June Diane Raphael has always been the not-so-secret weapon of Grace and Frankie. Netflix’s longest-running original series, which dropped its final episodes April 29, centers around the unlikely friendship between Jane Fonda’s and Lily Tomlin’s titular characters. But it’s Brianna, Grace’s sardonic eldest daughter and heir to her beauty empire, who delivers some of the show’s punchiest lines and is poised for a spin-off.

Raphael is no stranger to scene-stealing; her decade-plus stint in Hollywood includes voicing vacuous Devin on Big Mouth, starring alongside Charlize Theron in Long Shot, and appearing in 2009’s Bride Wars, which she cowrote with best friend Casey Wilson. But Raphael tells me that she’s only scratched the surface of what she can do. “I feel like I have been a part of so many incredible things, but I’m always itching for just more,” she tells me. “Just put me in. I have more to say.”

This hunger only escalated while working alongside industry giants Tomlin and Fonda. “They are two women who are constantly figuring out how they can offer more, how they can give more, share more of themselves for other people,” Raphael says. “Sometimes you think of people aging and you assume that it’s just time to relax—time to take, take, take. And I have been so inspired by how much they give…. They’re just constantly spending their privilege and spending their platform. They don’t hold it and sit on it. They offer it over and over every single day.”

One could argue that Raphael has expended her fair share of energy during the show’s run. When not on-screen, she’s launched two hit podcasts—How Did This Get Made and The Deep Dive—cofounded the female coworking space The Jane Club, and cowritten a guide for women who wish to run for office. But Raphael doesn’t find herself reveling in these accomplishments. “No, maybe I should,” she laughs. “I’m like, what’s next?” 

Vanity Fair: How are you feeling about Grace and Frankie wrapping up after seven seasons?

June Diane Raphael: I mean, not great. I think about it in terms of just the life I lived during this period. I’ve had two children and a lot of life has happened. I’m really, really sad. It’s weird because we wrapped in November, and so I really processed a lot of it then. And now it’s kind of like seeing an ex where it’s out and I’m going through all the old feelings again, but it feels much more like a celebration.

How do you find yourself reflecting on the show’s legacy?

The idea of Grace and Frankie moving into their 70s, 80s, being one of the most exciting authentic realized chapters of their lives—it’s so powerful. That’s changed the way I thought about aging. We receive so much messaging that tells us, “Get ready to lose your power, your looks, your sexuality. Get ready, because it’s all going away.” And these characters have shown us that they actually are more themselves than ever, are more dropped into who they really are. That’s really my big reflection as the series ends, is what a wonderful thing for women to see.

The best part of it is how many young women have seen it and are thinking about aging—not in a way where they’re terrified, but in a way where they’re like, “Oh, it looks like it might be fun out there.” Because men get the opportunity to age into sexy salt and pepper hair and wisdom and gravitas, and they get to hold their age and wear it in a way that women usually don’t. I’m so proud to have been a part of it.

I was relieved that Brianna doesn’t bend her beliefs about getting married or having kids in order to stay with Barry. But I was surprised because we’ve been conditioned in other movies and TV shows to see female characters compromise their wants for the sake of a happy ending. Was that always the plan for Brianna’s ending?

I felt equally as passionate as you. I was very protective over her story and what she wanted, because I think sometimes in pop culture we talk about women’s choices in a way where we’re like, “Oh, she’s choosing to not have children.” Whereas with men, I don’t know that we necessarily think like, “Oh, they chose to not have children.” They get to just exist and live their lives. Even the way that it’s talked about, I’m so sensitive to, because I’m like, “Well, but it wasn’t a choice.” That would imply that it was ever in the cards. And I don’t think it ever was.

I know how much she means to a lot of women who are not married and don’t have children and are over 30. So the showrunners and I talked a lot about where we were going to leave her in the series, because I also did not want to tie it up neatly. Now this thing I was really clear on, and I think Marta and Howard did a beautiful job with: just because you have a heartbreak, and just because something doesn’t go the distance, doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s not worthy and it wasn’t a beautiful relationship and you couldn’t have grown from it. She’s got a lot more in store for her in her life. And is it okay? Are we okay with her continuing on to get all that she wants from men, from her professional life, from the family she has without necessarily subscribing to some of the rules that we impose on women?

You’ve written a Brianna-centered spinoff. What can you tell us about it, and about whether it will see the light of day?

So it picks up exactly where she leaves off on Grace and Frankie and this new [business] venture. I can’t really speak much about where it’s at, because Netflix has it. The script is written. I co-wrote it with the Grace and Frankie creator, Howard Morris. We had an absolute blast. I love it. And I am really, really hopeful and excited, but it’s in Netflix’s hands. So we shall see. But I’m obsessed with it.

I’m a fan of both your podcasts—The Deep Dive and How Did This Get Made. On the latter, your impassioned defense of Grease 2 is very important to me.

I really appreciate that.

What muscles do you get to flex podcasting that you don’t when performing?

That’s such a good question. How Did This Get Made is its own beast, I have to be honest, because sometimes I forget it’s a podcast. I have to mentally check out and disassociate in order to do it. I’m sort of there against my will, which I’ve said a number of times on the show. I am forced into it from my husband [Paul Scheer] and dear friends. It’s really a non-consensual relationship I have with that podcast. [laughs]

But with The Deep Dive [co-hosted by Jessica St. Clair], this goes back to what I was talking about with Grace and Frankie. I find female friendships to be hilarious. I talk about it on the podcast, but my mom had a cast of characters in her life with all of her girlfriends that I was obsessed with. I wasn’t interested in the girls who were my age. I was like, “Wow, what are those women talking about? Those moms out there?” I was just so fascinated. So the thing that I love about The Deep Dive is that we get to talk about some of the underbelly of what it is to be an adult woman, and the pressures of domesticity and motherhood and the sort of presentation of it all. 

But at the end of the day, this thing that podcasting really does give me, is having women speak in a medium where they can’t be seen and they can’t be consumed visually. I love the medium because of that. I don’t know why people like to [video] record their podcasts. I told Whitney Cummings, “Why the hell are you taping this?” What’s so incredible about it is that no one sees us. They just have to listen. 

In your career, you’ve had this ability to discuss both social justice issues and also sound off on things like the Real Housewives. What’s it like navigating that highbrow-lowbrow scale in your comedy? 

The Housewives and Sister Wives and all that kind of TV—at the end of the day, it’s a character study for me. I’m obsessed with it because I can’t believe we get to watch people do these things. Roxane Gay talks about this, the pop culture highbrow read of the Housewives, which is there are these middle-aged, sometimes older than that, women who get fandom and get stardom and get celebrity, not when they’re 21-years-old. So to me, it’s another area where I love seeing fully formed women. I mean, these women are out of their minds, and they’re so messy, and some of them are quite terrible. But I love getting to witness them, because to me, it’s incredibly important that as women age, we recognize just how interesting they become and how much they have to offer.

Looking back, is there a role that you feel got away?

There’s so many I’m like, where do I begin? There were so many pilots I used to audition for. That’s honestly why I dyed my hair blonde, because it would always be down to me and another girl. This is when I was a brunette, and the blonde actress would get it. [Jessica] St. Clair and I talk about it all the time. It was a really pivotal moment, where we both auditioned for this series called In the Motherhood that starred Megan Mullally, Cheryl Hines, and then one other actress. St. Clair and I were both up to play that part and she got it.

I like to talk about that role because it was so devastating to me when it happened. However, I look back on it and I’m like, oh my God. We went through the whole testing process, we had to do 5 million auditions. So Jessica and I were in the waiting room together over and over and over again, and it’s honestly how we became so close. I did not get the role and I was gutted—but looking back, I’m like, oh my God, what I did get was ultimately so much more important. 

Is there a project of yours that you feel is due for rediscovery?

When Casey [Wilson] and I did Ass Backwards, we wrote and starred in it. I feel like it didn't quite hit the popular sensibility at that time, but over the course of the years, it’s found a crazy fan base. I remember some of the reviews were basically, how dare these women try to be Ben Stiller and Will Ferrell? That was kind of what was underneath the reviews, that we didn’t deserve to try that, or to play big characters. And I wonder now how that would be perceived.

Do you have projects that you’re dying to do or roles you’d never play?

The thing that I’m dying to do is to have the real estate on a show, movie, whatever, to do the comedy that I love and really just have the scope. There were several times during every season [of Grace and Frankie] where I would text Marta Kauffman and be like, “Can you give me more scenes?”And, God bless her, she would. Of course, I don’t want to show up as the wife on a multi-cam who’s just supporting a comedy of this crazy husband. I know exactly what I don’t want to do, but what I really want is to have the bigger projects where I can sync my teeth into a really demented lady.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

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