The fiercest show on TV is back again. GLOW will drop 10 all-new episodes on Netflix on June 29, giving fans what they’ve been waiting nearly a year for. The hair is bigger than ever, the leotards are shiner, and the girl power is at its peak.
Ahead of season 2’s debut, HollywoodLife talked EXCLUSIVELY with Britt Baron, who plays Justine. Last season ended with one hell of a twist: Justine is actually Sam’s daughter. The new season will feature the characters trying to navigate a father-daughter relationship. Plus, Britt teases Billy’s return, new characters, and raves about her GLOW family. Read our Q&A below!
One of the biggest reveals of the first season was that Justine is Sam’s daughter. What did you think when you first read that twist?
Britt Baron: Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch, who are our showrunners, had actually told me before we started filming season one. But they had told me privately, and they had let me know that they were not telling any of the other girls or Marc [Maron] and asked me to keep it a secret. So I knew the whole season, but I did not know how it was going to happen or when it was going to happen, so every time we were getting a script, I was always rushing through it to see if that was the episode. And then when I finally read episode 9, I thought it was brilliant. It was a perfect kind of way to where he thinks this girl is just in love with him and tries to make a move, and I thought the whole joke with Back to the Future was phenomenal. I just thought that whole kind of sequence was brilliant and also heartbreaking for Justine. She’s so excited and finally has this really intimate one-on-one moment that she sees a completely different way, and then when he kisses her, it totally derails her and it’s devastating. I mean, imagine spending 16 years of your life building up to this one moment, and then having it go horridly wrong. It’s devastating.
So now that this reveal has happened, what can you say about where this relationship is going to go in season 2? With a teenager, it’s not like you’re raising them from birth. This is a full-fledged teenager.
Britt Baron: Right. That’s actually a really good point. No one has thought of that yet. So in season 2, Justine has moved in with Sam. I think it’s a really interesting storyline in terms of finding this man who lives alone, been married, divorced, and he’s used to having his bachelor pad in a sense. And now he suddenly has a teenage daughter, who’s still kind of a stranger, living with him. Justine’s a young woman who has solely been raised by her mother, and I think that it’s really interesting to see her kind of come to terms with who Sam actually is versus who she imagined him to be her whole life. You see her kind of trying to reconcile with the reality of who Sam is versus her expectation, because he’s not the ideal father or necessarily the father that she had hoped that he would be. A relationship that she wants is not built overnight, and I think both of them are incredibly stubborn, incredibly smart characters who kind of butt heads. I love season 2 because you get to see softer, more vulnerable sides of both of them, and they’re trying to reach out, but neither one of them are really warm and fuzzy. It’s really funny to see both of these characters with their guards up trying to create a semi-functional relationship. I’m excited for the audience to kind of see that develop.
That can produce something that’s very awkward and hilarious all at the same time, when you have these people sort of thrust into these new roles. Justine’s been a daughter to a mother, but she’s never really had a father. He’s never had a daughter, and he’s never really had to think about anyone else but himself.
Britt Baron: Exactly. He’s pretty selfish, so to kind of see him suddenly have to buy groceries and take care of someone else is interesting and hilarious and heartwarming. And I also love that you get to see them kind of develop a bond over their love for film, and I think that’s where you see them connect in a way that is the most organic and the least forced. They both genuinely love filmmaking and have a shared interest in a way. I don’t know, maybe they can become business partners or something.
Besides Justine revealing her true identity to Sam, your character’s other main story arc in season one was the John Hughes-style relationship with Billy the pizza guy. Was it fun having that Sixteen Candles-esque fantasy?
Britt Baron: It was so much fun. Casey [Johnson] is unbelievable and such a great guy. He actually looks exactly like my boyfriend. Yeah, I’m still with him. So it just felt like they cast this perfect teenage, angsty kind of bad boy that every girl has had a crush on over the course of their life. I loved that storyline, and I loved that he returns in season 2. He’s kind of the one character where you get to see her more vulnerable side. She really does let her guard down in a different way than she does ever with Sam. You get to see her uncomfortable. I think Justine, especially for age, being so young, is incredibly confident and intelligent and knows who she is in a sense, or has a clear identity, as the punk rocker and this love for film making. But then you have to kind of see her, especially in season one, ordering the pizza and getting embarrassed. I think those are moments that a lot of women and men can relate to, when you are trying to talk to this person that you love. I think that it’s so endearing and so smart. That’s why I think having writers who write from their own experiences is so important. That’s what people can really relate to. I really love the whole Billy and Justine relationship. And so many people on social media have reached out to me about that. I think more than anything else. People love the pizza guy.
Your character’s also really punk rock. She always has a cool punk t-shirt on. Where do you get those? Is that all just part of the wardrobe?
Britt Baron: So that’s Morgan, our wardrobe designer. She’s unbelievable. She, I think for the most part, has found a lot of those band t-shirts, I think one of them was the most expensive t-shirts in the whole wardrobe of show. So most of it is authentic. Some of it she will buy just a blank t-shirt, and they’ll print out a band tee. A lot of punk fans have reached out to me about different shirts and different bands they love. It’s kind of just a great nod to that era of time. I feel like a lot of other characters are more Madonna-esque pop-y music, so I like that they added that punk rock element, because that was another part of that era. A lot of people have gone through a similar stage at one point in their life, that rebellion stage.
This cast seems so close offscreen as well as onscreen. It’s just full of so many fierce ladies. What’s it like being on set with all of these incredible women?
Britt Baron: I feel like a lot of other actors say, ‘It’s such a great environment.’ But I think we truly do have something special in GLOW. I mean that. It is genuine love and support for one another. We have a group chat that goes off every single day. That’s not an exaggeration. We’ve done countless dinners together and hangouts and parties. We go support one another. We’ve been to Jackie Tohn’s standup. We’ve been to Kate Nash’s show. We just love each other, and I think part of that is because we all genuinely love the show and believe in the show and what it stands for. I think we’re all really happy to be there. So it creates a wonderful environment. We have women showrunners and mostly women are writers, directors, and behind the camera. It just creates a really special, wonderful place to work. It was really daunting at first. I was scared honestly to be in a cast of 14 women, because I think oftentimes it can be competitive or there’s lot of passive aggressiveness. I was in a sorority, so I was very aware of how mean and brutal women can be to one another, and I think the cast of GLOW have taught me it really doesn’t need to be that way. It’s actually much better for everyone if we just love and support one another. I think part of that has also been because we train together as well as wrestlers. Seriously, when you have to lift another person up and drop them onto their back, that is scary and requires a lot of trust. Everyone’s vulnerable, especially when you’re learning how to wrestle. Because we have to go through those physical acts together it did form a special bond because we’re not just talking to one another in scenes, we’re rolling around with one another, and you have to trust your partner. So overall, I think we really do have a special bond.
So your story really centers around Sam, but are we going to see Justine have some moments with some of the other characters in season 2?
Britt Baron: Yes. I think she’s on a different trajectory a little bit in season 2. She is more on her own. You see her less in the gym. Unfortunately for me, that was sad because I missed the girls. But it’s important to see Justine just figure out her relationship with Sam, but you also see her with Billy once again, navigating this new first love relationship. First love is hard, and I think at that age especially, everything is dramatic and over the top and you threaten each other and threaten to break up or whatever it is. You get to see their relationship develop, and you get to see her relationship with new characters that come in at the end of the season, which I think I’m really excited for the audience to see.