‘The Girls on the Bus’s Melissa Benoist Loves Carla Gugino as Much as We All Do

[Editor’s note: The following contains some spoilers for The Girls on the Bus.]

The Big Picture

• ‘The Girls on the Bus’ highlights female journalists supporting each other and navigating friendship, competition, and the complexities of the campaign trail.
• Melissa Benoist, who plays Sadie McCarthy, emphasizes the importance of female friendship, research for her role, and the diverse characters in shaping the story.
• Benoist expresses interest in doing another season, shares insights on her production company, and discusses the possibility of directing again.

From creators Amy Chozick and Julie Plec and inspired by Chozick’s experience as a political reporter on the campaign bus with multiple presidential candidates, the 10-episode Max series The Girls on the Bus lets viewers in on the work, friendships, and romance in the lives of Sadie (Melissa Benoist), Grace (Carla Gugino), Lola (Natasha Benham) and Kimberlyn (Christina Elmore). All from different backgrounds and with different styles in covering presidential candidates and their political campaigns, these four female journalists are on the trail together, becoming something of a de facto family as they lean on each other for personal and professional support.

At a time when journalistic integrity is constantly questioned, The Girls on the Bus provides characters to be inspired by, learn from, and root for. Even though they might not always, or ever, agree with each other, they can still find common ground and even cry on each other’s shoulders. During this interview with Collider, Benoist talked about the importance of the female friendship at the core of this story, her desire to be an informed citizen in her own life, the research and prep she did for the role, why she’s obsessed with Gugino, where the necessary support and encouragement in her own life has come from, that “Pony” strip show, the complicated romance her character finds herself in, and that she’d love to do another season. She also discussed the production company she started when The CW’s Supergirl ended, and whether she wants to direct again.

At Its Core, ‘The Girls on the Bus’ Is About Women Supporting Each Other

Collider: I love so many things about the series, but one of the things that I love the most is the character dynamics among the four women at the center of this. With them, we get to see the ups and downs of friendship and how they support each other, but they also compete with each other. What was your favorite aspect of having those other characters there, but also just having those other women there to work with?

MELISSA BENOIST: It was everything. The core of our show is women supporting each other and women forming an unexpected bond in an unlikely place. It informed all the work, even our real relationship as friends on set, and it informed the chemistry between these characters. I love that we’re getting to see so many intersections of the way women view journalism and “work/life balance” if that’s even a real thing, and supporting each other, even when they don’t agree with each other’s ideologies because that will only show compassion.

Was there a moment when it just all clicked? Did you easily find your own rhythm together?

BENOIST: We got really lucky that the four of us just got on immediately. There was a scene in the pilot where we’re all sitting at the bar at the end of the episode and we’re grappling with the fact that this news has come out about the candidate we’re all following. To me, that was pivotal because it was a unifying moment for them. They’re all very driven, passionate women that care so much about what they do and care so much about being on the trail. That was a really unifying moment. And then, there was also episode six when the bus is stranded and they’re forced to be on top of each other for hours on end. That was also pretty informative of the relationships.

When it came to this project and all the elements involved, what was the biggest thing that hooked you? Are you someone who has ever followed politics at all, or was it more the character and the relationships that was the interesting thing?

BENOIST: The backdrop of politics, I did find really fascinating. I am a person who considers herself to be an informed citizen. I think it’s very important to be informed and I’m pretty active in my own beliefs and supporting what I think is right. I vote in every election and I do follow politics. But I never really understood what it took to be a political campaign reporter on the trail. I was not familiar with how difficult that lifestyle is and how difficult of a job it is and how passionate you have to be a journalist. But I do have to say that’s not what was the biggest draw for me. The female friendships, the relationships, the characters and how diverse they are, the different walks of life they’re coming from, and how they’re meeting in the middle and finding empathy for each other is what really nailed it for me.

Did you look at or talk to any specific political reporters, or did you just want to get an overall view of it all?

BENOIST: I devoured any and all information that I could and I read a massive list of books that (co-creator) Amy Chozick told me to read. Also, her book (Chasing Hillary) was invaluable, and her information and experience was incredible to have on tap. So, I read a list of books that she gave me, including What it Takes by Richard Ben Cramer, The Boys on the Bus by Timothy Crouse, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail by Hunter S. Thompson, and Up, Simba by David Foster Wallace, who was already one of my favorite writers. And we watched documentaries like On the Trail, which was a CNN documentary, and Journeys with George, which Alexandra Pelosi made, that really showed the tone of what it feels like to be on the trail. I also spoke to Ashley Parker, who works at MSNBC and the Washington Post. It was pretty intimidating because she is a very decorated journalist and has won Pulitzer Prizes and has reported on incredibly important stories, but she was a really cool source that I got to talk to.

Melissa Benoist Worships the Ground Her ‘The Girls on the Bus’ Co-Star Carla Gugino Walks On

What’s it like to be on a bus when Carla Gugino yells out, “I am fucking Oprah bitch!” and experience such an iconic moment?

BENOIST: First of all, we all worship the ground that Carla Gugino walks on. All hail Carla Gugino. The three of us – me, Christina [Elmore] and Natasha [Behnam] – were all obsessed with her. She’s just incredible. She’s so generous and loving and kind and intelligent. She is also like a straight-A student, who’s such an overachiever that does her homework, so to see her let loose like that is so satisfying. She nailed it.

There’s something so beautiful about the relationship between Sadie and Bruce. When your career is all about finding confidence in your voice, that can be a scary thing, so having that encouragement and inspiration seems endlessly important. How much do you feel that relationship really shaped who Sadie is? How important has it been for her to have someone like that behind her?

BENOIST: There’s an unsung love story in the season, that’s like a father-daughter relationship, and I know a lot of it was based on Amy’s relationship with an editor that was really formative in her career, named David Carr, who was at the New York Times and who tragically passed away. So, that felt like a very important chord to strike truthfully for me. I’m lucky enough that it was Griffin Dunne, who is someone that I have admired for years and years and who is royalty in the field of journalism and Hollywood. He just is a storied actor and his family history is pretty incredible. It was a really important relationship that we get right. I know that David Carr was really encouraging to not just Amy, but lots of reporters. He took them under his wing and really helped them find their voice. Sadie and Bruce are a little codependent, but he’s everything. He’s an example to her of when meeting your heroes is the right thing and when you should meet your heroes because they exceed your expectations.

Have you had someone like that in your own life, who has provided that support and encouragement for you when you’ve tried to find your voice or find success as an artist?

BENOIST: Oh, sure, I’ve had plenty. Not in my professional life, but I had mentors as a child because I did theater really young. I had people that were like surrogate parents to me and they ran a children’s theater that I worked at, and they really encouraged me and lifted me up and made me believe that I actually could do this for a living. And also, my husband does that for me. He’s really a voice of reason for me, a lot of times, when I would spiral. And Greg Berlanti has been a massive champion of mine. I’m so grateful that he has supported me in the way that he has. That’s been really pivotal for me and my career, his support and his advice.

Melissa Beonist Had Fun Watching Scott Foley’s ‘The Girls on the Bus’ Strip Show

You also got a bit of a strip show to “Pony” from Scott Foley. What was the experience like, watching him do that?

BENOIST: I don’t want to say that he was nervous. I’m not trying to speak for him, but I know he didn’t really want to do it. He was hungry and wasn’t eating because he had to take his shirt off. Amy Chozick and Rina Mimoun, our showrunner, sneakily put that in there because they knew that it would be a splash. It was really fun to be there on the day because he went for it.

Throughout the season, you have a variety of what I guess you would call dream sequences or fantasies. There’s everything from screaming to fighting to watching strip shows to having conversations with an imaginary Hunter S. Thompson. Which was your favorite of those moments? Were they all just a ton of fun to do?

BENOIST: They were all a ton of fun, especially the Hunter S. Thompson moments. Even the way they were scripted, we knew we didn’t have to stick to that. We felt like we had so much freedom because Hunter S. Thompson is such a character that we knew we weren’t really bound to anything that was in the script. It was always whatever serviced the story in that moment and we could be funny, but he could also be really poignant and intelligent and say something really moving to her. Those were always very fun. But I think one of my most favorite moments that we got to lean into the magic realism of was when Sadie screams, “Give me my fucking pills!” I feel like that moment embodies such a specific feminine rage that is so relevant right now.

Melissa Benoist Thought It Was Important To Explore the Double Standard Between Male and Female Journalists

The other important relationship in Sadie’s life is the one that she has with Brandon Scott’s character, Malcolm. They’re exes, but they’re also trying to figure out who they are to each other, and it feels like an entire season’s worth of relationships in one guy. What did you most enjoy about that relationship?

BENOIST: First of all, that’s a really good way of putting it. Second of all, Brandon Scott is the person to do that. He is so fantastic and he really just embodied Loafers so perfectly. What was so fun and really sad about their relationship is that these are two people that really care for each other, but circumstantially, it might not work. One of the things that was really important to us, that we tackle head on, was this trope that we’re used to seeing in Hollywood and in the portrayal of female journalists, that they sleep with a source to get their information. In reality, if Sadie did that, she would be done and her career would be over. So, we wanted to show the double standard there, and how complicated it would make their relationship, and how, even if they wanted to be together, these two characters are united in the fact that they both love what they do and they’re driven and they’re ambitious and they’re passionate, so that gets in the way of them sometimes.

Do you know what you’re going to do next? Are you hoping to do another season of The Girls on the Bus?

BENOIST: I would love to do another season of this. I hope we have the opportunity. I started a production company after I finished Supergirl, so I’m actively developing in that space and hoping to be a shepherd to my own stories that I’d like to tell and put out into the world. And I’m auditioning, as ever. It’s the life of an actor.

Do you have a very clear vision for what you want your production company to be, or are you still in that stage of being open to figuring out exactly what stories you want to tell?

BENOIST: I hesitate to say, “This is my brand,” because I don’t know that. I also think there’s a strength in that because I’m so open. I have a gut feeling when I know it’s something that I want to tell and I hope that falls under a specific umbrella. I know that I really wanna tell stories that are impactful and have a lot of heart to them.

You directed an episode of Supergirl? Have you also thought about directing again?

BENOIST: Yeah, I totally would be interested in it. It was really hard. It’s challenging and it was a surprising experience for me. I think that it would be different if I did it now, in another setting, because I knew the set and those people so well that it almost felt like I had a leg up. I just had so many resources and so many relationships already that I could lean on, and I knew the show so well, like the back of my hand. So, if I did it again, it would definitely be a different experience, and one that I’m really open to and would be excited to try.

It feels like directing must also change your perspective on acting and being an actor, in some ways.

BENOIST: Sure. In my experience, I just had to approach it from a more macro lens than I think I was used to doing. I think it’s valuable for any actor to see all the wheels that are turning and to get everything on set up and running for you to actually shoot the scene. There are so many aspects and cogs in the wheel that make a TV set run. Sometimes I think that’s overlooked.

The Girls on the Bus is available to stream on Max. Check out the trailer:

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