‘Younger’s’ Sutton Foster on Juggling Sexism, Ageism With Comedy and 8 Other Emmy Contender Quickies

“It’s a show about women supporting women,” the TV Land actress tells TheWrap

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When TV Land’s “Younger” aired its first episode on March 31, the show immediately shot up in rankings with great reviews. Just renewed for its second season, the show scored the largest in-season growth for an original series in the network’s history. In the midst of ageism in Hollywood being under immense scrutiny, the show offers a unique perspective on age and how to deal with it.

The show follows a single mother (Liza Miller), who gets mistaken for younger than she really is after she gets left by her husband for a younger woman, to which she decides to turn her life around and live as a 26-year-old.

Sutton Foster plays Miller, alongside Debi Mazar, Miriam Shor, Nico Tortorella, and Hilary Duff. Season two will hit screens in 2016. Foster is nominated for an Emmy in the Best Comedy Actress category for her role in “Younger.”

Below, she tells TheWrap which scene she found the toughest to shoot, which scenes were the most fun, which show(s) she most recently binge-watched, and where she absolutely drew the line while shooting the show.

TheWrap: What was the toughest scene you had to do this season?
Sutton
Foster: Probably the most challenging scene was the confrontation scene with Josh after he finds out the truth. We have this scene in the bar where I come clean and I’ve told him that I’m actually much older and I’ve been lying to him, and we have this very sort of intense scene where I try to explain myself but his character is like, “It’s not about the age, it’s about the lie. It’s about the fact that you’ve been lying to me this whole time. Nothing is real.” So that was the toughest scene to shoot, just because Nico [Tortorella], who plays Josh, and I have become really good friends, and when we shot this scene, we stayed away from each other the whole time. Usually, we hang out between takes, but now we were on opposite sides of the bar. I still remember that day. I was like, “oh shit, he’s not going to talk to me.” And then when we were done, we were like, “okay, can we be friends again?” It was just sort of an intense moment, but it all kind of came together really beautifully.

Which was the most fun?
Probably when the cast takes molly in episode 11. I’ve never taken molly, so I didn’t really know. It was really silly. We did this whole “hot mitzva” sequence, and we were in this hot warehouse for two days. It was primarily the whole cast and we were all together and it was just sort of towards the end when we were wrapping up the season. It was fun to be together, sort of going through this fake experience together. You think, “Oh, we get paid to do this?” So it was definitely a highlight. 

Let’s assume that somebody has never seen your show. What would you say to persuade them to watch it?
I think it’s unexpected. It’s a romantic comedy, there is something for everybody in it. It’s funny, it’s smart, it’s a little naughty. We handle topics of sex and ageism and growing older and dealing with being older and dealing with being younger, but we do it with a sense of humor, and I feel like the characters are relatable and are real. It’s a show about women supporting women. It’s nice to see on TV, just to see women having each other’s back and develop real friendships. It’s about forming a community that’s beyond blood, that’s like finding family and friends beyond your blood family. 
It’s also about reinvention and escapism. I think it’s a special little show. But of course I’m in it so I’m completely bias.

Who else on your show really deserves an Emmy and why?
First of all, this whole thing is crazy to me. I think that everybody on the show deserves to be recognized. All the characters are nuanced and complicated when they could be one dimensional characters. They are incredibly nuanced and layered and earnest and deep. I feel like everybody on the show is kicking major ass, it would be amazing if everyone was recognized in that way. I can’t pick — you can’t make me pick!

Are you a binge-watcher? Or do you like to watch one episode a week?
I definitely have been known to be a bit of binge-watcher in this day and age where we like immediacy and where we literally can have everything at any time. I just ordered something [on Amazon] and I was like, “it’s going to arrive tomorrow?” It’s like you can have anything, like, right now. I definitely binge-watch, the only show that I was watching week-to-week was “Game of Thrones.” I’m not a huge TV watcher oddly enough — I’m watching a lot more movies and things. But I love Netflix. We watched all of “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” we are rewatching “30 rock,” and I love stuff on HBO. Really anything where you don’t have to wait and you can hit it all out. But yeah, the only one was “Game of Thrones.”

What did you think about the whole Jon Snow thing?
I had no idea it was coming because I’ve been trying to stay away from the whole thing. It was like a blood bath, the whole last episode. First Stannis, then Jon Snow, Cersei’s daughter, now Aria’s blind, Sansa and Theon jumped… where are they? What the hell? I just didn’t like the way Jon died. I didn’t like it. I hated the way Robb Stark died too, it was just so brutal. It’s just these good characters that are trying to do good, and then you have all these awful other people, and it’s like, kill those guys off! You don’t want to see the good ones die. I was sad, and now I’m like, who do we root for now? You just killed two major throne contenders.

What was the last thing you binged on and how long did you go for?
I guess it would have been “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.” That was probably the last thing I binged-watched. Another thing we watched was “The Jinx” on HBO. That show freaked us out. My husband and I, that one freaked us out because we watched four episodes and we woke up the next morning and while we were drinking our coffee and we had to finish it. That was, like, a serious binge over a 24-hour span, where we had to finish that. That was really cool.

I just couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe the whole thing. My mind was blown — the fact that he was allowed to do this interview, and the fact that he had gotten away with so much prior, I just couldn’t believe it. It was just wild. So that was definitely a fun thing. 

If you could add any new category to the Emmys, serious or silly, what would it be?
The only thing that’s popping into my head is “Best On-Screen Chemistry,” between lovers or friends or something like that. 

What’s one thing that you refuse to do — where do you draw the line?
The good thing about our show is that it’s on TV land so it’s not like I’m not going to be showing my boobs and there is no nudity or stuff like that, so I haven’t had to deal with that. I did have to skateboard in the show and I did try to learn how to skateboard, but it was before I was getting married. I’m not good with things on my feet, like with wheels, rollerblading, or skiing, or anything that can cause breaking of bones because I’m flailing and falling. So I think they hired somebody. I was like, I can’t. I sort of drew a line on that. I can’t do it, I’m too scared. I thought I was going to break my wrist. There is a shot where someone who looks very very very very very much like me is skateboarding, but it’s not me. 

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