Ginny & Georgia star Brianne Howey on the Netflix show’s ultimate message: ‘It’s OK to ask for help, it’s courageous’

Speaking of narrative arcs, Brianne’s own story has taken many turns since the role of Georgia first landed in her life. “I was in Europe with my now husband, then boyfriend,” she says looking back. “I was on a show that didn’t get renewed for a season two called The Passage for Fox. I was disappointed and we took advantage of the time and thought, ‘let’s go on a little trip because I’m not gonna go back to do this show.’ I maybe had a feeling he was gonna propose just because we so rarely get these pockets of time together somewhere so magical.”

“The self tape [request for Ginny & Georgia] came through and I was only in Europe for 72 more hours,” Brianne continues. “He hadn’t proposed yet and it was a really long self tape and it was for a mom character. I thought, ‘hey, this role is incredible, this script is incredible but I don’t know how realistic it is that they would take me seriously for this role.’ I was like, ‘I’ll be home in three days. Can I go in person?’ And they were like, ‘I don’t know, it’s kind of a gamble. We’ll see.’ And I didn’t wanna make my husband Matt play this angsty 16 year old for a day and a half with me running the scene. I’m a nightmare to do a self-tape with. I’ll do it 105 times, I’ll nitpick everything! I got home and luckily they said, ‘please send in a self tape now.’ I did it within minutes and then days later I was in the room in person with the creator showrunner, then days after that I was doing chemistry reads with Antonia. Days after that we were sending in tapes to Netflix and a week later I was in Toronto shooting Ginny & Georgia!”

And did the proposal happen at any point during that real life drama? “Oh yes,” Brianne beams. “It was super magical, beautiful, lovely and it was a nice way to go into the room too, coming off of a great trip so it made the audition more fun!” Rejoice team, she got the ring on it!

I am interested in why Brianne initially doubted whether she could play ‘a mom.’ At the time she was approached about the role Brianne was 30 years old – now 33 – and her on screen daughter, Antonia Gentry is just eight years her junior IRL. And having spoken to many actresses about how at a certain point in their career they begin to just be offered ‘mom roles,’ such is the sexism and agism still rife in the entertainment industry, I wonder if that deterred her? But then again, Ginny isn’t ‘just’ a ‘single mum’ she is a fully fleshed out character in her own right, she is not in the shadows of her daughter, she goes toe-to-toe with her.

“Shockingly, no,” Brianne replies. “I thought the role was just incredible. Georgia is larger than life. If she was a one-dimensional character who happened to be a mom, sure, maybe that wouldn’t be as enticing and if being a mom was only defining characteristic. But she’s so much more than that. Her being a mom in addition to all of her other colours only makes her even more interesting. That’s the whole reason Georgia does what she does is because she is a mom. She would literally die for her children. She would literally kill for her children. I did not even think twice about it. It felt like an opportunity of a lifetime and there was so much to play with. Georgia is on the run. She’s living in all the grey areas of her life. There’s nothing black and white about her. She has these very complicated love triangles. And the most defining characteristic about her that blinded me to everything else was that she’s a survivor. She’s overcome so much. She’s been through so much. She’s so complicated and dynamic. I really didn’t even, it didn’t know, it didn’t phase me.” Alexa, play Destiny’s Child’s ‘Survivor’.

Playing a mother on screen also gave Brianne the chance to poignantly reflect on her relationship with her own mother. “The amount of times we’re going through these scenes and I see myself in Ginny thinking I did that to my mom,” she shares. “I had boys sneaking in and outta my room – I did those things! So to have the tables turned is ironic, funny and endearing. My mom passed over a decade ago, I lost her to cancer, so it’s also interesting to go through the motions of the show and to not physically have her here.”