Something Weird Happened in My Friend’s Basement and It Fundamentally Changed Me

Summary

Welcome to a new episode of Collider Ladies Night with Ginny & Georgia and Clown in a Cornfield star Katie Douglas.
During her Ladies Night conversation with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff, Douglas looks back on foundational moments of her journey in film and television, including Defiance, Believe Me: The Abduction of Lisa McVey, Level 16, and more.
She also weighs in on some of Abby’s biggest moments in Ginny & Georgia Season 3, like her kiss with Sam, her relationship with Tris, and why she keeps pushing Max away.

Katie Douglas is in the midst of a banner year. She just headlined Eli Craig’s adaptation of the Adam Cesar novel, Clown in a Cornfield, and the slasher movie broke records when it hit theaters. The movie scored IFC Entertainment Group its biggest opening weekend ever. A mere month later, Douglas had another title that posted huge numbers. Upon release, Ginny & Georgia Season 3 became the most-watched TV title on Netflix with a whopping 17.6 million views. In celebration of all that success, Douglas visited the Collider Ladies Night studio to revisit how she paved her way to Clown in a Cornfield and Ginny & Georgia, and to dig especially deep into the hit Netflix series’ third season, which includes quite a few game-changing moments for her character, Abby.

In Ginny & Georgia Season 3, Brianne Howey’s Georgia is trying to avoid becoming a convicted “Mayoress Murderess.” While Abby stands firmly by Ginny’s (Antonia Gentry) side as she powers through her mom’s trial, Abby must navigate a multitude of personal challenges of her own, challenges that undoubtedly will reshape her priorities and who she is moving forward.

During our conversation, Douglas mentioned using journaling to tackle her work as an actor, so I opted to ask how her journaling as Abby has evolved from Season 1 to Season 3. As Douglas explained, in Season 1, she had a “teenage edge to her.” Douglas continued, “It was very surface-level. She was kind of catty and loved her friends, but in a way that it’s easier for her to tease than to be affectionate.” In Season 3, however, her journaling is far more fleshed out because “she’s aware that she needs help.” Douglas credits Abby’s very first experience going on a romantic journey with making feelings a bit easier for her. “I was trying to exercise what that would feel like for somebody who has only ever used intimacy in a way that is performative, or kind of a form of self-harm, just what that would look like on paper and the slow burn and the build-up of coming to terms with the fact that you’re learning how to love and you’re learning who you love, and you are only a teenager.”

Why That Abby and Samantha Kiss Works

“It’s kind of part of why I love Sarah Lampert’s writing so much.”

Katie Douglas and Romi Shraiter in Ginny & Georgia — Image via Netflix

Before Abby finds the right person to start exploring those feelings with, she experiences a little hiccup in Episode 3, “Friends Can Dance.” Abby opts to share something deeply personal with Romi Shraiter’s Samantha, but she misinterprets the moment. When Abby tries to tell her about taping her legs, Samantha reveals she’s had a crush on Abby and they kiss. It’s an incredibly complex moment that weaves together two pivotal aspects of Abby’s coming-of-age journey – her struggle with body dysmorphia and cracking the door open for how she might find the right romantic partner.

“I think that’s the first time Abby hasn’t felt alone with the thing, and I don’t even think she knows the extent to how much she’s hurting herself. But it’s easier to watch somebody else struggling and have empathy than it is to have empathy for yourself. So, I think she sees it for the first time and starts to feel a little bit less alone with it, which I think Samantha takes in a very different way and assumes it’s something else. But I love that scene so much because I remember reading it on the page and just being so excited, because it’s kind of part of why I love Sarah Lampert’s writing so much, is because she’s not afraid to turn over stones and talk about really awkward, funny things. It just plays on the theme of something weird happened in my friend’s basement, and it fundamentally changed me. [Laughs] That’s what that scene kind of represented to me. And Romi [Shraiter], who plays Samantha, who’s, in real life, cooler than all of us, she’s really good at that character.”

Katie Douglas Was Thrilled to Learn About Abby’s Season 3 Romance with Tris

“I really wanted that to be the one sweet, good, personal thing that Abby had this year.”

After Abby spends much of Ginny & Georgia chasing a toxic relationship with Press (Damian Romeo), Season 3 throws back-to-back romantic curveballs for the character. First, it’s Samantha misreading the situation in Episode 3. While that experience wasn’t precisely what Abby wanted, the way it “fundamentally changed her” might have contributed to her being able to quickly recognize the good that just walked into her life — Noah Lamanna’s Tris.

Here’s what Douglas said when recalling when she first learned about where Abby’s love life was heading this season:

“It made so much sense. It was the only romantic situation that really made sense for Abby. And I was surprised because I’m still learning about Abby. When I think I know her, I don’t. Every season, she’s very different, and where we left off, Abby was someone who was not at all considering anything romantic. She liked her friends, and she had some internal stuff going on, but this one is very different. This person’s very different, and they actually start bringing out really good things in Abby for the first time ever, and introduce self-love. So I was actually really happy to see that and really excited to start the casting process and find the person that fit that tone really well. Noah [Lamanna] is so good, and so cool. The show just didn’t have an energy like that before. I really wanted that to be the one sweet, good, personal thing that Abby had this year.”

There’s no turning back from something like this. After two seasons of giving Press far more than he deserved and not getting anything positive back in return, Abby’s found someone who not only adds a far more positive form of romance to her life, but also begins to instill vital lessons of self-love that will hopefully continue to bleed into other parts of Abby’s life as the show moves forward. “For the first time ever, Abby gets an A on a test, and it feels really good, and she made them proud.” That feeling isn’t restricted to the characters on screen. Douglas also feels the same way about working with Lamanna. “I relate to this a little bit, because when I’m in a room with Noah, my only job is to be a good person for them. They make me feel like a good person, and I think that’s what Abby’s experiencing. She just wants to be good to them and for them.”

While there is loads of good in the Abby and Tris connection, there’s no overlooking the fact that it’s a very new thing for Abby in many respects, and, more often than not, new can be scary. “I honestly think she’s terrified, and just kind of warming up to the idea of being held emotionally by somebody else.” Douglas continued, “That’s still so personal, and she’s not even in the place to share it with other people outside of her most trusted immediate friends. I just think she’s warming up still.”

Why Is Abby So Mean to Max?

“It’s been building up and building up, and it’s coming out in these weird little microaggressions.”

Sara Waisglass in Ginny & Georgia — Image via Netflix

1:01:23

“That’s What My Nightmares Are Made Of”: ‘Ginny & Georgia’s Brianne Howey Discusses Filming Season 3’s Most Challenging Scene

While on Collider Ladies Night, Howey breaks down Georgia’s Season 3 journey and teases what could be in store for the character in Season 4.

There was a point in time when Abby’s “most trusted immediate friends” would undoubtedly include Ginny, Norah (Chelsea Clark) and Max (Sir Waisglass). However, in Season 3, not only do we see Max drifting away from MANG, but we see Abby flat-out cut her out in some respects.

“I think as she’s discovering new relationships, she’s kind of separating herself from old ones. That was so sad because not having the Max character in the scenes meant we didn’t have Sara Waisglass on set. Set’s just not light without a Sara Waisglass. But I think it’s just now that she has something to distract [herself] with, and she’s got a new relationship, she’s just kind of fading away from that one. And, like I talked about before, she’s got that resentment thing. She hasn’t had the confrontation with Max yet about the time when she abandoned and hurt her, so it’s been building up and building up, and it’s coming out in these weird little microaggressions. It’s a really good lesson in how to have a conversation before things get ugly like that. But yeah, she’s definitely distracted with her romantic story.”

And that romantic story is something she refuses to share with the person in her life who’d be most enthusiastic about seeing a beautiful and hugely positive queer romance blossom.

“You’d think [Max] would be the perfect person to share it with. What I have to tell myself is that it’s because it’s so much more than just a queer relationship right now. It’s a very personal, real, slow burn of a thing, and she doesn’t know how to talk about it yet with somebody like Max. I think she’s just very afraid to attach herself to any type of label, or she doesn’t want it to be exploited for drama or for anything other than hers. It’s still very much hers, and Max can be so involved, and she gives so much love and attention to her friends that I think she still is very protective over it.”

Eager to hear even more from Douglas on making Ginny & Georgia Season 3, and her hopes for where things could go for Abby in Season 4 which is expected to go into production later this year? Be sure to check out our full conversation in the video at the top of this article, or listen to the interview in podcast form below: