Exclusive Interview
‘The Goldbergs’ Star Hayley Orrantia Admits She’s ‘Rooting’ For An Erica & Jeff Spinoff In The Future
‘The Goldbergs’ season 8 just kicked off and Hayley Orrantia is EXCLUSIVELY dishing on what we can expect this season and her hopes for the franchise’s future!
‘The Goldbergs’ Hayley Orrantia, 26, is hopeful the show won’t end anytime soon, but when the day comes, she has high hopes for her storyline to continue. “Well, Jerica, getting to see them get married and start a family would be so special,” Hayley told HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY during an episode of TVTalk on Instagram Live on Nov. 5. “Sam Lerner plays Jeff, so we both are rooting for some kind of spinoff years from now where we get to do that. Of course, Beverly Goldberg [played by Wendy McLendon-Covey] planning a wedding for her children would be especially crazy. That to me would make a really funny spinoff episode.”
Hayley, who plays Erica Goldberg on the hit ABC show, and Jeff have navigating dating from high school to college on the show. Some days, Hayley says she doesn’t even understand what Jeff sees in her character! “It’s funny because even though I love Sam and the idea of us getting to do a wedding episode or a wedding scene would be adorable, there’s times this season where Erica’s been pretty cruel, not only to her boyfriend, but to her mom and siblings more than in past seasons,” Hayley revealed. “So there’s times where I talk to the writers and I’m like, ‘Why is Jeff with her if she’s so difficult and doesn’t move at all? Sometimes she’s very stubborn.’ Sometimes I question whether or not that’s going to end up causing some more tension in the relationship and Jeff might be like, “Alright, I’m done with this.”
Despite the bumps, she’s really rooting for her on screen character and her man to make it. “Would I love to see them stay together for personal selfish reasons?” Hayley added. “Yes, but I’m curious how this is going to work past Erica’s stubbornness.”
The show’s eighth season had to make some adjustments due to COVID-19 shutting down production across the world. But even with a later premiere date, Hayley still teases an exciting and full season. “We’re planning on doing 22 episodes, but the problem is, the writers don’t actually tell us what is happening so I’m actually learning as everyone else is,” Hayley said. “I don’t know what they have planned for the end arc of this season, but you will be seeing Erica choosing a path and a career path I should say. I’ll tease that it might be similar to what her mother’s always wanted her to do.”
Though mum is the word when it comes to spoilers, one thing Hayley can confirm is we’ll be hearing much more singing from her character this season! “My character does have a few more opportunities where she is singing,” Hayley said. “It seems that that’s where the writers are going with it and I’m happy because I do love getting to do both and covering a bunch of classic 80s songs is awesome.” The Goldbergs airs Wednesday nights at 8pm on ABC.
