During an appearance on 'Today', the 'Cougar Town' actress recalls being approached by the musical comedy series' creator Tina Fey to join Sara Bareilles and Renee Elise Goldsberry in the cast.
- May 8, 2021
AceShowbiz - Busy Philipps had decided to turn her back on acting before Tina Fey reached out with a job offer for her new musical comedy series "Girls5eva".
The "Cougar Town" star has scaled back her acting work in recent years and thought she was done with Hollywood last year (2020), until "30 Rock" creator and comedy icon Fey suggested she would be perfect to join the cast of her show, which revolves around a 1990s girl group trying to launch a comeback.
"The truth is that I was planning on not returning to acting," the mother-of-two recounted to U.S. breakfast show "Today", "and then Tina Fey called me and said, 'Hey, I have this part on a TV show where you would be playing, essentially a grown-up Spice Girl kinda... A girl from a '90s band, a girl group, who is now in her 40s and they attempt a comeback. Sara Bareilles and Renee Elise Goldsberry are already signed on... and I just think you are the person to play Summer'."
Busy, who loves the fashion of the '90s, was so intrigued by the plot of the show, created by Meredith Scardino and executive produced by Fey, that she just couldn't turn it down.
"I guess at that point..., you can't say no to Tina Fey, and then to live the dream of being [in] a '90s pop group? I said, 'I have one question: are there flashbacks?' She's like, 'Yes.' I said, 'Do I get to play myself in the flashbacks?' She said, 'Yes,' and I said, 'I'm in!' "
Busy has previously worked with Fey on another of her TV projects - she appeared in two episodes of "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" between 2018 and 2019.
"Girls5eva" premiered on U.S. streaming service Peacock on Thursday, May 6.
