With Diana’s (Miriam Shor) wedding to Enzo (Chris Tardio) going off without much of a hitch,
there had to be drama elsewhere — and, boy, was there ever. After a challenging season career-wise, Kelsey (Hilary Duff) decided she was leaving Millennial to branch out on her own, only to be roped back in by a tempting offer from Charles (Peter Hermann) in the final moments of the season. And that wasn’t all Charles was offering. He went and proposed to Liza (Sutton Foster) during the reception — talk about stealing thunder!!
With all the craziness unfolding during a group dance to “We Are Family,” the audience was left with a million questions of what’s to come next season. We caught up with Duff to get some answers.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Poor Kelsey’s had one hell of a season. Did you agree with her decision to stay at Millennial?
HILARY DUFF: She did have a rough season. I mean the poor girl’s hair is like falling out. I don’t know. I think that sometimes in business, as a young person, she’s very smart and I think she gets questioned all the time and she’s still young, so she’s not completely confident in all of her decisions. But I think her knowing that Quinn is not the right place for her is quite mature. It took her a second to figure that out.
Would part of you have liked to see her go out on her own?
It might of been kind of fun but I can’t stand Quinn. I mean I love her personally, but I cannot stand her; I think she’s such a snake. I don’t like to do business that way — not that my business is the same as theirs but Kelsey has to know that she’s creating her identity right now and every choice matters. I don’t think for the long haul that’s who Kelsey wants to be associated with. But I don’t know if that means she’s going to stay at Millennial going into next season; she might still leave. They wrapped it up quite nicely with her and Charles, but that was like so f—ed up!
At a wedding as well!
I know! If I were her, I’d still be pretty angry.
We saw Kelsey go through and confront a social media mishap a few episodes back. Does it excite you when you read the script and see the show embracing everyday issues that women deal with?
I love it. I think our writers are so brilliant at popping in these nuggets that are current issues in our world. Whether it’s current events or just social stigmas that are so frowned upon, this is the world we’re living in and people do send nude selfies and do make mistakes. It’s so impossible for people to make a mistake these days — the standards are impossible to live up to. You can’t ever fail or fall on your face and that’s how we’re expected to live. It’s just not realistic so I really like that we tackle these issues and I love that Kelsey has Lauren as her absolute rock. She’s such a believer; she just wants to see her best friend win and there’s not enough of that in the world either. They do a really good job. We’re just laughing always through our table reads.
Let’s talk about Zane (Charles Michael Davis) and Kelsey’s relationship. I’m not totally sure I’m rooting for them?
Oh God, I think I’m kind of sitting where you’re sitting.
I just feel like he’s not good enough for her!
I know! But look at all your girlfriends — don’t you think all your girlfriends are better than their dudes? So it’s that same story that’s as old as time. You’re like, “Why are you slumming it with this dude?” I think he stepped up more in the past few seasons, but still, sneaky! He has the biggest ego of all. We haven’t even necessarily seen him be a hard worker. Kelsey busts her ass.
Yeah, he just has like one idea, once a year.
I know. Well, that’s just kind of how it is with men.
A massive moment this season was everyone finding out Liza’s true age. Are you glad, in a way, that the secret’s fully out and the story can move past that?
Yes, I’m so happy that the secret is out and that that’s over. The show’s taken on so many different legs now and it’s about so many other things and now you know so much about the other characters’ intricacies and you’re interested in their storylines. I think the writers wrote their layout of the whole series, which is sometimes so hard to do, and that lie was a very big concept at first and then it had to become about something else. Next season, I don’t even think we need to address it.
Do you have a personal highlight from this season?
The bachelorette party was a lot of fun and honestly Kelsey losing her hair. Shooting that scene with Molly (Bernard) was impossible to keep a straight face; she cracks me up. It was really funny. We have such a great cast. We have some challenges for sure: shooting in the city in the cold or just on the street. As lovely as our fans are, sometimes it’s really hard to get through a shot and we’re like, we’re so tired, we just want to go home but we have such a great time with the writers. Another really fun scene was the garlic knot — when Maggie put the garlic knot up her vagina? That was a really fun scene to shoot. It’s an everything bagel! No, it’s a garlic knot.
How about shooting the “9 to 5” musical sequence in the season premiere?
Yeah, it was fun! Marie’s Crisis is very hard to shoot in — it’s tiny! But it was fun. We all sing so any time they’re trying to work that in we know the fans are going to get excited.
I love Kelsey’s line at the end when she’s like, “Can you believe people only worked 9-5 in the ‘80s?!”
I know! That is so funny!! It’s true. When did our jobs become so hard? I was just talking to my friend this weekend and I was like, “Why can’t every weekend be a three-day weekend?” I would work so many longer hours on the weekdays if we could just have a three-day weekend. We need to re-evaluate things and get a woman running this s—.
So the big cliffhanger at the end of the season was Charles proposing to Liza. She’s been conflicted this season, trying to say goodbye to Josh (Nico Tortorella). Which team are you?
Charles has been falling short. Come on! Proposing at someone else’s wedding? Trying to make up with me in the church? Creating his own imprint behind our backs? Talk about sneaky. I’m so let down by him this season. He’s so damn charming that I understand it, but I’m Team Josh all the way. That scene [where Liza told him she couldn’t see him anymore] broke my heart. I almost wanted to text Sutton and be like, “You’re an evil queen. How did you do it?” I’m still Team Josh.
