Sara Bareilles, Busy Philipps, Renee Elise Goldsberry and Paula Pell talk to ET about the anticipated new season.
Girls5eva is ramping up the theatrics in season 2 as the ladies gear up for their musical comeback. The Peacock comedy, which stars Sara Bareilles, Busy Philipps, Renée Elise Goldsberry and Paula Pell, follows a one-hit-wonder girl group from the '90s that was churned through the pop music machine and reunites to give their dreams another shot. In the new season, they'll try again on their own terms when they return to the recording studio to lay down new tracks. Of course, their road to redemption is filled with bumps in the road.
"It was so beautiful to see what happened in season 2, [which] was a heightened version of what was beginning to develop in season 1. It was like in season 1 we're sort of in shock because we can't believe this opportunity is in front of us," Bareilles told ET's Lauren Zima. "In season 2, you’re really getting to see us go for it and dream and allow ourselves to reach for something. So there’s vulnerability in that."
"At least for Dawn this season, she’s gotten fired up about her role as songwriter and feels so emboldened by that," she noted. "And it's the pressures of what the labels want, what the producers want, what the other girls want. It's finding your way, definitely something that I have walked that path many, many times and continue to."
"I think for my character, I feel like she was the engine that was trying to make something happen 'cause we thought this great thing was going to happen in season 1 and then it kind of didn't," Goldsberry said of Wickie. "She was the engine and I feel like there is momentum in season 2. They actually have people that have invested at some level in them and so there is the opportunity to explore more of who she is as a person, which is interesting 'cause she has no place to live really. She doesn’t have a home. She doesn’t have anything."
And, as Pell teased, her character, Gloria, is saddled with a surgery-requiring injury -- adding another wrinkle to the group's proposed comeback.
"Gloria has a little bit of a physical problem at the beginning of the season hurting herself, having to get surgery. There’s a little bit of a wrench thrown in this momentum that they have going from season 1 to season 2 after their big road performance at Jingle Ball last season," Pell said. "I think for Gloria she continues to pursue her ex-wife trying to get everything right in her life, as everyone is personally and professionally, and we're trying to create an album, which is terrifying because it's going to be an actual record of whether we are destined to fail or succeed. And it's just hard to create anything anyway in real life. You can go in enthusiastically and then lose enthusiasm for what you’re creating, so there’s a lot of good built-in conflict in there, and fun, really good songs."
"There’s one thing that I can tease the fans -- the music, the hair, makeup and wardrobe this year have gone to another level," Philipps promised. "We got momentum."
Pell also added that season 2 is "more emotional." "I think it continues to be," she said, further explaining, "It was emotional last year, but there are real true moments of heartache and emotion that somehow can live with all this 'boom, boom, boom, funny joke comedy.'"
But they're already hoping for a third season with pitches at the ready for guest stars -- possibly of the music industry variety -- and potential storylines they'd like to explore.
"We’ve always played around with the idea of dipping into the actual music industry and tapping some of those artists of those eras. That could be a really fun thing to play with," Bareilles threw out there. "The first one that comes to me is Backstreet Boys because they joined us for an online thing last season in our press campaign. Britney [Spears] and her new baby..."
"I'd love to have En Vogue be around, can you imagine? Them trying to Whitney, trying to have a sing-off and them being like, 'Sit down!'" Goldsberry added. "There’s so many great ideas. I did something with Jameela Jamil, I just thought, 'Oh god shed be great on our show.' But we really are just sitting here in New York City and anyone that’s in town that wants to come through here, the writers are so brilliant they would find something fun to do."
The four stars acknowledged they've all grown closer since filming began on the series.
"It just feels like sisters, it feels like a family and it should because we have to trust each other a lot to do it and we do," Goldsberry said, with Bareilles adding that working together during the pandemic helped form their close bond. "We got to know each other at the height of COVID, so I think trauma bonding is very real and we got close really quickly. And doing something just as it unfolded, it really it became clear like, 'Oh we're gonna have a really beautiful time doing this.'"
Girls5eva premieres Thursday, May 5 on Peacock.
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