[Warning: Contains Season One Spoilers!] As season one of Bravo’s first scripted original series, Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce, came to a close last February, all of the major characters were in some form of limbo — especially Abby McCarthy (Lisa Edelstein) whose newfound life as a divorcee was complicated by romantic feelings toward her ex, Jake (Paul Adelstein).
To find out what’s in store when season two returns to Bravo tonight at 10 p.m., Rotten Tomatoes visited a set in Los Angeles where Edelstein, Adelstein, Beau Garrett (Pheobe), Necar Zadegan (Delia), and Alanna Ubach (Jo) were shooting two scenes that will appear later in the season. But, for now, here’s what the cast of GGTD wants you to know!
The word that comes up most with the cast of GGTD to describe their characters in season two is “searching” — which is not too surprising, given how we left our characters literally in the dark after in earthquake toward the end of season one.
“I think overall, Phoebe is a woman trying to find herself a little bit late in life,” said Garrett who, like her character on the show is a former model. “I identify with Phoebe’s freedom and her search, I identify with Abby’s search, I identify with Delia’s uncertainty, and Jo’s — she’s just a firecracker… I identify with everybody!”
For Zadegan, who described her divorce lawyer character Delia “as a bit of a drama queen,” the search continues this season. “You know, if you watch season one, you learn that Delia is maybe the only character who has grown up to be the woman that she always wanted to be,” explained Zadegan. “But, she finds herself still left searching [and] she creates a little bit of drama in her life.”
And GGTD‘s lead character, Abby, is probably the most lost at the beginning of the new season, which picks up just a few weeks after the end of season one. “Abby’s at odds with a lot of things. She hasn’t talked to Will [Warren Christie] yet when we first see her. She doesn’t know about Becca [Juliana Guill] yet, so there are a lot of storylines in the air that need to be resolved.”
Adelstein, who also co-wrote an installment last season, penned episode four this year, along with creator and showrunner Marti Noxon. We won’t spoil too much, but it’s a stand-alone episode that mostly features Jake and Abby. “I figured that was one that Marti would want to write,” Adelstein told Rotten Tomatoes, “and she was like, ‘No, you’re up!’ and I was like, ‘Okay!’ and I loved writing it.”
For Edelstein, who flexed her writing muscles on the upcoming third episode of the season, some things came easily and others were a bit more of a challenge.
“You know the character so well,” said Edelstein, who asked Noxon for a chance to write this year. “Especially, I think it’s easier in season two because people’s voices are in your head and who’s playing the character and how they play it is already [established]. The hardest thing is really, for example, in episode three… there were all these scenes for Barbara [who turns up in episode two] and I had no idea what voice she had because I hadn’t seen her introduced yet. You’re writing blind.”
Edelstein also admitted that writing for Abby and playing Abby are two totally different experiences. “I have to tell you, I’ve never been on set in a different capacity before, and no one gives a s–t about the writer. Like, they don’t care if you’re thirsty, they don’t care if you’re hungry, they don’t care if you have to go to the bathroom and you miss a take,” Edelstein said, laughing. “If you don’t know where they’re shooting, that’s your problem. I basically concussed myself walking into a lighting fixture — nobody gave a s–t when I was a writer!”
Most of the GGTD cast tracks the show’s fans on social media — and have found the viewers really relating to the material.
“With the social media and live tweeting, you hear the feedback really quickly,” said Zadegan, who has a live performance background from the theater. “It has been interesting to see how some people are into the relationships [and] have hard opinions. But, just because somebody may be dissatisfied with a certain person’s choices within a relationship, it doesn’t mean that those choices aren’t entertaining. Sometimes bad choice are very entertaining.”
The biggest topic among GGTD‘s ‘shippers’ are who Abby’s character should be with — Will or Jake. “It feels like there was some ‘Jabby’ love, which is what the ‘shippers call Jake and Abby,” explained Adelstein. “And then there’s ‘Wabby,’ which is Will and Abby. It seems evenly split, but I feel like the fans are protective of Abby, so the audience is pretty well-aligned with her. If she wants Jake, they want Jake. If she doesn’t want Jake, they don’t want Jake — which I think is good for our show.”
“I wrote last year that I was really glad that Abby never dated anybody named Floyd,” Edelstein mused.“Hashtag Flabby???”
According to Ubach, it’s time for Jo to fly the coop this season — and also explore Tinder. What does that mean for her character? “It’s interesting. Jo and Abby sort of have a semi falling out, and she basically has to move out of the house,” Ubach explained. “She opens up a vegan bakery, and she has a very high-maintenance baker played the lovely and talented Will Kemp. And we’re introduced to her bigamist crazy ex-husband, Frumkis, played by Maury Sterling. It’s exciting.”
“Jo has sort of decided that she’s going to make herself feel better by going on dating apps,” Edelstein told Rotten Tomatoes. “She gets really into it.” And based on what we know about GGTD‘s history of bringing real-life dating and divorce disasters into the writers room, you can bet some of these Tinder plotlines are ripped straight from somebody’s true stories.
DVR alert: Edelstein will be showing off her assets in an upcoming episode and she wants you to know that what you see is actually her.
“Somebody asked if that was really me!” Edelstien, who bares it all this season, told Rotten Tomatoes. “I was like, ‘Are you f—ing kidding me? I worked my ass off — literally! — and then it’s immediately assumed that it’s a body double. I was really mad!”
Still, the 49-year-old actress admits that the magic of TV editing gives her a leg up. “Even if there were moments running around naked that didn’t look good, they would never make it into the edit because that’s not really what it’s about, right? So, women out there, if you feel less-than because it looks nice, it’s because I’ve got an entire staff of people making sure that it does. [Imagine] if we could edit our lives that way and always have a professional lighting designer there to help out!”
Season two of Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce premieres tonight on Bravo at 10 p.m. Will you be watching?
