GLOW Season 2: Alison Brie and Marc Maron on the Netflix Original Series

From showrunners Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch, Season 2 of the Netflix original series GLOW continues to follow the ladies on their journey as they become local celebrities and learn about what success means for them. Inspired by the short-lived but beloved show from the ‘80s, GLOW explores the less than perfect friendship between Ruth Wilder (Alison Brie) and Debbie Eagan (Betty Gilpin), for whom this team of women wrestlers become a family, in all of their spandex glory, with the hope that washed-up B-movie director Sam Sylvia (Marc Maron) will lead them to wrestling stardom.

At a press day for the new season, Collider got the opportunity to sit down with Alison Brie and Marc Maron to chat about why they love their characters, the dynamic between Ruth and Sam, why they don’t think a relationship between their characters would be a good idea, the spandex leotards, the bond this team of women shares, and how Maron is “just one of the girls” now.

glow-marc-maron-images — Image via Netflix

Collider: I loved the first season, and this season is just so much fun!

MARC MARON: Oh, good!

ALISON BRIE: Thank you!

I love that we get to see so much more of these characters, in Season 2. What have you most loved about your characters from day one, and what have you grown to love about them?

BRIE: I love the fight in Ruth. I love that she’s not afraid to make a fool of herself, and she really fights for what she wants. And what have I learned to love about her? I don’t know. Maybe I love everything about her. I love her optimism. I think what I’m still waiting to learn to love is how much she lets herself get kicked around, or her tendency to be the martyr and do the, “Poor me,” to feel sorry for herself. I don’t yet love that, and maybe I never will. I would encourage Ruth to fight against that.

MARON: I wonder if she will.

BRIE: She will!

MARON: I like that Sam thinks he’s in charge, but I don’t know that he really is. I like the swagger of him because it is transparent. I like that most of the women see through him, but yet, there is that line that he can cross. That’s scary. I don’t love that part of him. Like that scene at the beginning of the second season, where I unload on [one of the women] and fire her, that’s

BRIE: You tap into something real dark.

MARON: I’m glad that that’s not a huge part of the character. I do like that Sam keeps trying. And I like the fact that you think he’s not that self-aware, but I think he’s more self-aware than he seems.

glow-season-2-trailer — Image via Netflix

It’s funny to hear Sam’s daughter tell Ruth that she means something to her father, when he can’t tell her that himself. He’s clearly not very good at expressing things.

BRIE: Definitely! Sam is a very volatile character. You never know what you’re going to get. Over the course of Season 1, Ruth learned more and more about him, and sensed that they had a real closeness. And then, right away, she oversteps her boundaries in Season 2. I guess I would admit that both are at fault. Ruth maybe does overstep her bounds a little.

MARON: They just have this understanding. If they were in a relationship, they would naturally go together somehow. There’s Ruth’s ability to take abuse and still be chipper in the face of it and her ability to just wear Sam down. There’s a patience to Ruth that makes those emotional character types go together. It’s only a matter of time before it comes back around. It doesn’t seem like we can shake each other.

BRIE: Yeah, I think that’s true. I do think they bring out the best in each other and they both care a lot about this show that they’re making, more than anyone else on the show.

MARON: I think Sam cares about Ruth.

BRIE: I think Ruth cares about Sam. I think she looks out for him, and she’s slowly trying to make him a better person.

MARON: She also covers for him.

Do you think a relationship between them would actually work, or do you think it would be too much of a mess?

BRIE: I don’t know. It scares me.

MARON: We come up against that fear, in this season.

BRIE: We do.

MARON: We get right up next to it.

BRIE: It terrifies me, Alison, in real life, and it terrifies Ruth, on the show.

MARON: I don’t know how it couldn’t go bad.

BRIE: Exactly!

MARON: I think if it really did happen, then you’re invested on a different level. It would be more similar to Ruth and Debbie (Betty Gilpin). You can’t erase that. If they actually consummate it, then everything is in reaction to that.

BRIE: Yeah, then that’s significant. If I worry about Sam and Ruth romantically, it’s only because I think about our show and want to do six season. I do not think Sam and Ruth should fuck until at least Season 5. It might jumping the shark. I feel like there are other things that could happen, without that happening, that would be interesting. I also don’t think Sam has ever dated a woman like Ruth. We saw his ex-wife, who was a little bit more glamorous, for a second last season.

MARON: It seems like he’s not a long-term relationship guy.

BRIE: No, I don’t think so.

MARON: I think he might be a little shallow with the expectations.

BRIE: But I don’t think he’s ever been with someone as earnest as Ruth.

MARON: Yeah, that’s true. Earnestness is difficult with a character like Sam.

I love the relationship between Sam and his daughter because he just seems so confused that she actually wants to be there and might like him.

MARON: Yeah, well, I think he’s like that with everybody. I have to assume that that comes from some weird self-pitying insecurity. He’s somehow been convinced that he’s somewhat unbearable. That happens after a couple of marriages.

BRIE: Another thing that the two characters have in common is a bit of self-loathing. Ruth has been taking rejection, her whole life. Certainly, her whole attempt at a career as an actress has been overshadowed by her friend.

MARON: I don’t think either character really admits to that type of self-loathing, though.

BRIE: No, I don’t think Ruth does because she’s constantly trying to convince herself that she’s great, and just no one has noticed yet.

MARON: It’s the same with Sam, really.

BRIE: Yeah, it’s everyone else’s problem.

MARON: He’s got a little recognition, but not quite enough. But Sam gets humbled this season, a little bit. He gets humbled, at the end of the first season, but over the arc of the second season, it becomes clear that he does get some self-awareness. Directing and dealing with GLOW is no longer a means to an end. It is it. His dream movie is not a reality. He needs to make a living. He’s got this daughter that he didn’t know he had. He has feelings for Ruth that he finds out about. He knows that, ultimately, he’s a failure. All that comes down on him and makes him a better person, I think.

Alison, after two seasons, do you feel like you’re more okay with the Spandex leotard, or can you just not wait to take it off, at the end of the day?

BRIE: Oh, I love it! I was always at one with it. I love wearing the leotards on the show. They’re easy costumes, especially for me, because I don’t ever wear the Capezio tights that all the other girls wear. It’s easy for me to go to the bathroom. I’m more at peace with my body than ever before. That’s the figure challenge. I’m at peace with the outfits. Watching our bodies move in the outfits is interesting. The whole process of doing this show and learning how to wrestle has been so empowering, and seeing my body in a different way, as more of an athlete, in that respect has been really helpful with that. But, I love the costumes. They’re very comfortable. And I love the way Ruth dresses. Ruth is not trying to impress anyone with the way that she dresses. She doesn’t really wear make-up or do her hair. She’s definitely not actively looking for love, or anything like that. She’s actively trying to win over her deepest love, her friend Debbie. That’s the priority. Something that I really respect about her, as a character, is how little she cares what men think about how her body looks. That’s something I certainly try to take away from it.

I love how, in Season 2, these women have really banded together more and they’re all making this show a priority.

BRIE: Definitely! Last season, they were insulated in a bubble of making this thing, where they could just do whatever they wanted and it was really fun, but they didn’t know if it was going to amount to anything. Now, the stakes are higher because they’re making the show, it’s on the air, they have fans, and they have to fill seats, every night. We do see a bit of competition come out between the women, in terms of competing for air time and for interesting characters, and with the fans, and things like that. But ultimately, they always do come back together to work together to make a great thing. It’s one of the best things about this show, and it couldn’t be more real to the way that we make the show, as a group of women and men, and how much we all support each other and work well together.

Marc, since this is a bit of a reverse situation, do you feel like, as one of the only guys, you have to fight to make yourself heard?

MARON: A little bit. On screen, I make myself heard, one way or the other. Off screen, we’re just all equals in the whole thing. I don’t have any real edge or power dynamic on anybody. This year, I’m even sitting with all the ladies. The first season, I didn’t really. I just minded my own business.

BRIE: He kept a good distance.