TV

Season 2 of “Younger” gives queer characters Maggie and Lauren more to work with

Season 1 of TVLand’s dramedy Younger introduced a new direction for the network, rebranding itself with a slate of shows that were hipper, more contemporary and, well, younger. The series stars Sutton Foster as a 40-year-old new divorcee named Liza, who is encouraged by her best friend, a lesbian artist named Maggie (Debi Mazar), to lie about her age to get a job at a major publishing house and date a 26-year-old tattoo artist, Josh. By the end of the first season, Josh found out Liza’s secret but everyone who worked with her, including coworker and friend Kelsey (Hilary Duff), are still under the impression Liza is in her late 20s, and that Maggie is just a much-older friend she hangs out with.

Last season, Maggie hooked up with Lauren (Molly Bernard), a sexually fluid friend of Kelsey’s whose priority is to have fun. In Season 2, which premieres tonight at 10/9c, Maggie returns as Liza’s biggest confidant and support system and gets a little more action of her own.

“When I read the script, I thought the obvious character they’d want me for was the Miriam Schor role,” Debi said, referencing Liza and Kesey’s uptight boss. “I had just come off of Entourage, and I usually play the chick in the power suit. I never assumed I’d go up for Maggie, and when they asked me to come back for Maggie, I was like ‘Really!?’ I was so excited to go in for the character who is kind of like the person who doesn’t have to worry about what she’s wearing and who doesn’t have to prove anything; the person who doesn’t have to be a hard-ass at all times.”

Debi, who has played many memorable roles in film and television throughout her career, says she has played a lesbian several times before, but she finds Maggie a departure from the parts she’s usually typecast in.

“I think my character is strong. She’s a very good friend; she tells it like it is,” Debi said. “But it’s so great for once for me to not play the girl who stomps in in, like, five-inch heels in the power suit, every day, and I get to be freer in the character. I also like that i”m playing a lesbian which is really nice for me as a departure from playing other characters. I get to work with really wonderful women and have great scenes with other ladies. Just explore the dynamic of Maggie’s sexuality and where she’s going with it.”

In Season 2, Maggie continues to help her best friend Liza with her mid-life crisis but also makes time for some fun with Lauren, a role created just for Molly Bernard after creator Darren Star loved her work in the pilot. What was supposed to be a one-off turned into nine episodes for Molly and her queer character.

“It’s just been the craziest ride,” Molly said. “And Lauren is one of the best characters on TV. She’s just wild and crazy and fierce and smart and is just fiercely who she is, uncompromisingly so.”

Molly, a recent graduate of Yale Drama School, said she was thrilled her first-ever love scene was with Debi Mazar.

“I was just totally psyched,” Molly said. “I’ve never had a love scene with a man and so in a way it felt really right to have a love scene with a woman. And of all women, Debi, who is just really, really, aside from being gorgeous and talented, she’s so kind, and just so supportive. It was easy. It was surprisingly one of my favorite days on set.”

Because Liza is at the center of the show, Maggie and Lauren are not the focus of Younger but do slowly develop their relationship as part of the ensemble. They are both a part of Liza and Lauren’s best friend Kelsey’s lives, and much of it takes place in Maggie’s loft.

“I still get to do my art, and my door is a revolving door. I’m struggling for money to a degree so I’m hosting sex parties and renting out my place in Airbnb and dealing with Liza’s stuff,” Debi says of her character.

“There’re some ups and downs, and I think there’s a lot of surprises that happen in Season 2,” Molly said. “But they’re-definitely they do get together in a real way, which is really fun and exciting.”

Lauren said she was especially thrilled to be a part of a relationship that not only is between two women but two women of different ages, something that has been seen more on film as of late but rarely on television.

“I’m so proud of it because I think, you know, last season when Lauren kisses Maggie, I remember saying to Debi, ‘I hope they put us in a relationship because there’s no other TV show that’s doing that,'” Lauren said. “I think it’s brave that TVLand and that Darren and that Younger-you know, Josh and Liza are still living in secret. Maggie and Lauren, who have the same age gap, are very open and free about it which I think is incredible, and I’m very proud to be part of a very hot lesbian relationship being represented. I feel very lucky that I get to, and it’s done with such integrity and such a good spirit.”

While Lauren is “predominantly gay,” she doesn’t identify as anything specific, as noted in Season 1 by her mother (played by Kathy Najimy) who put it this way: “She’ll sleep with anything.” Maggie, though, is specifically a lesbian, which Debi said she doesn’t focus on too much because she “grew up in somewhat of a rainbow flag life.”

“I was surrounded by gay people since I was born,” Debi said. “I grew up in New York. It doesn’t really define the person, for me anyway.” She noted some people asked if she’d be wearing “butch looks” on screen.

“No-it’s whatever she wakes up and feels like, basically. If she feels like she wants to put on a pair of heels, she does,” Debi said. “Darren likes me sexy, so I wear heels some days, other days I’m kicking it in some flip flops and sweats. It’s just about who she is, not about who she’s sleeping with.”

“I hate when people are defined by their sexuality,” she continued, “because in a film like Blue is the Warmest Color, that is about two people who get together and their sexuality. But this is not about that. It’s about character and ongoing for multiple seasons, and you have to stretch it out. That’s just who she prefers to sleep with. Who knows if she’ll sleep with a guy down the road? Who knows if she’s fluid or not?”

As for Debi herself, she’s been the focus of many lesbian rumors throughout her life and gets hit on by both men and women, which she finds flattering.

“I don’t really see the distinction. I mean, I’m a married woman now, and that’s it for me; I’m done,” she said. “But you know, I got married at 35 and I lived my life, prior to that, you know, so….”

Before playing Maggie, Debi did get some help from the gay people in her life.

“It’s funny because I had a whole discussion with Darren like, ‘Should I have nails? Shouldn’t I have nails?'” she said. “And my friend who’s a lesbian and her husband’s trans who identifies as a man, she’s like ‘Well there’s stone lesbian, and there’s butch, and there’s femme. She was breaking it down, and I was like, ‘This is too fucking complicated.’ Not to demean people’s identity but I’m a big supporter of the center in New York City, which is LGBTQ. You know, we used to say queer and certain things back in the day that became non-PC. It’s really hard to keep up.

“All I know is I’ve supported the community from day one and we’re making big, big strides in terms of awareness and marriage and equality and rights and acceptance,” she continued. “My daughter has so many gay friends, and she’s only in middle school. Kids are out, and they celebrate their outness, and it’s like not anything to be embarrassed about. I live in Brooklyn, but I think for people that live in smaller towns, [visibility] so good because so many kids just can’t come out.”

Although not that young, Lauren is (like Molly herself) 26 and of a generation where being more open is part of her personality. Lauren shows up naked in Maggie’s kitchen, even when other people are around, and says the kinds of things that others might keep inside their heads.

“It’s great to have someone that has no fears,” Molly said. “Lauren says what she wants and pushes them out of their comfort level.”

And while Molly loved the sex scene she shared with Debi (“It was the best. It’s so dreamy!”), what she loves about Younger as a whole is the intergenerational friendships that happen on and off-screen with her co-stars.

“I don’t have a squad of friends,” Molly said, “but I would say I do now from the girls on the show. It’s cool to learn how to be in a squad by playing one on TV.”

Younger returns for Season 2 tonight on TVLand.

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