Busy Philipps was on a plane when she found out that “Girls5eva” had found a new home and a third season on “Netflix.” And everything that transpired sounds like something that would happen on “Girls5eva.”
“I was flying back to New York from L.A. I was in first class but my seat was broken and it was like so broken that I was kind of leaning forward a little bit,” Philipps tells Gold Derby (watch the exclusive video interview above). “And my phone started ringing and it was Paula Pell. And we had been waiting and waiting for news. I obviously couldn’t answer the phone, so we started texting and then emails started coming through. And I just felt like, this is just life. I’m, like, so uncomfortable right now and I’m so elated that this opportunity has been given to us to come back to do thing that we love so much one more time at least, hopefully more. I was really excited, but I didn’t have anyone to share it with. Everyone was cozy and sleeping and I was kinda slightly leaned forward and like, ‘Oh, my God!'”
Following two seasons on Peacock, the comedy moved to Netflix for a six-episode third season (the first two seasons are also available on Netflix). The reunited girl group goes on a self-funded tour, during which Summer (Philipps) has an epiphany: She doesn’t know who she truly is, having been heavily influenced by male figures in her life, from her father to her ex-husband Kev (Andrew Rannells) — she’s still doing fit checks with him on the road — and has been been disempowered from standing up for herself and making her own decisions. That extends to her wardrobe — the “relationship chameleon” becomes a carbon copy of whoever she’s dating.
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“[Creator Meredith Scardino and I] really talked a lot about Summer’s evolution from the first season to the end of this season, especially starting from Season 1 — Summer’s voice and the way she related the other girls and sort of all the things that she felt just very insecure about, even in Season 2 when they’re going on tour and she was like, ‘Well, you guys will have fun without me. I can’t do this and I was never really that important to the group anyway,'” Philipps says. “I think what’s so beautiful about the arc of this season is not only does she find her place, but she’s finally realizing her own value. And it’s outside of whatever she’s wearing or however her voice is, how deep her vocal fry might be. It really has to do with what she’s able to contribute and have the confidence in herself that her ideas are good and that she can contribute a lot to these women and that they all need each other.”
After creating her own wardrobe, Summer sets out to be a She-E-O and starts shilling for Tooth Smartz, a tooth-whitening gummy. Is it an MLM scam? Hell yes, but it sets up the finale that finds Summer saving the day. With zero tickets sold for their Thanksgiving Day Radio City Music Hall show, Summer weaponizes her Tooth Smartz experience to trick resale bots into buying tickets and selling out the show. No actual humans bought tickets, of course, but that’s less important. No one expected Summer to have the answer, but she did.
“She really does [save the day]. There’s something just so full circle about all of it. When you watch from the first episode where she’s really, like, driving [the reunion], which, by the way, I didn’t really clock until I rewatched the whole series when it moved to Netflix,” Philipps continues. “She’s the one who really wants it because she’s got literally nothing else going on in her life, except for living in the past. So then for her to have this journey that is, yes, ridiculous with Tooth Smartz, burning all of her clothes and making new clothes out of all of the stuff at the Divorced Dad Suitelets, but then she gets to this really incredible moment where she’s like, ‘Wait a minute, I know how to do this. I can do this!'”
Summer, naturally, tries Tooth Smartz herself and her teeth become so blindingly white that they glow. The bit is reminiscent of Ross (David Schwimmer) whitening his teeth on “Friends.” “I actually didn’t think of that until just now, but I do love that episode. Iconic,” Philipp states. To pull off the effect, the actress did keep a whitening gel on her teeth for a whole day — just like Ross did — after the hair and makeup team attempted to create molds of her teeth. “I think because I had been talking about it so much — again, ‘Girls5eva, art imitating life imitating art — something popped up on my Instagram that was, like, paint for your teeth,” she shares. “And so the makeup artist was like, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s right. There is some paint you can get and we can put it on your teeth.’ And at the end of the day, we just did that. We just used this paint stuff.’ It was a little Tooth Smartz-y.”
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