Summary

Welcome to a new episode of Collider Ladies Night with Ginny & Georgia star Brianne Howey.

During her Ladies Night conversation with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff, she revisits her journey from studying at NYU to booking series regular roles.

She also goes into detail on her experience playing Georgia in the hit Netflix series, and walks us through some of the character’s biggest moments in Season 3.

[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers through the Season 3 finale of Ginny & Georgia.]Brianne Howey’s had her hands quite full playing Georgia in Netflix’s smash hit Ginny & Georgia since day one, but things take an especially dark turn in Season 3, which involves a sharp tonal shift and even more dire circumstances for the characters to power through. When the series kicked off in 2021, Howey began tackling the challenge of playing a highly likable character who does bad things, but without undermining the severity of her crimes. Not only did she start off strong in that respect, but for three seasons now, she’s consistently backed Georgia’s most complex decisions with maximum humanity. While you may not agree with every choice the character makes, Howey ensures you always understand them and that Georgia has your heart every single step of the way. Season 3 begins with Georgia behind bars after being arrested at her own wedding for the murder of Cynthia’s (Sabrina Grdevich) husband, Tom (Vincent Legault). While she is able to go home under house arrest for the duration of the trial, her existence is rocked in every respect. Confined to her home, her world becomes smaller than ever, the situation upends her relationship with Paul (Scott Porter), it puts Zion (Nathan Mitchell) in an especially tough position, Austin (Diesel La Torraca) will undoubtedly be changed forever, and Ginny’s forced to decide how far she’s really willing to go for her mother. What does it look like when a devout mother sees her relationship with her children threatened? What does it look like when a confident conwoman is stripped of her power? What does it look like when someone who has successfully hidden gruesome secrets for years has them all exposed? That’s what I dug into with Howey on a new edition of Collider Ladies Night.
Brianne Howey Reveals the Season 1 Scene That Confirmed Who Georgia Truly Is

“I remember being kind of afraid to do that.”

Related

‘Ginny & Georgia’ Are Finally Back and the First Season 3 Trailer Is Raising the Stakes

The series returns on June 5.

While paving the way to Season 3, Howey looked back on some key moments for the character from the first two seasons. While she stressed that Georgia is a beautifully written character who immediately jumped off the page, it wasn’t until the Season 1 finale that Howey fully understood who Georgia is and what she’s capable of. She explained:
“It’s the finale of Season 1, Georgia on stage with Paul, not knowing where the kids are, but wanting to win, wanting the attention, wanting her kids to see that, while we also learn that Kenny’s ashes are in the fireworks. I feel like that really succinctly explains who Georgia is. I remember the note was, ‘When Georgia’s on stage with Paul, she comes alive, and we want her smiling. We want her happy.’ And I remember being kind of afraid to do that because I was worried it would make her so disingenuous, or it would maybe make her evil in some capacity, but that’s exactly why it started to click, because some of that is there. It is a little disingenuous, and Georgia did have something up her sleeve, and she is hiding a lot.”

Even Brianne Howey Was Worried About That Season 2 Scene

“It was really hard for me to wrap my head around that one.”

Image via Netflix

Creator Sarah Lampert and the Ginny & Georgia writing team continued to throw challenging scenes and plot points Howey’s way. It’ll come as no surprise to hear that the Season 2 moment Howey had the toughest time wrapping her mind around was Georgia’s choice to kill Tom.
“Georgia has a very limited tool belt, and that’s where the majority of her downfalls come from. But because everything she’s doing is for her children, it’s understandable. But it is tricky. In Season 2, the pillow with Cynthia’s husband, look, it was really hard for me to wrap my head around that one. We had a lot of talks with our creator, showrunner and me sitting down and going through all the beats, but then the way it plays and turns out, I get it.”
Howey continued by pinpointing one particular thing she leans on in order to justify Georgia making such extreme decisions in the show.
“I was worried about how that was going to play. And knowing that Austin was watching. For me, when I get worried about those things, all I can do is try to bring as much humanity as possible and just try to make Georgia as real as possible, and that’s my only card to play, because it’s tough to get behind.”

Season 3 Marks a Major Shift for Georgia

“Georgia is becoming a little bit more self-aware.”

Image via Netflix

While Howey continues to bring maximum humanity to the character, Season 3 also challenges her to unlock a few new qualities in Georgia. Her North Star has been the same since day one. “The stakes are so high for the love of her children.” Howey continued, “That’s what everything comes down to. Every decision Georgia makes is because she loves her children more than she loves herself and anything in the whole world.” In Season 3, however, how Georgia shows her love is changing because she’s becoming more self-aware. Howey offered up this example:
“The scene where we’re at the door, and Georgia wants Ginny to stop potentially hurting herself because Georgia doesn’t know what’s happening on the other side of the door, I had to do something different for the first time, which was not lose it, because it’s the first time Georgia’s trying to hold back her emotions for the sake of Ginny, and we had never done that in the show before. It was always Georgia putting her emotions first, or not even realizing she’s putting her emotions first, and her emotions taking up all this space in the room, completely bulldozing over Ginny. This is the first season where it’s a little bit different.”
Yet another example of Georgia acknowledging the mistakes she’s made and a need to change? A private moment she has in Season 3, Episode 2. After Cynthia stops by the house demanding answers and refuses to see Tom’s death as a favor, Georgia steps back inside, closes the door and has a moment to herself.
“That was a really hard scene to do but I feel like I learned so much about Georgia. When it comes to that scene with Cynthia, I feel like what I learned about Georgia is that Georgia is a little naive still. Georgia very genuinely – or this is how I was playing it – very genuinely thought she was helping Cynthia. Like, 100%, nothing about that to Georgia felt like she was menacing or hurting Cynthia in any capacity. She felt like she was really doing her a solid. Georgia’s like, ‘Why don’t you see that this was a good thing that happened for you?’ And then in the private moment, it’s Georgia realizing that she messed up. She made a mistake.”

The Toughest Scene of Ginny & Georgia Season 3

“That’s what my nightmares are made of.”

Image via Netflix

The situation is dire for Georgia across the board in Season 3, but there’s one particular scene that’s especially devastating. Episode 5, “Boom Goes The Dynamite,” concludes with Child Protective Services taking Ginny and Austin from Georgia, a stunningly performed and photographed scene that almost too effectively conveys that that is one of the worst things that could happen to Georgia.
“That was so hard. That was one of those scenes where, as soon as I read it on the page – there’s one every season, and this was the one this season – I had a pit in my stomach until we just finally did it. I don’t know if it was maybe because now I am a mom, but my emotion for that scene was so on the surface that it was more trying to be technical so I didn’t waste it because I knew what we needed to get camera-wise and to not overdo it in the wrong moments, so by the time we got to a closer-up to make sure that I still had room to go. But yes, it was. And we practiced the physicality a lot with the policemen. Those were all stuntmen because it was so physical. But yeah, that’s what my nightmares are made of. Those are hard scenes.”

Brianne Howey Dubs ‘Ginny & Georgia’ Season 3 Georgia’s Breakdown Season

Georgia will be a new person going into Season 4.

Howey noted, “This is Georgia Miller’s breakdown season, basically. She’s an entirely new person at the end of it.” As we’ve seen in previous seasons, Georgia’s choices have consequences – for herself, and also for those in her orbit, especially her children.
“Ginny and Georgia kind of swap roles, so I got to watch Toni be a version of Georgia. I mean, what can’t she do? This season, Ginny is the force. Ginny is running around town saving her mother’s life, and that’s the most Georgia thing anyone could do. Ginny asking Simone to be her lawyer, she saves her mom’s life. And then also, this is so dark, but the big twist at the end, that was all Ginny’s idea. [It’s] so dark and twisted, and she did it so beautifully.”
Season 3 ends with Ginny pulling a Georgia. During the trial, she conspires with Austin to blame Tom’s death on his father, Aaron Ashmore’s Gil. It works and now, just like their mother, Ginny and Austin are saddled with quite the secret to conceal moving forward.
“1,000% shock. Never crossed my mind. In our meeting at the beginning of the season, our creator told me what was gonna happen and I think my jaw was just on the floor. So, she told me before I read it, and it’s the most perfect ending. It’s so sad, but it makes a lot of sense.”

Brianne Howey Teases Big Changes for Georgia in Season 4

Image via Netflix

So what does all of this mean for Georgia moving forward? Had it not been for her children, she would have lost her Season 3 fight, and that’s bound to change their dynamic and how she feels about herself as a mother in Season 4.
“I think Georgia always thinks she’s the slickest one in the room. Georgia’s a few steps ahead of everyone. I think Georgia’s very confident in her street smarts. I think she’s very insecure, maybe, about her book smarts, but I think she feels very confident in being a conwoman. But I think she would say her own strength – it changes. I think at the beginning of Season 3, Georgia would say her strength is that she’s the best mother in the world [laughs], and probably by the end of Season 3, Georgia’s very aware of how her actions have affected her family.”
On top of that, Georgia will go into Season 4 with a new understanding of what her family is capable of.
“Georgia has learned that people need space from her at times. I think that’s not something she was ever able to wrap her head around before. And that she doesn’t have to control her children. She can’t control them.”
Looking for even more from Howey on her experience making Ginny & Georgia, and her own theories about where things might go next season? Be sure to check out our full conversation in the video at the top of this article, or you can listen to the interview in podcast form below:

Ginny & Georgia

Release Date

February 24, 2021

Network

Netflix

Showrunner

Sarah Lampert

Writers

Sarah Lampert

Antonia Gentry

Virginia ‘Ginny’ Miller

Brianne Howey

Georgia Miller

Diesel La Torraca

Austin Miller

Jennifer Robertson

Ellen Baker

Ginny & Georgia Season 3 is now available to stream on Netflix. Watch Here