The YOU’RE THE WORST Cast Teases Pushing the Story Forward, Third Wheels, Exploring Characters, and More

When YOU’RE THE WORST kicks off its new season on FXX, Jimmy and Gretchen are adjusting, in their own way, to their recent cohabitation.

“I think both Jimmy and Gretchen go through periods of feeling good about living together, and also desperately wanting not to live together and annoying each other,” YOU’RE THE WORST star Aya Cash (Gretchen) shared. “I feel we hit about halfway through the season, [and then] we stop playing with the moving in cliches. There’s obviously some back and forth about ‘Where do I put my stuff?’ and ‘Whose schedule are we on?’ which I think is interesting, but you could do a whole season of that. And a lot of shows would. But I think [YOU’RE THE WORST creator] Stephen [Falk] and the writers have really pushed it forward, and moved into something deeper, and playing with something else…so you’re not just going to watch a whole season of, ‘Oh my God, they’re living together, here are the issues.'”

The show’s evolution was an important step for the writers — a fact the actors appreciated.

“I think it was really important for all of us not to change too much,” Chris Geere (Jimmy) acknowledged. “Stephen has this thing called ‘second seasonitis,’ [as] he calls it: you look at what worked last year and you try to recreate it. I think that’s important to avoid. And, thankfully, touch wood, we’ve all picked up from where we left last year, rather than trying to create a new show.”

One of the thing the show is leaning into? The fabulous chemistry between the whole cast.

“There’s a good amount of group scenes,” Cash shared. “Sunday Funday, we’re obviously together, same as last year. There’s another episode that is all of us together the entire episode.”

“I think Gretchen moving in with Jimmy has obviously changed the dynamic,” Geere added. “There’s a lot more of the three of us, with Edgar. And I have my first ever scene with just Lindsay. It was so much fun, because Jimmy and Lindsay are completely different. So for them to be in a scene together, that was good fun for me.”

“Because Gretchen’s now living with us, we’re like a dysfunctional tripod; we’re never quite balanced: it’s always two against one,” Desmin Borges (Edgar) noted. “It’s most times them against me, which forces me to break out from the pack and make my own stride. And fortunately, that pushes into having a great relationship and building on a friendship with Lindsay at the beginning of the season. Jimmy still treats me the same; Gretchen and I have started to bond. I don’t think Jimmy and Edgar’s relationship has evolved much. If anything, I think I have my own thing I want to talk about and he has his own thing he wants to talk about. And like good friends, we don’t actually respond to each other, we just tell each other what we want to talk about.”

The relationship with Edgar and Jimmy might not have changed too much, but the relationship with Lindsay and Gretchen will only get deeper.

“Lindsay’s a sage. She offers Gretchen tips or advice, and Gretchen ends up doing it,” Kether Donohue (Lindsay) shared. “It’s nice for me as a person, I see similarities in my life with female friends…in season 2, I think Stephen and the writers have explored female friendship and the depth of it. We see Lindsay and Gretchen supporting each other in really dark times in their lives, when support is really needed.”

As the characters go through their highs and lows with love and friendship, the series will also be focusing on their individual growth as well.

“I feel like what’s nice about season 2 is that the show as a whole is a romantic comedy…but season 2, I feel is kind of about each character’s relationship with themselves as individuals, and how that manifests with their relationship with their partner,” Donohue said. “In life, your relationship with your friends, your romantic partners, your family, is kind of a reflection in how you are yourself. We do a really great job of exploring that. I can only speak for Lindsay; I feel like Lindsay is kind of meeting herself face-to-face, and for the first time, asking herself, who am I without Paul. Who am I separate from Becca’s sister, separate from being Paul’s miserable wife, separate from being a best friend, separate from being a side kick?…she’s still figuring it out. I don’t think we have answer yet…I think we’re in an exploratory phase, and I think [the show] nicely captures that.”

“I think we do get to explore what their individual wants and needs are before their needs for the group, and the way they fit in with the group,” Borges added. “Specifically for Edgar, we’re past the, ‘Oh, he’s just a freeloading former drug dealing guy who is still suffering from PTSD.’ Now he has transitioned into civilian life, thankfully because of the friends he has now. Now he’s starting to venture off on his own and find things that make him tick. Cooking has been something he really enjoys. He starts to get into the world of improv, and once you get on to that comedy bug, and you think you can make people laugh, you want to do it all the time. We explore the independent side of Edgar.”

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