What was it like to play Britt’s drunken meltdown at the pool? “When I first read that, I was like, ‘Oh, gosh, this is so ridiculous — but also, so amazing!’ Any time that I get to play this side of Britt, and I get to kind of let her be drunk and let loose and be uncensored, it makes me so happy. It was absolutely, like, one of the best days because there were things that were happening organically, in the moment of shooting, that I just really enjoyed. I let myself not question my instincts and just go with them and it was really fun, especially since so much of the cast was there and I got to interact with them as drunk Britt. You never know how they’re going to shoot it, but I thought they did a really good job with making it really look like someone [Cody] fell from the sky and took me down in the pool. I thought it was hilarious.”
I really enjoyed the scenes after, when Brad and Obrecht staged their mini-intervention with Britt. “From Brad’s perspective, he’s worried about Britt, thinking she’s depressed and avoiding love; he’s coming at it as a friend and trying to be supportive, but he doesn’t know about Britt’s Huntington’s [diagnosis], only her mom does. When Britt talks to her mom, she’s like, ‘What’s the point of falling in love? I’m going to die. I’ve only met one man who’s okay with my situation.’ I think she’s really afraid of letting someone in and telling someone else what her condition is and them staying by her side and loving her. I thought those were really beautiful scenes, and there are real elements there about dealing with her situation and how to move forward and how to let her guard down again.”
So, Britt has been struggling to move on from Jason, and some viewers think it’s a little much, given that they only slept together once. What’s your take on this? “I’ve read a lot from fans regarding the relationship between Britt and Jason and I think there’s an element of it that people aren’t acknowledging, which is that he was there with her through that terrible time when she found out she had Huntington’s. I think with anyone in life, when you’re going through something so heavy and life-threatening, that whoever’s there by your side, it means so much to you to have them. Especially for a character like Britt, who hasn’t really had that, even from family — she hasn’t really had someone be so genuine and so loving and protective and supportive of her. Even though it was a short-lived thing, the impact of that meant so much to her, and that is what has caused this grief and kind of not being able to move on. And it’s fear, too; it’s like, you have this terminal illness and how do you open up your life to someone? How do you fall in love with someone knowing what’s waiting for you down the road? I think because it is such an ugly disease, what happens to a person, she’s also thinking about that. They’re going to see this whole other side of her that she can’t control. It’s very fear-based. But I do think people aren’t taking into account how important that was to her and how meaningful it was…. I definitely don’t think she’s, like, lighting candles and having a meditative moment of remembrance of the one time she had sex with Jason! I don’t think that’s happening! I wouldn’t say Britt is pathetic by any means. I just think she fell in love and it was a very whirlwind, meaningful, genuine experience and she just feels like it’s never going to happen again.”
