant
12:04and attached to her dreams.
12:07And I love seeing these women go for it
12:10and take big swings and sort of have ridiculous dreams,
12:14realizing that the dreaming is not the ridiculous part.
12:18All the rest of this shit is ridiculous.
12:21The dreaming big is not the ridiculous piece.
12:23And yeah, so I really love that role
12:27in this little machine here.
12:30And it's just so fun to watch her pretend
12:33to learn how to write a song.
12:35There's just nothing more joyful than her
12:38have to try just such great acting.
12:41It's so wonderful.
12:43It's like such a great thing.
12:45Busy, something I really loved about your character
12:48this season is kind of the arc
12:50about choosing your own wardrobe,
12:52which your character's already wearing
12:54some of the most insane looks in the world.
12:57And then when she's left her own devices,
12:59then it goes crazier.
13:01I was curious.
13:03I know of you.
13:05I feel like we're contemporaries.
13:07I was a teenager watching you on TV.
13:09And I'm curious if that kind of hit home a little bit
13:11as someone who was performing
13:13and on television at that time
13:16in a cartoonish, fun, light, levity way.
13:21Well, I think that there are so many things.
13:23Yeah, there's a lot there.
13:25There are so many things.
13:27First of all, I think that any person probably,
13:32but I can speak to my experience as a woman
13:34of my age,
13:38which is that I think that a lot of women
13:40hit a point in their lives,
13:42whether it's in their mid-30s, late-30s,
13:4540s, where they sort of take stock
13:47of all of the things
13:49that have amounted,
13:51that have been added up
13:53and have become the sum
13:55of what they are.
13:57And I think especially culturally,
14:01like Gen X women
14:05have a really unique perspective
14:07and experience
14:09in terms of coming of age
14:11in the 90s,
14:14where we're dealing with Monica Lewinsky
14:16in the public eye
14:18and we're being sent messages
14:20about Lorena Bobbitt
14:22and Long Island Lolita, right?
14:24She was 15 years old.
14:26She's a child.
14:30And then moving into this,
14:32yeah, the messages
14:34that pop culture was sending us, right?
14:36And so, actually,
14:38the wardrobe part of it
14:40is super interesting to me
14:43because you're metaphorically
14:45a bigger thing, obviously,
14:47which is you reach a point,
14:49I think, as a woman,
14:51where you take stock
14:53and you're like,
14:55but wait, what do I like?
14:57And who am I?
14:59And do I like watching football
15:01on Sundays
15:03and making these fucking dips?
15:05Or have I just been doing this
15:07because of a guy?
15:09And now it's just a part of myself
15:12that I have just conditioned my brain
15:14to think that I fucking like this.
15:16I do not like this!
15:18Anyway,
15:20so that's that part of it.
15:22And I think,
15:24and then the secondary part
15:26of it is like, yes,
15:28I think that I actually do have
15:30a very unique experience
15:32of having, you know,
15:34been sitting in a casting office
15:36at age 20 and being told
15:38that if I am not on the cover
15:41or if I don't get into the pages
15:43of Maxim Magazine
15:45or I don't do Stuff Magazine
15:47or one of the things,
15:49if I don't basically put on
15:51my fucking underwear
15:53and get myself in a magazine,
15:55and this is a quote,
15:57have no shot of having a film career.
15:59Okay, so what do you do with that
16:01at age 20?
16:03I was like, I guess I gotta do
16:05fucking Stuff Magazine
16:07or Maxim Magazine,
16:09and that's brutal.
16:11You know, it's brutal
16:13that like Anne Hathaway
16:15had to sit across from Matt Lauer
16:17and discuss a violation
16:19of her privacy
16:21as if that's like a normal thing
16:23we should be asking.
16:25It's fucking insane that Hannah Waddington
16:27has to be asked to show her leg.
16:29Like, I'm wearing no clothes right now,
16:31but that is because that is my choice.
16:33But I do think that
16:35how Meredith is able
16:38to take the situations from the 90s
16:40and how we,
16:42what we were all sort of subjected
16:44to and conditioned by
16:46and shine a light on it
16:48while making us laugh
16:50and not
16:52feel ever that
16:54we're preaching
16:56about the sins of the past
16:58because the fact is we all fucking know
17:00at this point what
17:02it was and we're still
17:04fighting it, you know, daily.
17:07It is a release to
17:09laugh at it, you know.
17:11Because I laugh so hard
17:13at my cover of Maxim UK.
17:15LAUGHTER
17:17LAUGHTER
17:19Because,
17:21I don't know if you know, my film career
17:23went fucking great.
17:25LAUGHTER
17:27White Chicks is having a moment.
17:29Let me tell you something about White Chicks.
17:31LAUGHTER
17:33LAUGHTER
17:36Oh my God. Alright, Paula.
17:38LAUGHTER
17:40I didn't even really write down a question
17:42as much as a comment because
17:44I feel like you, I literally wrote down
17:46you're playing one of the funniest queer characters
17:48I've seen on modern TV.
17:50I truly like,
17:52especially this season, it is
17:54truly like knocking it out of the park.
17:56I get so much joy that I am
17:5860 years old.
18:00And I'm sorry Meredith,
18:02I know I'm probably not supposed to tell people
18:05I'm a little older than everyone else.
18:07I've told you, never.
18:09What are you talking about?
18:11Night creams.
18:13I love that
18:15I am the one that is the oldest one
18:17in the group and I'm the one
18:19getting all the action this season.
18:21And these foxes, this
18:23assassin's row of foxes
18:25is like walking through
18:27the season and I'm like
18:29always either putting my clothes on or taking them off.
18:31And drinking a lot of,
18:34there's a scene, did you guys see the scene
18:36with me drinking the
18:38Gatorade? Oh, well I'm topless
18:40in one of the scenes.
18:42And I'm just doing this to,
18:44she's waiting to talk to me by the
18:46vending machine at the hotel
18:48and I'm drinking a Gatorade
18:50post one of the women that I'm trying to
18:52hook up with because I have a spreadsheet
18:54of the 178 types of women
18:56that I'm going to score before I go back to my
18:58ex-wife. And I'm drinking
19:00a Gatorade and just going like
19:03this completely full titty out.
19:05I'm thrilled
19:07to play this. I'm thrilled to play
19:09a grey haired
19:11like, you know, older queer lady
19:13that's actually getting it.
19:17Earlier today,
19:19Renee, you were literally just quoting
19:21the show. Quoting
19:23other people's lines mostly. Are there
19:25ever lines that are just like
19:27too much to handle? Like even just like
19:29you delivering, like you have
19:31trouble getting it out or like
19:33Renee says something and you're like
19:35what the hell? Is that a question to
19:37all of us? Yes, everybody. Jump in there.
19:39One is jumping to my brain because
19:41it was one of the first, it was
19:43the first scene that the four of us
19:45shot together. This is in the pilot
19:47episode. And
19:49I know what it is.
19:51I could not, Busy's line
19:53was
19:55Ashley's a bench
19:57now Dawn.
19:59Because there's a bench with Ashley after
20:01she died, like a little plaque.
20:03Our member who swam off
20:05an infinity pool.
20:07And died. And now we have a
20:09dedicated bench. And Busy
20:11so sincerely
20:13a little bit tipsy in the scene, I mean
20:15some are a little bit tipsy in the scene, is
20:17telling me, oh, oh well we can't
20:19ask Ashley. Ashley's a
20:21bench now Dawn.
20:23And I was
20:25laughing so fucking hard but
20:27also getting this little glimpse
20:29of what our life was going
20:31to be like. It was the
20:33fucking best.
20:35It was so amazing and it's only gotten
20:37better and richer and more
20:39just exciting
20:41and rich and delicious since then.
20:43It's just been amazing. It's amazing.
20:45Sometimes it's the lines because
20:47they're genius. And people actually give me credit.
20:49A friend of mine that I grew up with said I
20:51heard you in an interview and you described your
20:53mouth as a t-shirt gun of wisdom.
20:55He's known me since
20:57he was a child. He's like, you're really
20:59smart. He just thought I was
21:01so savvy to say that I just didn't have the heart to
21:03tell him that I didn't write it.
21:05I forgot
21:07about that.
21:09But what I, sometimes it's
21:11not the lines. I remember
21:13in this season I had to walk in in this
21:15red outfit where the pants were
21:17also boots. You probably didn't get
21:19to see that. And I had to walk
21:21in in the first episode and
21:23announce to the group that I
21:25had saved the day because I
21:27had booked Radio City
21:29Music Hall on
21:31Thanksgiving morning.
21:33And spent all
21:35of our money. I couldn't get
21:37it out because it was just the most
21:39ridiculously stupid thing.
21:41Your character was so proud
21:43of her. She was like, I
21:45fixed it. And then they were like
21:47isn't that Thanksgiving morning? And I'm
21:49like, you know, well that must have been
21:51why it was available.
21:53You're welcome! And then I walk out
21:55and then there's like these
21:57automatic doors in the hotel and I say
21:59open! And then they open and close.
22:01It's ridiculous. And on
22:03top of the brilliance of the humor
22:05there's a very Girls5eva thing
22:07that always happens to us. That there's
22:09this life imitating art.
22:11So we're trying to shoot this episode
22:13in a hotel that's actually
22:15functioning.
22:17We couldn't get the lobby
22:19open and there are people
22:21coming in. The whole week
22:23there'd be a family from Wisconsin
22:25walking in. They were so pissed off at us.
22:27And I was literally like, right before
22:29I shot I said to a whole family that came out
22:31in their bathing suit because it's like a
22:33Marriott Divorced Dad sweet lips kind of thing. I'm literally
22:35like, we'll be one second.
22:37And I went into the scene.
22:39And the phone kept ringing.
22:41Yeah, the phone kept ringing.
22:43Yeah, the hotel lobby phones were not turned off.
22:45Yeah. The hardest I laughed
22:47this year line wise was
22:49a line of Renee's
22:51at this diner
22:53restaurant booth
22:55and she says
22:57we're saying like
22:59why is he eating here?
23:01He's like a Harry Styles character in the show
23:03this season. Why is he
23:05eating at this macaroni rascals
23:07and it's like because it makes him feel safe.
23:09It makes him feel, you know.
23:11Comfortable. It's familiar.
23:13Do you remember it?
23:15You said, oh, I know.
23:17I know the feeling. Whatever
23:19town we're in, I go to the local church
23:21and I sing with the choir
23:23and I just destroy them.
23:27I murder them. I just destroy them.
23:29I just destroy them.
23:31And I just could not, I could not
23:33stop laughing. I could not stop
23:35laughing at that. Every time you said it.
23:37It is such a gift
23:39to have these words in our mouth
23:41and have these situations and to do it with these
23:43people in these costumes and
23:45even in the absurd things that happen
23:47to our actual, in our actual lives
23:49at the moment, it feels
23:51it really does feel like a gift.
23:53Since you're talking about lines
23:55I do want to just say our
23:57biggest thrill is to be in
23:59a show where people laugh out loud
24:01when they're watching it and I feel like
24:03there's really a lack of that now
24:05and there's brilliant shows
24:07that are being called comedies
24:09but they aren't as
24:11much of a hard comedy
24:13and I love them and they're
24:15amazing and they have incredible stories
24:17and incredible characters and
24:19heart wrenching and incredible but
24:21you know I came from SNL and
24:23I am used to hearing laughs
24:25I'm used to hearing people laugh
24:27but also like even at SNL we would
24:29love to have some little moment that
24:31was very human or very, you know I always
24:33used to write losers and like
24:35funny weird losers and I
24:37love, I love to have that
24:39vulnerability but Meredith
24:41and her writing staff like
24:43they really know how to write things
24:45that I have people in the street all the time now
24:47saying I heard my
24:49relative, you know my relative
24:51in the other room scream laughing
24:53at something, pounding on the table
24:55that's what I wish there was
24:57more of on television right now
25:01Well I agree and again
25:03what an incredible show, congratulations
25:05on your third season and thank you so much for joining us tonight
25:07Thank you, thanks everybody