As a child of the ’90s, Erika Henningsen grew up watching “Mean Girls” long before she ever played Cady Heron on Broadway. Now she’s back for yet another Tina Fey collaboration in Season 2 of “The Four Seasons,” out on Netflix.
“How lucky am I? This is my third project with her and also my third project with Jeff Richmond, her husband — because he did the music for ‘Mean Girls,’ ‘Girls5eva’ and then also directed one of these episodes — and it’s just wild,” the actress told TheWrap. “I feel like they’ve watched me come into my own as a performer, but they also know my idiosyncrasies and hang-ups and neuroses that can get in my way, so they really know how to communicate with me to get like the best work out, which is such a gift.”
“I don’t think the person who was watching ‘SNL’ and ‘Mean Girls’ obsessively as a high schooler would have ever thought, ‘You know who your through line is going to be in your professional career? Tina Fey,’” she added with a laugh. “‘Mean Girls’ was such a backdrop of my high school experience. Literally, I watched it once a week. And I mean that. Not hyperbolic, I really watched it once a week … I just keep praying I don’t f–k up any of these gorgeous opportunities that she has presented to me.”
Henningsen stars as Ginny in the comedy series opposite Will Forte, Kerri Kenney-Silver, Marco Calvani, Colman Domingo and Fey, all of whom make up a friend group that is still reeling from the sudden death of their friend Nick, played by Steve Carell in Season 1. Naturally, his presence can still be felt in this new batch of episodes.
“I learned this from working with Steve and also when Tina was directing me: The thing about theater is that it can obviously vary night to night a little bit, but you kind of agree on what a scene is going to be in the rehearsal process, and then your job is to execute that within the lines every evening,” Henningsen explained. “I remember I shot a pilot for something and I felt like I was still treating it like theater. When I worked with Steve in Season 1, and then when Tina directed me, things started to kind of emerge where I’m realizing the great freedom of TV is that I’m not the editor. All I have to do is give them as many options as possible, and there’s a lot of freedom in that.”
“The cast has always been so welcoming of me. Even though we’re generationally different, they never wanted me to feel like I wasn’t an equal collaborator, so that has been from the jump the way they’ve treated me,” she further shared. “What was so fun about this season was getting to do scenes with Kerri. We were kind of enemies in Season 1, so what does it mean to actually be friends in Season 2? That was really enjoyable. I do feel lucky, because on the inside, I am an old soul. This is the greatest cast for me to be a part of. Like, Tina and I are reading the same book right now. I do best with these people in their 50s who want to have a nice dinner at 5:30 p.m. and then be in jammies by 10.”
Plus, it turns out the cast from Alan Alda’s original 1981 film of the same name has also been enjoying the remake.
“I loved the movie and I loved the character Ginny, played by Bess Armstrong. Bess wrote this beautiful note to Tina after Season 1 and just said, like, ‘Thank you for maintaining the integrity of this character,’ which they made her, in the movie, also not just this young archetype,” Henningsen recalled. “She has a backbone, and she’s able to talk to this group of people who are generationally older than her in a way that is not meek or dumb; she is a real, fleshed out person, and I just loved that. I love that the movie did that and I love that it meant so much to Bess Armstrong back in the ’80s when women were not written that way.”
And while we’re not going to spoil Season 2 just yet since it only premiered on Thursday, the “Hazbin Hotel” actress did share what she hopes audiences take away from this second installment after they binge-watch it this weekend.
“I hope they take away how important it is to maintain your friendships, even when you do get married and have kids. My favorite scenes in this season are some of the ones between Colman and Tina, because they remind me of me and my gay best friend Grey [Henson], who played Damian in ‘Mean Girls: The Musical,’” she said. “I just left New York to move to L.A., and there’s a plot in Season 2 where Colman Domingo’s character leaves to move to Italy and the friction it causes between the friends is palpable.”
“I was like, yeah, that’s real, because our friends are just as important to us as our family, and if we don’t maintain and protect those relationships, you’re gonna lose the person who knew you when you were that weird 21-year-old singing Barbra Streisand in the college auditorium,” Henningsen concluded.
Both seasons of “The Four Seasons” are now available to stream on Netflix.
