When Apple TV+’s new musical series “Schmigadoon!” first started revealing its cast, fans were elated to see that Kristin Chenoweth and Dove Cameron would be teaming up yet again. But upon realizing the actresses wouldn’t be playing mother and daughter, that excitement turned to confusion — and for some, even heartbreak.
Of course, those fans would be forgiven, considering how much Chenoweth and Cameron look alike — and, well, considering they’ve done it not once, but twice before. Chenoweth played the Maleficent to Cameron’s Mal in Disney’s “Descendants” as well as the Velma Von Tussle to her Amber Von Tussle in “Hairspray Live!”
“You know, it’s funny, we’ve played mother and daughter so many times now that it’s almost like a running joke,” Cameron told TheWrap. “It’s like, ‘Whose rider? Who has it in their contract that the other one has to be in the other musical project that they’re doing?’ It’s so silly. Also it’s in my rider, actually.”
But Chenoweth is totally fine with that. According to the actress, a lot of her conversations with Cameron are about all the many future projects they want to tackle together.
“I tell her all the time — and she knows that this is how I feel — I did not have children, I didn’t choose to do that. But if I had had children, that’s it right there,” Chenoweth said, pointing to Cameron. And yes, Cameron’s actual mom is well aware of that.
“I told her mother Bonnie that — ’cause I’m Dove’s musical mom and sometimes I insert myself where I shouldn’t, but that’s just how it is — I told her mother, I said, ‘Can I please be her mother too?’ And she said yes,” Chenoweth said happily. “So I got her own mother’s blessing.”
Chenoweth even originally told people she and Cameron were playing mother and daughter in “Schmigadoon!” So for those who are holding out hope it’ll be a plot twist that Betsy is in fact Mildred’s daughter, Cameron has just one response.
“That’s so funny,” she said. “I guess we can’t speak to that — you haven’t seen the whole show yet. So who knows?”
See TheWrap’s interview with Chenoweth and Cameron in the video up top.