London, Apr 4: Sharing your best friend with someone else can be hard - as NBC's new comedy ‘Best Friends Forever' points out..It stars comediennes Lennon Parham as Lennon White and Jessica St. Clair as Jessica Black, who, St. Clair says, are living separate lives until her character goes through a major life change.
“I basically get a divorce. I move back in with Lennon who I lived with for ten years after college and I find that she has moved her boyfriend into the apartment we used to share.”
And since, as Parham points out, the boyfriend Joe (Luka Jones) is “the one” who's “going to be around for a while,” things quickly get out of control.
St. Clair says Jessica feel like Joe's an interloper.
“People come into your friendship that you did not necessarily choose and you have to learn how to share your best friend with somebody, which for me personally was a really tough challenge. I thought, ‘Well, why do I have to - like I was used to having my best friend's house be my safehouse if you will; the place I'd go and put on a pair of sweatpants and cry to ‘Steel Magnolias' and then suddenly this jerk is sitting there sipping a hot mug of tea and staring at me.”
Parham says Lennon is stuck in the middle.
“So when Jessica is there by herself it's completely manageable, when Joe is there by himself the same deal, but when they're both there it's a tricky balance, because she wants to be the ultimate best friend to Jessica but also the ultimate girlfriend to Joe. And so the way she tries to do it is by giving one something and giving the other - so for instance she has two favorite movies. She has one with Jessica, which is ‘Steel Magnolias' and she has ‘Braveheart' with Joe.”
In the end both friend and boyfriend end up frustrated.
Outside their home, (the show is filmed in LA but is supposed to take place in Brooklyn, NY), the pair meet up with their neighbor Queenetta.
“She's nine going on 45,” says St. Clair. “Nine-and-a-half - she screams at us at least once an episode,” interrupts St Clair.
Quenetta is played by real-life eight year old Daija Owens.
“She really is phenomenal. She's a phenomenal comedian,” St. Clair, who comes from the improvisational Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York, continues.
“She knows how to improvise better than most adults we know; certainly better than us.”
St. Clair and Parham met in the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre and started doing improve together.
Both having some writing experience, they decided four years ago to create this show based on their and their friends' real-life experiences.
But, as St. Clair notes, keeping track can get tricky.
“The problem is like some of our friends have said, ‘You know guys, tell us if we shouldn't be watching this with our husbands because we don't want certain details of ex-relationships coming up and then we have to have a tense conversation and we honestly can't remember who we stole what story from at this point.”
“I basically get a divorce. I move back in with Lennon who I lived with for ten years after college and I find that she has moved her boyfriend into the apartment we used to share.”
And since, as Parham points out, the boyfriend Joe (Luka Jones) is “the one” who's “going to be around for a while,” things quickly get out of control.
St. Clair says Jessica feel like Joe's an interloper.
“People come into your friendship that you did not necessarily choose and you have to learn how to share your best friend with somebody, which for me personally was a really tough challenge. I thought, ‘Well, why do I have to - like I was used to having my best friend's house be my safehouse if you will; the place I'd go and put on a pair of sweatpants and cry to ‘Steel Magnolias' and then suddenly this jerk is sitting there sipping a hot mug of tea and staring at me.”
Parham says Lennon is stuck in the middle.
“So when Jessica is there by herself it's completely manageable, when Joe is there by himself the same deal, but when they're both there it's a tricky balance, because she wants to be the ultimate best friend to Jessica but also the ultimate girlfriend to Joe. And so the way she tries to do it is by giving one something and giving the other - so for instance she has two favorite movies. She has one with Jessica, which is ‘Steel Magnolias' and she has ‘Braveheart' with Joe.”
In the end both friend and boyfriend end up frustrated.
Outside their home, (the show is filmed in LA but is supposed to take place in Brooklyn, NY), the pair meet up with their neighbor Queenetta.
“She's nine going on 45,” says St. Clair. “Nine-and-a-half - she screams at us at least once an episode,” interrupts St Clair.
Quenetta is played by real-life eight year old Daija Owens.
“She really is phenomenal. She's a phenomenal comedian,” St. Clair, who comes from the improvisational Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York, continues.
“She knows how to improvise better than most adults we know; certainly better than us.”
St. Clair and Parham met in the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre and started doing improve together.
Both having some writing experience, they decided four years ago to create this show based on their and their friends' real-life experiences.
But, as St. Clair notes, keeping track can get tricky.
“The problem is like some of our friends have said, ‘You know guys, tell us if we shouldn't be watching this with our husbands because we don't want certain details of ex-relationships coming up and then we have to have a tense conversation and we honestly can't remember who we stole what story from at this point.”
