Dove Cameron and Aaron Tveit Talk 'Deep Personal Connection' to 'Schmigadoon!' Season 2 Characters (Exclusive)

Dove Cameron and Aaron Tveit Talk 'Deep Personal Connection' to 'Schmigadoon!' Season 2 Characters (Exclusive),Schmigadoon! Season 2 is nearing its final curtain, as the Schmicago-era of the Apple TV+ series has just two more episodes left. Ahead of the season finale, PopCulture.com had a chance to speak with Schmigadoon! stars Dove Cameron and Aaron Tveit, who play Jenny Banks and Topher, respectively. [...]

Dove Cameron and Aaron Tveit Talk ‘Deep Personal Connection’ to ‘Schmigadoon!’ Season 2 Characters (Exclusive)

Schmigadoon! Season 2 is nearing its final curtain, as the Schmicago-era of the Apple TV+ series has just two more episodes left. Ahead of the season finale, PopCulture.com had a chance to speak with Schmigadoon! stars Dove Cameron and Aaron Tveit, who play Jenny Banks and Topher, respectively. Jenny is inspired by Liza Minnelli’s portrayal of Sally Bowles in the film adaptation of Cabaret, and Topher is a parody of hippie-esque characters from classic Broadway shows such as Godspell and Hair.

During our conversation, the pair opened up about the series, and Cameron shared that she has a “deep personal connection” to her characters from the musical show, and also responded to a comment from series co-creator Cinco Paul, who previously told PopCulture.com that he made it a point to write a more significant part for her this season, after feeling as if they did not do her justice in Schmigadoon Season. “I think Cinco very, very, very generously bumped up my role a lot this season, which I actually, I think it came with its own set of nervousness,” she said.

Cameron continued, “I was like, ‘What if I can’t?’ You know what I mean, what if I can’t play a Sally Bowles? What if I cap at a Betsy?” She then added, “I think it’s always a bit of a huge compliment, and then you’re also like, ‘Oh my God, I really hope I can do this,’ when you just get awarded a role. But especially one that I have found such deep personal connection to, like a Sally Bowles.”

The actress then showered some praise on her showrunner, saying, “I love Cinco so much, and I think something brilliant about him is he really writes for his cast. I think he also saw, again, no spoilers, I don’t want to give anything away, but I think he saw certain people interact really well on screen, and so paired them up, he saw other friendships blossoming, paired those people up. He really just kind of interwove everybody so delicately and I think really played to everybody’s strengths, and I think that’s like what makes him such a great leader.” Tveit added, “He’s really smart at obviously the musical genres that he’s nodding into and recreating, but…they paired people this season I think based off of what they saw, what could pop off-screen a little bit more. So, it’s been really, it was great to do that.”

In Schmigadoon! Season 2, Jenny and Topher discover love in one another, after both being in romantic situations that don’t fully meet their emotional needs. Commenting on what he believes it is that brings them together, Tveit explained, “I think both of them at the start of this are people that I think represent something to those around them, right? I mean, Jenny’s an amazing cabaret performer and beloved, and Topher is the leader of this tribe that’s striving for all social justice, and they have people that look to them. But on the inside they might not really be in touch with who they actually are.”

He continued, “I think that that’s kind of the wonderful thing is that we get to go on a journey to find ourselves within this world. And I think it’s meeting the other person that brought it out for each of them. I mean, that’s definitely how I read it at the beginning, that it’s like, oh, I get to become a person because I met this other person, right? So, I think it’s a really nice arc that I get to go on and we just get to go on. Besides serving the story and serving Josh (Keegan-Michael Key) and Melissa’s (Cecily Strong) characters, which the first season was a little more in service of them, and now we get to do both things, which is great.”

Cameron then added, “I think there’s a simplicity to when you meet somebody who just sees you from the jump. Sometimes it’s completely unintellectual, sometimes it’s just like, oh, and now I’m brought back to myself because this person can just see me so I can melt everything that isn’t me away. And I think that that’s what that love at first sight kind of thing is. It’s like an energetic recognition that allows you to just be simply with each other, and I think that’s what these characters do for each other.” Schmigadoon! Season 2 Episode 5 debuts Wednesday, April 26 on Apple TV+, with the season finale set for May 3.

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