‘The Four Seasons' star Erika Henningsen on the ‘biggest opportunity' she's ever been given and what might happen in Season 2

Yahoo

20-05-2025

WARNING: This story contains spoilers for The Four Seasons.
When Erika Henningsen found out she had booked a key role on the breakout Netflix comedy series The Four Seasons, it wasn't through her representatives or the show's casting director. Instead, cocreator and star Tina Fey reached out directly.
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'It was such a Tina touch that she would take the time to call me personally,' Henningsen tells Gold Derby. 'And I just started crying immediately, because this is the biggest opportunity I've ever been given.'
Henningsen and Fey already had a solid professional relationship. The Emmy Award winner had previously cast Henningsen as the lead of the Broadway adaptation of Mean Girls, and Henningsen also appeared on episodes of Girls 5eva, which Fey executive-produced. However, The Four Seasons was different: Not only did Fey become Henningsen's onscreen co-star, but the younger actress was also required to share scenes with acclaimed actors like Steve Carell and Colman Domingo.
'I felt a lot of nerves because I was working with all these incredible people, but I never felt not taken care of,' Henningsen explains. 'I was very aware that these are incredible writers and executive producers – not just Tina, but co-creators Lang Fisher and Tracey Wigfield – and they would literally not let this fail. It may not be for everybody, but they will not let this project and our work fail because they're just not those people.'
Based on the 1981 Alan Alda movie of the same name, and co-created by Fey, Fisher, and Wigfield (all of whom previously collaborated on Fey's 30 Rock), The Four Seasons focuses on three couples and longtime friends – Kate and Jack (Fey and Will Forte), Anne and Nick (Kerri Kenney-Silver and Carell), and Claude and Danny (Marco Calvani and Domingo) – who take quarterly vacations together. However, when Nick splits from Anne after years of marriage, his choice upends the group dynamic and raises questions about the other relationships. Things are further complicated when Nick starts dating a younger woman, Ginny (Henningsen), who becomes the group's unofficial seventh member.
In another show, with another creative team and performer, it's likely the Ginny character might have been more stereotypical. Watching The Four Seasons, it's easy to imagine a version where Ginny is played as the fool and her relationship with the older Nick is a punchline. However, The Four Seasons defies those expectations at every turn. Ginny is often a source of awkward comedy, but the jokes never punch down on the character, and her relationship with Nick is one of the strongest on the show.
'It's been really interesting for people who watch it to be like, 'Oh my God, you totally didn't do the stereotype,'' Henningsen says. 'We love that because that was definitely a goal. I knew that in order for the characters to all be interesting, Ginny couldn't be the silly, young, flippant, and unaware girlfriend. It was also really important to me to make sure that people liked Nick, and that they could feel conflicted about the other characters not liking Ginny and Nick together.'
Henningsen says she often pushed to ensure Ginny never appeared as a victim. During the fall episodes, Ginny and Nick travel to Nick's daughter's college campus. Rather than embrace her father's new relationship, Nick's daughter lashes out with a play about their relationship, a pointed public rebuke of Nick and Ginny, where Ginny is portrayed as a ditz.
'In the script, it initially said Ginny ran out of the theater crying after she saw the play,' Henningsen says. 'I was like, 'I just don't think she would do that. She's 32 years old. This is an 18-year-old girl.''
Henningsen says Fey, Fisher, and Wigfield were open to collaboration and strived to find 'the least victim way to play' the scene.
'Ginny can be hurt, but she can't let it bring the night down, and she can't let it ruin the friends' experience,' she says. 'That episode was always really important to me because she needs to watch this play that really takes swings at her, but she has to have the EQ to walk away and go, 'This is an 18-year-old kid whose dad just got divorced from her mom. Of course, she hates me.''
The Four Seasons ends with a bit of a twist. After a fight with Ginny on New Year's Eve, Nick has an epiphany about their relationship and seems content with his new life (while mourning the old one). Then, abruptly, he's killed in a car accident. The finale focuses on Nick's funeral, as the old friends try to box out Ginny, and Anne refuses to acknowledge Ginny's relationship with her ex-husband was significant.
However, even Anne's perspective eventually changes, especially as it is revealed Ginny is pregnant with Nick's child.
'What they did so beautifully was they ended episode eight with Anne saying Ginny's pregnant. It was such a smart choice that they didn't cut to Ginny after that because the story is not about that,' Henningsen says. 'It's about this woman, Anne, extending an olive branch in this moment. Life happens that way, where tragedy strikes, people leave, and then people come into the world. It just felt so correct that Anne would be the person to deliver that news because it sort of creates a vibe with the whole friend group that she's accepted it. She's not upset about it. She's She's letting her sit at the table with that knowledge.'
The Four Seasons will get to make good on the cliffhanger. Netflix renewed the show for Season 2 during its Upfront presentation this month. Asked about what she wants to see in future episodes, Henningsen says she wants to see what Ginny can learn from Anne, particularly now that she will be a mother.
'I think they both can provide something for the other. Anne is about to enter the dating pool, maybe, and Ginny is doing something that she's definitely not equipped for, and Anne has gone through it already,' Henningsen says. 'So that would be my hope, that their relationship is explored. But I have no idea what will happen.'
'I just love Kerri so much,' she adds, 'so I'm just trying to manifest scenes with her.'
The Four Seasons is streaming on Netflix.
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