Interview: YOUNGER's Molly Bernard Shares What's Ahead on Season Two

Molly Bernard portrays wacky and wild Lauren Heller on the hit TV Land series YOUNGER, a new comedy written by Darren Starr (Sex and the City) which follows Liza (Sutton Foster), a 40-year-old woman who lies about her age in order to reinvent her life and re-live her 20's.

With the Season 2 premiere just around the corner (Wednesday, January 13th), Bernard speaks exclusively with BWW and shares what's ahead on the hit series.

First of all, congratulations on yesterday's news that TV Land ordered a third season of the show.

Oh I know, how fantastic!

Have you had a chance to celebrate with the cast?

Yes, we all had a big hurray in the greenroom and we're all in really jovial spirits. And honestly, on top of it being a great show, we all really love each other and I think we're just as excited that we get to be together for another year and play these characters together.

It was also announced yesterday that there will be some terrific guest stars appearing in Season Two, including Matthew Morrison.

Yes, it's very exciting. Matthew's episode is outrageous and amazing. It's going to leave GLEE fans with their jaws on the floor.

Is there any singing involved?

No, no singing but an incredible storyline.

You were originally cast in a guest starring role, and now here you are in Season Two as a cast regular.

Yes, it's pretty crazy. You know I had a six-line part in the pilot and then Darren really took a liking to me and wanted Hillary's [Duff] character Chelsea to have an outrageous best friend, so he wrote this part with me in mind. And then it's my understanding that the network was concerned that I didn't have any comedy on my reel and that I was a newcomer, but Darren really pushed for me. So I had to re-audition for the part, along with many other girls, and I fought really hard for it, I prepared for the audition like I was in training and I booked it. And initially, once I booked the part I thought it was only as a four or five episode guest star, but I ended up being in nine episodes, which was really, really crazy. I mean yes I worked so hard to get here but it's still really crazy that now I'm a series regular on a TV show with a cast that is insane, Sutton and Hillary and Debi [Mazar] and Peter [Hermann] and Nico [Tortorella] and Miriam [Shor], and Darren Starr writes the show, I just have to pinch myself many times throughout the day.

You used the word "outrageous" to describe your character Lauren, and that is such an accurate way to describe her. Do you find it's hard to push yourself beyond your comfort zone?

You know I'm too humble for my own good, so I think playing someone like Lauren has gotten me out of my shell. I'm a braver, more vibrant person because of her. Kathy Najimy, who plays my mother on the show, said to me one day when I was getting down on myself, 'you know Molly when you're on set, Lauren rules the show, it's her rules that you're playing by. And Lauren will do anything, say anything, so all of your neurosis and anxieties can kind of be at bay because Lauren is the person in charge.' And that advice really changed the game for me. It's a real gift for an actress to play a character who is nothing like themselves, much like Miriam Shor, her character Diana is totally mean and bossy and insane and Miriam of course is the nicest woman you will ever meet. So I get to play this over-the-top character and I feel very lucky that I'm not playing someone who is too close to home, and that I can do these crazy things on TV. It's really inspiring to play a very fierce female on television.

Yes, I actually had the chance to speak with Miriam about her character and she said a similar thing about how she admires Diana, as mean as she is, because she is unapologetic about being a woman in a position of power, and that has inspired her to be more like that in real life.

Totally, and at the TCA panel this week, this wonderful question was asked to Darren about how he writes so well for women and he eloquently said, 'well look at our cast, we have these very fierce, smart, funny women and those are the kind of women that I want to write about, so you have to start with casting.' And I found that moving because he does write about very strong women who are never afraid to ask for what they want. And to get to play someone like that has really changed my life drastically as far as being a young woman in 2016.

Do you feel the show presents an accurate depiction of what it's like to be in your 20's at this point in time?

Well the show is not totally reality-based, there is a fantasy aspect to it that I love. And by that I mean the women in the show are not representative of every demographic. For example, my character is a very wealthy, Jewish girl who was raised on the Upper West Side, so she grew up in a very privileged way and I did not at all. But I can still identify with her because I knew people like her. And I think that while her struggles are a little different than my own, at the end of the day, how these characters are navigating through the world as young women is pretty accurate. They're standing up for themselves, they do what they want, they're smart. I mean, I am not a partier, I rarely go to bars, I'm like an uber-nerd, over Christmas I stayed at home for four days straight and read a book, but when I do go out with my friends who are more like Lauren, it's amazing because I get to live a little bit of a different life.

At the end of Season One, we saw a relationship developing between your character and Debi Mazar's character Maggie. Is that explored in Season Two?

Yes, very much so. They definitely will have some intimate time together and there's some ups and downs with them as there are with all of the relationships in the show. And I love that Debi and I get to be in this lesbian relationship on TV and I love that she's older and I'm younger - it's a nice parallel with Josh and Liza's relationship, and it's a cool storyline.

As you mentioned, the cast is made up of so many industry veterans. What have you learned from working with them?

Oh my goodness. Well I keep saying this show has changed my life, but it really has. And it's not just limited to my career, it's changed who I am as a person. Sutton and really all of the cast, have taught me to really own that I'm good. You know, they're all much more advanced in their careers than I am and so they have owned that they're good, that they're fierce performers. And at the beginning, they all could kind of smell that I was in this stage of 'oh, I'm such a beginner, I'm such a novice.' And Sutton kept saying to me, 'yeah, that may be, but you're tough as nails girl, you've got to own it!' So everyday on set I have these champions, who not only lead by example like Sutton, but who will also say a comment to me like 'that was fantastic, the take of that scene was hilarious."

We shot a scene one day and we couldn't get through it because Sutton just kept breaking and that was the highest compliment - that we couldn't get the scene because Sutton kept laughing at me. So that was my best day at work. She's a Broadway darling, she's an old school Broadway workhorse. I actually wrote her fan mail when I was 14 and I told her I wanted to work with her one day, and she wrote me back and said, 'follow your dreams Molly' and now I get to co-star in a show with her. I mean that's just bonkers!

Season 2 of YOUNGER premieres on Wednesday, January 13th with two back-to-back episodes beginning at 10pm/ET on TV Land.

About Molly Bernard: Molly Bernard began her career in the 2000 comedy drama Pay It Forward opposite Kevin Spacey. In 2013, she portrayed Wendy on the TV series Royal Pains and appeared in a recurring role in the series Alpha House. She most recently appeared on the big screen in "The Intern" and will soon be seen in Clint Eastwood's "Sully", starring Tom Hanks.

Molly has a bachelor's degree from Skidmore College and a MFA in acting from Yale University/Yale School of Drama.

Photos courtesy of TV Land