Breakups are never easy. That’s especially true when one person completely ghosts the other after leaving them on a hill after proposing to them.
While the final moments of You’re The Worst’s third season were certainly shocking, with poor Gretchen left all alone in the dark as Jimmy drove away, panicked over what he’d just done, stars Aya Cash and Chris Geere tell E! News that it will be nothing compared to the fallout that encompasses much of season four, premiering tonight on FXX.
When we check back in with our severely troubled soulmates in the hour-long season premiere, we’ll learn that Jimmy’s been carving out a new life for himself at a senior citizen trailer park outside of the city—breakup beard and all.
“I think that was highlighting the fact the he was escaping from who he was,” Geere said of his surprising new facial hair. “[Creator] Stephen [Falk] said, ‘Can you grow a beard?’ And I said, ‘No.’ I’ve never not shaved for more than three days before. So he said, ‘Right, you’ve got two-and-a-half months’…I just asked, ‘Why?’ Obviously he can’t be bothered, but why else? He’s punishing himself by not shaving because he probably doesn’t like the whole idea of everyone having beards these days, everyone following a hipster vibe of having beards. Jimmy’s the kind of person who would do everything to go against that. So he was punishing himself by growing it.”
The first half of the premiere tells Jimmy’s story entirely, meaning we don’t see any of his regular co-stars for a good thirty minutes. “It felt like we were doing a little indie movie because the cast was all different and I feel like Jimmy was completely behaving differently as well,” Geere said of the narrative experiment. “He’s a bit of an anti-chameleon in a way. He doesn’t like trying to fit in with everyone else. He just is who he is. And yet he goes to this trailer park to try and fit in. It was super fun. I just really enjoyed it.”
“To watch this first episode with Chris, and to feel like I’m watching this little indie movie and to see them go there, knowing that half the audience might be going, ‘Excuse me? This is a motherf–king comedy. Why are you showing me something at Sundance? That’s not what I came here for,'” Cash added. “But trusting that you’ll go with it and we’ll always come back. I think that’s cool.”
When we do finally check back in with Gretchen, she’s, predictably (and understandably) , not doing well. You know, Gretchen’s a disaster. “Of course, this is Gretchen’s way of taking care of herself. She just got dumped. So she’s using the technique she knows to make herself feel better,” Cash teased. “And that happens to be drugs and agoraphobia. So she thinks, she’s like, ‘I deserve this. I deserve crack!'”
While turning to crack may feel like a new low for Gretch, Cash admitted she wasn’t surprised by it. And that it’s hardly the most surprising thing that’ll happen this season. “I got really shocked by something this season, like screamed out loud on set when I read it,” she revealed. “But not with the crack. [Laughs] It just feels like, ‘Yeah, alright. She’s gonna try a little crack.'”
As the characters both struggle to deal with their new normal, they’ll both lean in hard on their respective ways of handling things. “Gretchen’s real weird this season. Like, there’s some weird stuff that she does in reaction to him,” Cash teased. “I feel like Jimmy ends up sort of having to deal with Gretchen’s wrath, but it’s a very bizarre path. There’s some weird stuff. I would say The Ring might be a reference for one of the episodes. There’s some just crazy-ass s–t. She’s gone off the deep end for a bit in her rage against Jimmy.”
Jimmy’s handling it better because he’s ignoring it. So, it’s ignorance or complete envelopment in the situation,” Geere added. “But at the end of the day, they’ve got to take responsibility, eventually.”
Naturally, the fact that Jimmy and Gretchen have broken up means that they’ll share less screen time together this season—In fact, the actors only worked together “less than a week in almost ten weeks,” Cash admitted—and that’s something neither actor was prepared for.
“To be honest, Chris and I really like working together and we haven’t done much of that this year. I’d rather they be blowing up at each other, rather than not engaging, which is where they’re at,” Cash said. “So, I just miss working with Chris. I shouldn’t speak for you. [Laughs] I really enjoy working with Chris. He can say whatever he wants.”
Luckily, he agreed. “It’s really weird,” Geere said. “As a friend, I get sad because I miss her. As a character, I sometimes feel like I’m playing a different character this season. I questioned, I thought, ‘I know Jimmy back to front, I just can’t find his rhythm.’ I realized in the last couple of days that’s a good thing. He can’t find his rhythm because he can’t be himself unless he’s with her. So he can’t do a good job in life unless she’s by his side. So he’s either trying too hard and failing miserably or he’s attempting to navigate his way around this break-up situation. And he’s just failing all the time. And I thought, ‘Is that me as an actor going I can’t find the tone of this scene?’ No, it’s not. It’s Jimmy not being able to find out what the hell he’s doing at the moment. Or I’m awful. [Laughs] Could be that as well.”
You’re the Worst returns for season three on Wednesday, Sept. 6 at 10 p.m. on FXX.
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