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I Love That For You let Beth Ann find out about Joanna’s cancer secret in the penultimate episode, and Beth Ann made sure that Joanna knew it. Beth Ann confronted Joanna in the dressing room about not actually having cancer anymore, and Joanna begged Beth Ann to just go ahead and tell Patricia.
Beth Ann refused to do Joanna’s “dirty work” and left the room triumphant. HollywoodLife spoke EXCLUSIVELY with Ayden Mayeri ahead of the season finale, dropping June 17, about that game-changing moment and how it propels the show forward. She also weighed in about Beth Ann’s “love” for Perry, the “cliffhanger” in the finale, and more. Read our Q&A below:
First and foremost, we have to talk about that showdown moment with Beth Ann confronting Joanna about her big lie. How did you feel when you read that in the script and saw that after all this build-up, Beth Ann is the one who gets to have that moment with Joanna?
Ayden Mayeri: I was shocked and very excited. Vanessa [Bayer], Jessi [Klein], Jeremy [Beiler], and I all talked a lot about this. What I thought was interesting is how we present Joanna as she’s really sweet and really kind, and I’m this mean girl. But at the end of the day, she’s lying about this big thing, and I’m the one who’s like, I could never lie. How could you do that? We see Beth Ann in a bit of a different light, I think.
In other shows, Beth Ann would have immediately run and just told Patricia right away. But here, Beth Ann is going through all the situations and stakes in her head. Beth Ann ends up telling Joanna that she has to tell everyone. Were you surprised by that?
Ayden Mayeri: I really was. I was like, oh, that’s the ultimate punishment. It’s almost a relief to be able to be mad at someone other than yourself because when you just have to sit with yourself, it’s torture.
The biggest blow is Joanna having to reveal the truth herself. Given that she does end up doing that, how do you think Beth Ann is going to use this situation to her advantage?
Ayden Mayeri: I definitely think we’re going to see Beth Ann teetering between doing the right thing and not doing the right thing because she’s a person that’s really holding tightly to an identity of what success looks in her head. We’ve seen her start to unravel and become a little bit more vulnerable with what’s going on with her. I would hope that she lets her guard down and lets people in a little more and is a little bit more honest, but I have a feeling she’s going to now see a weak spot and try to wiggle her way in.
Joanna’s lie about not having cancer anymore could have been a seasons-long secret. Were you shocked that the show addressed it head-on in the first season?
Ayden Mayeri: I love it because the last few episodes we were getting them like the week before we were shooting the episode, so we’re all reading them in the makeup trailer like shocked or laughing out loud. I love that they went in that direction because I think it gives us room to make future seasons actually a lot deeper and more complex.
In addition to the Joanna drama, Beth Ann has gotten caught up with Perry. Given that Beth Ann has some issues going on at home with her marriage and now she thinks she’s in love with Perry, could this be her downfall? Could this Perry be the thing that gets her?
Ayden Mayeri: Oh my gosh, is this the fall of Rome? Or is this her Achilles heel? That’s a great question. I think she certainly wants him to solve all her problems. He’s made her feel special in a way that she hasn’t in a long time. But it certainly represents an unraveling that we haven’t seen with her because she’s so tightly wound.
How do you think she would react to the Darcy and Perry hookup? How do you think she’d handle that?
Ayden Mayeri: I can’t wait to find out. I hope we get to season 2 because I think that’s when we will see all hell break loose. With Darcy, it’s really a betrayal. It’s like an et tu, Brute? I would love to see how she would handle that if she felt like she has no allies anymore.
The whole Beth Ann and Darcy dynamic is so fun. You and Matt Rogers have such amazing chemistry, and it feels so natural. I feel like Beth Ann really values Darcy.
Ayden Mayeri: I feel that way, too. Matt and I fell in love immediately. I mean, all the cast did. It’s kind of crazy when you really all love each other this much. Usually, there’s like one that you’re like, they’re a nightmare. But that did not exist here. We had lunch together in each other’s trailers. We were just bonding right away. So Matt and I would just kind of run our lines and then play around with the scene. It just felt like we were just hanging out with each other, and they were filming it. I love him in real life, so I think that came through. Even though she’s self-involved, I’m like, can’t you see that she does love you?
Ryan Phillippe had a hilarious cameo at the end of episode 7. Did you get to meet him?
Ayden Mayeri: Yes! Weirdly, Ryan and I worked together on a Netflix show, so I was thrilled to see Ryan again. We got to work together that day because we’re all just kind of shooting in the same soundstage area. He’s so funny.
The penultimate episode really felt like a finale, but there’s still one more episode left. What can you tease about the season finale? I feel like the stakes are even more heightened.
Ayden Mayeri: You’re right. It kind of does feel like a finale, but that’s what’s great about the show because, as you said, I think it really subverts expectations. I think you’re going to see there are some twists and turns in the finale that you’re not going to see coming. It definitely set up a cliffhanger for like, well, what are we going to explore in the next season? It’s a real dot, dot, dot.
If the show does get a second season, what’s something you would like to explore more with Beth Ann?
Ayden Mayeri: I would love to go home with her a little bit and understand her whole American dream. I think she really sees the material success of being someone on TV, put together, married to the right person, all of that as like she’s accomplished the things she believes she’s supposed to accomplish, and understanding where that drive and obsession comes from, like family dynamics. I’ve always believed that she’s someone who has a complicated relationship with her mom. I’d like to see more stuff about her origin.
We have to talk about Beth Ann’s hair. The sheer volume is astounding. What is the transformation process like to become Beth Ann?
Ayden Mayeri: First of all, our wardrobe by Imani Akbar is incredible. Just putting that stuff on I’m like, oh, okay, I know who this is. The process with the hair, there are a lot of extensions and a lot of hairspray. My makeup artist, Gina [Ghiglieri], is a genius. I feel like she does stuff to my face that makes me look like a fully different person. Once it’s after two and a half hours of hair and makeup and wardrobe, it’s just doing the acting for me. I don’t have to do anything.