We’re excited to share our recent conversation with TV Land’s Younger, Sutton Foster who plays Liza. Her character plays a woman who has been out of college, volunteering in India and landing her first big job in publishing. But in reality, she is a 40 year old mother who is recently divorced who due to life’s situations had a large gap in her resume from a career in publishing and finds that she has to relive her 20’s in order to be eligible for work! In season 6 the charade continues as we watch her character balance her faux life with her real one and building as well as maintaining both aspects of her life. Sutton is a multi-talented entertainer who has been successful on TV as well as on Broadway, We took some time to find out more about how she chose her career, what inspires her about it, finding out about what’s going to happen in season 7 and more.
ATHLEISURE MAG: Clearly, you’re so talented from being a dancer, a TV star and being on Broadway! What was the moment that you realized that you wanted to be an entertainer?
SUTTON FOSTER: Haha! I think I was probably 7 or 8 years old doing a dance recital that was basically a Christmas Pageant at a dance studio in Augusta, Georgia. It was The Augusta West Dance Academy and I got to play an elf. It was my job to open up the toy box to let the toy soldiers out. I realized that it was the first time that I made an audience laugh because I was being a ham or doing something ridiculous every time I would open up the toy box. I think that that was the moment when I was like, “ooo there’s gold in them there hills!” I knew that I liked this and I think that that was the beginning of the end.
AM: That’s the best! What was that feeling like when you booked that first gig that you ever got?
SF: Oh my gosh. My very first professional job, I was cast as a dancer in the first national tour of The Will Rogers Follies which was back in ’92. I was 17 years old, I was still a senior in high school and I went to a call back here in NYC and I got cast! I just remembered being stunned and it was my first professional job! It was my first big break, I got my equity card and it was just this big big deal. I remember that my first thought was, “I have to tell my mom.” I was there at the audition and they were like, “yes you got it.” It’s wild and it’s still wild for me to think about it now. I’m still sort of amazed. I grew up watching and listening to cast recordings and the Tony Awards. I did shows in community theaters and high schools for fun. I never thought that people got paid to do that and then you could make a living out of it. I still feel like that 15 year old kid that’s still dreaming and that I get to do this and paid – which is really cool.
AM: Which is amazing and means that the magic is still there for you.
SF: It’s really awesome to be able to do this for a living and I feel that way every time I have a new job!
AM: A lot of our readers love you in Younger and love tweeting about it when the show is on. With you guys being in the 6th season and getting renewed for the 7th, what is it about your character that originally drew you to wanting to be apart of the show? What are you looking forward to in terms of prepping for the upcoming season as well?
SF: When I first read the script, I knew it was Darren Star and I thought, “I want to work with Darren Star.” I have reached a place in my career where I want to work with people that are inspiring. When I read the script, I was like, “oh I could play this character.” I loved the fact that she was reinventing herself at 40 years old and that there was this idea of going backwards while being able to stay where you are. A lot of people ask me, “would you go back to your 20s?” and I say no! I would never go back, I love my maturity and I love where I have evolved to but, I like the fact that this character can relive or experience a part of her life again in a fun way.
The show has evolved so much. The show was initially about Eliza’s – my character’s lie and what she had to do to be in the workplace. The show has evolved into what women have to do in order to navigate their professional jobs and relationships within workplaces and also outside of them. I’m excited to see where season 7 will go! I have no idea and I don’t know if the writers even know. I’m always asking what will happen, but they go back into the Writer’s Room in November. I’m really curious and I don’t know if there will be an additional season or anything else that is going on. I feel like all of the characters – especially last season – they all evolved. They’re so much fun to play because they all have so much history and stuff. The relationships with the characters have grown so deep and all of us have grown so much off screen as well. I don’t know how it will all end up. I don’t know if Liza will be walking off into the sunset with a man. I have a feeling that she will walk off into the sunset with herself or her girlfriends. We’ll see!
PHOTO COURTESY | LACTAID
AM: Ahhh no spoilers here! Do have 3 things you do as morning rituals or routines that you get you through your day?
SF: Morning rituals - the first thing I do every day is to make my coffee every morning. I’m a big time coffee maker and I have partnered with LACTAID which is my go to for that coffee in the morning. I grew up in the south so whole milk was what I had growing up and then I sort of veered off from it with alternative milk like almond or coconut milk. My daughter is 2 and a half and she drinks whole milk and I started getting milk envy! That’s what’s great about LACTIAD it’s 100% real milk, it just doesn’t have lactose in it so it’s been really awesome for me and especially as a performer to be able to have milk back in the house. I’ll make coffee and sometimes in the morning, I’ll make smoothies with it. Once I have my coffee, the second thing I do is I go and wake up my daughter – now that school has started, she gets up at 7am (I wake up at 6:55am). The third ritual of the morning is that we sit together and read a book – me with my coffee and her with her milk and we ALWAYS cheers!
AM: How did this partnership happen between you and LACTAID?
SF: It just felt like an organic fit. To be honest, what I love about LACTAID is that it’s about having the benefits of real milk in the house for everybody no matter what people’s tolerance is to dairy. LACTAID also partnered with Sesame Street and obviously they are a big part of my life right now as well so it all came together – Sesame Street, LACTAID and milk! It was a perfect bullseye!
AM: I’m sure that you’re constantly traveling whether you’re going to set or flying off to a premier. What are 3 things that tend to be in your carryon that gets you through your flight or makes you feel at like you’re at home?
SF: Oh wow! I always travel with my pillow. I probably have an unhealthy relationship with my pillow – I’ve got it with me right now! When I was a kid, I used to take my pillowcases off of my pillow and carry them around like it was my blanket. I would even put them in the refrigerator to keep them cool. It’s still like a security blanket. I have the same pillowcase that I had as a kid. It’s from the 70’s it’s from Cannon and it’s called Monticello and is vintage with little pink hearts on it. I go on Etsy and Ebay like 2 times a year and look for the pillowcases and I order them! I mean the pillowcase I have now is so see through that you can barely see the roses on it. But I have a backup ready to go – so if anyone finds pink roses by Cannon from the Monticello set from the 70s – let me know! I’m addicted to it and they’re so soft. I always fly with earplugs because I’m not a great airplane traveler. But when I have them in, I don’;t hear the sounds and stuff so that helps me out. I always travel with this little thing that I actually crocheted – this little bag which is always in my bag (literally pulling it out now). It has my sleep bag, Zicam, Benadryl, PURELL, a charger, hair ties, a pen and 2 items that I have always carried with me when I traveled. They are my travel beads which someone made for me as a necklace over 20 years ago as they know I don’t like to fly and a pair of my favorite socks! I mean is this some serious details or what?
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