Retta, the breakout star of NBC’s “Good Girls,” sat down with journalists at Cecconi’s West Hollywood (Butterfly Room) to talk about her career journey – “It was a matter of when, not if” – playing a family woman, and living her best life on a budget.
Good Girls tells the story of three women struggling with cheating spouses, sick kids and custody battles who decide to take matters into their own hands by robbing a grocery store. They make serious bank in the heist, but things quickly take a dark turn.
Retta plays Ruby, a devoted wife and mother who struggles to pay for her very sick daughter’s healthcare. The actress stressed that even though she isn’t married and doesn’t have kids, she relates to Ruby’s pain.
“I get how hard it would be to not have any control over the well-being of your child,” she said.
“And then on top of that, there’s something that will help, and you just can’t access it. So when I read the script I cried.”
Mostly known for comedic roles, Retta tackles some heavy emotional moments in the first few episodes screened for critics. Her daughter’s illness and worries about her husband’s faithfulness weigh heavy on her character.
“My goal is to make her as real as possible, as believable as possible in the circumstance,” she said.
It’s not all heavy drama, though. One of her best improvised moments involves the phrase “hostage peen” and it made me snort-laugh. There’s another moment where Ruby tries to play a badass and flounders miserably, another light moment in the buoyant family drama.
This show is a breakout moment for Retta, who started as a touring stand-up comic, and who has played bit part after bit part for almost twenty years. She remembers sending an email blast to friends years ago asking for work, a time when she was living entirely off credit cards.
Good friend Aisha Tyler hired her to respond to fan mail – “I still have some of Aisha’s headshots in my apartment” – but she wasn’t deterred by her lack of money; she was still chasing her dream.
“I was still in Hollywood. I’m broke in Hollywood, you broke in Jersey” she laughed.
Her star has been on a meteoric rise since her breakout role as Donna on Parks and Rec, and I know more than a few people have been rooting for her to helm a network show. She never lost faith.
“Even though I was broke I never hit a rock bottom where I thought, ‘I’m out.’ Cause I always thought that I would [make it],” she said.
GOOD GIRLS premieres February 26 and will air Mondays at 10/9c on NBC.
