- Hey, it's Alison Brie
and I'm In Studio with The Hollywood Reporter.
(upbeat music)
- Hello, Alison Brie. - Hi!
(laughing)
- So we're here to talk about season three of GLOW.
- Yes.
- The show is so great.
It just is one of those shows that makes me so happy
every time I watch it.
(Alison laughing)
- Thank you. - So, of course.
Yeah, thank you for making it.
Okay, so they're in Vegas this season.
- Yes.
- Why don't you tell me what they're doing in Vegas
and where they're living and everything.
- Yes, the ladies have moved to Las Vegas
and they are now performing their,
what once was a television show as a live Vegas stage show.
So they're doing the same show every night
at the Fan-Tan Hotel and Casino
off of the Sunset Strip.
The Sunset Strip?
Off of the Vegas Strip.
It's not Los Angeles.
We did shoot it in Los Angeles.
- [Natalie] Yeah.
- It's pretty cool moving these characters to Las Vegas
because it really feels like a departure
from our first two seasons in a lot of ways.
- Yeah. - And I think
that Vegas brings a lot of different types
of things out of people.
- It really does.
Yeah, and they're kind of,
they're isolated and of course,
Debbie is away from her child. - Yeah.
- And Ruth is away from her boyfriend
and there's all that.
They're isolated but very together
and sort of on top of each other.
- Yeah. Yes.
There's a very distinct arc I think to this season
in terms of how the ladies relate to Las Vegas.
And it starts out being kind of exciting
and dangerous and sexy.
And at first, I mean this is the most success
that any of these women have had.
In the first two seasons
we've watched them clawing their way.
Ruth fought for her role on this wrestling show.
In season two they were really fighting the network
to keep the show alive,
and figure out who their wrestling characters were
and things like that.
And now everybody's working.
They're making money.
So it starts out on this high
and then slowly deteriorates
as we get into the claustrophobic element of Vegas.
They're all living in the same hotel on top of each other.
They do the same show every night in the same showroom.
They're eating at the same buffet in that same hotel.
It's like they're never seeing
the light of day. - Yeah.
- And they start to go a little stir-crazy.
- Yes, understandably so
from all the things you just mentioned.
And yeah, like you said,
the first and second season was so much fighting
to get GLOW off the ground. - Yeah.
- And get it to somewhere substantial
or whatever it was that they were going for
in the first two seasons. - Yeah.
- And now Vegas is sort of this other level.
But how much of the storyline,
either Ruth's storyline
or the general storyline did you know,
going into this season?
- This is the first season
where Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch, our creators,
kinda sat me down
and walked me through the arc of the season,
right before we started shooting.
We're all together for a month before we start shooting
'cause all the ladies come in
to do wrestling training. - Yeah.
- And so we're kind of already in the swing of things
and because I was going to be directing the seventh episode,
I think they were letting me be privy
to a little more information.
But I actually think they've loosened up.
I think they let all the girls know.
We all knew at the start of the season
that we would have a character swapping episode
because we had to start prepping those matches.
- Yeah. - My match was so fun
and it was incredible to play Liberty Belle
and put Ruth's own spin on that
and watch Betty Gilpin as Zoya.
Incredible.
But Gayle Rankin
as Shiela playing Liza Minnelli
is something I will never forget.
- She was amazing.
I loved, I mean the whole switching
was just one of my favorite things,
probably in the whole series.
(Alison laughing)
You were cracking me up. - Thank you.
- And so was Betty Gilpin playing her version of Zoya.
- Thank you. - It was really funny.
That's such a fun episode. - Totally.
And I think it was a smart way to keep the wrestling fresh.
- Yeah. - We do our own stunts
on the show.
And I'm so proud of the work that I do
and that the other women do.
And we're a pretty strong bunch
and we've learned a lot of big moves.
But I feel like we're hitting a bit of a ceiling
in terms of how much bigger those moves can get.
And this season,
there's a lot less wrestling over this season,
so it's sort of important
that when we come back to the wrestling
that it be fresh and exciting and different.
And we have two major wrestling episodes this season.
I think they both have that level of excitement.
- Yeah, they're so good. - Yeah.
- I heard you in an interview say,
whenever you first started the show
you would get just so excited reading the scripts.
Do you still get that feeling?
- Yes! - Now that you've done it
for a few?
Yeah, you love it. - Yes!
I love it.
It's my favorite job I've ever done.
The excitement is not waning at all.
And a lot of that has to do with the writing.
And Liz and Carly are always trying
to push the boundaries of this show.
They never wanna do the same thing twice.
So I never pick up a script and go like,
"Oh, Ruth and Sam are doing that again."
It always feels surprising. - Yes.
- And there is that buzz that goes around sets
as we all get the scripts at the same time
but people are shooting,
we're all on different schedules.
And so some people read them before the others.
So it's always fun to have someone be like,
"Did you read nine?
"Did you see what happens
"with Ruth and Debbie?"
And whatever.
It's kinda fun. - Yeah.
- That buzz has not gone away.
- That's really fun.
I think you've talked about it a couple times,
how the audition process was very grueling and emotional.
Obviously you booked the role.
And you talked a lot about leading up to getting it
but I'm also wondering,
'cause you have mentioned about you and Betty Gilpin
doing an audition together
for the first time. - Yeah.
- I think, was it in Canada?
- Yeah, it was in Toronto. - Okay.
What happened though after you guys booked it?
Were you both just so excited?
And what was your first communication
after you both knew that you both booked it?
- God, I'm certain
that I texted her.
But I know I waited to make sure that we both got the roles.
- I got it, great! - Yeah.
Oh, congrats.
I mean she's better at describing this than me.
But there was a funny thing when we first met in Toronto.
We were so excited to meet each other
and we were so instantly, I feel like,
connected and on board to just go for it in this audition.
And we're rooting for each other
'cause we also want ourselves to look good in the moment
and then we went and got coffee after.
And it was such a weird dance of like,
"I already love this person so much.
"But I don't wanna get too attached
"'cause what if this doesn't work out?"
And even the way both of us were sitting there
with our tea or whatever being like,
"This could be a cool, cool be a cool job."
"Yeah, could be."
So tentative.
And then I got home.
And before our next audition
there was a song,
a Sylvester song that's in the pilot episode
when we're at our workout class
and it was written into the script,
and I got back to LA and I was reading a book.
The book I was reading at the time referenced that song.
And I took a photo of it and I texted it to Betty
and I was like, "It's a sign!"
(laughing)
And then we auditioned together again in LA
and she was going straight to her wedding.
I think she got married
two days after her final audition for GLOW.
So there was a bit of a lull.
But 100% I reached out to her immediately
to celebrate that we both got the roles.
And as soon as she got to Los Angeles
to start wrestling training and stuff like that,
I took her out on our first friend date
and we went to a Melissa Etheridge, Pat Benatar concert
and it was pretty magical. - What?
That is amazing.
Let's talk about how,
you mentioned earlier
about directing episode seven. - Yeah.
- And it was great.
I knew going into it that you had directed that episode
and so while watching it I was just like,
it's a lot of,
your character's not in it that much which maybe was--
- A relief.
Yes, definitely.
- How did you find directing and what was your approach?
I know you've worked with Steven Spielberg.
So are you pulling-- - So I just called up, Steven.
I was like, "What should I do?"
- Yeah, yeah.
But where are you drawing from?
- I think everything.
I think a great advantage to being an actor
who steps into directing is that we,
actors, we just have the opportunity
to work with so many different types of directors.
So you get to see what works well,
what doesn't work as well.
Especially, specifically to the GLOW set.
It's our third season.
So I've watched a lot of our regular directors come through
and also new directors who've come in
and directed one episode here or there.
And I know how our cast responds to it.
It's a great advantage
to sort of say-- - Right.
- Oh, I know what they like
and I know what they don't like.
And even specifically per person,
I know what they respond to positively
in terms of being directed and things like that.
So that felt like a great advantage and a very safe space.
Everyone was very supportive.
It was a blast.
I had so much fun.
And in terms of, talking about in season three,
keeping up that excitement.
There was this new crazy thing
that I was gonna do in the middle of the season.
So the whole season felt like it was leading up to that.
And after episode seven I was a bit like,
"Whew, okay, I'm just acting now.
"What a breeze."
- The last thing, I'm sure you know what I'm gonna ask next
which is are you saying anything about season four?
Any notes on that?
- We don't know yet
about season four. - Okay.
- So we're just crossing our fingers.
- All right.
There's lots of stones that are left unturned
at this point. - I feel like
it would be a real shame
if we didn't do another season
because the characters
were sort of left hanging in the balance
and I fully support anyone wanting to go online
and voice their support for the show.
It couldn't hurt.
(Natalie laughing)
- All right, sounds good.
Thank you so much again for stopping by.
So good to see you. - Absolutely.
- Love the show.
You're so great in it. - Thank you.
- And everybody, watch season three of GLOW
on Netflix right now.
Just turn this off
and just go watch it. - Do it!
(laughing)