EXCLUSIVE: Sasha Compère Talks Brit’s Decisions in the Season Finale of Single Drunk Female
Last night, March 17, Freeform aired the season finale of its newest series, Single Drunk Female. The episode was filled with a lot of twist and turns, and an ending no one saw coming.
We got the chance to speak with one of the stars of the series, Sasha Compère, about last night’s episode. Our interview with Compère is filled with a lot of spoilers, so read at your own risk.
A lot happened with Brit in the finale. I thought she was not going to get married, and then she gets married?!
“She’s been having a kind of bubbling experience. She’s been shaken, like a pop bottle, and she’s finally coming to burst after trying to keep the lid on for so long. It was fun for me to play. It was definitely interesting for me to find out as we got episodes week to week. When I found out that she did go through with it, I gasped! I was like, oh my god, she did!”
I was about to ask you that. Were you shocked when you read that? Because that’s not where I thought it was going.
“I was shocked, but then you got to come from the characters POV and think about it. Think about all the pressure that she’s had in her life, maybe from her parents. I think definitely from her parents. I’m a first generation American, my parents are from Haiti, exact same with Brit. And being told that you need to be perfect, you kind of have to get the job, get the white man, and being the perfect sort of pillar for her friends, and getting the straight A’s, et cetera, et cetera. And paying for that wedding! I’m sure that she was like, all right, we got to do this, and maybe Joel is the love of my life, who knows. Because at this point, when have we ever seen Brit really be free for herself? I don’t think she knows who she is yet. So, I think she sort of took the leap thinking, okay, maybe this is a way to find out, and then immediately realizes, oh goodness what have I done? Not only to myself, but to my best friends.”
What’s also so interesting is her relationship with Sam in the episode. You basically find them in opposites positions from where we found them at the beginning of the season. Can you talk about that flip?
“Sam and Brit have known each other for their whole lives. I think maybe since they were five, and I think that Brit has always been the one who’s been there for Sam. Dealing with her relationship with her mother, and dealing with the grief of losing her father, and dealing with alcoholism and probably a ton of mistakes that she’s made over the years. And now, she took that beat to step away, and sort of sever the friendship. Now, we see them switching back towards each other because they’ve been that comfort for each other for so long. I mean, 20 some odd years they’ve been in each other’s lives. And in the finale, I think even though Brit… you know she took the mushrooms with Felicia to try to loosen up, and she goes through this wedding and she’s like, the one thing I need is my best friend.
If you really think about it, she’s reaching out to Sam even before the wedding, asking what should I do? And when Sam’s not quite there, not quite giving her what she needs, she goes through with it, right. That’s her one last rebellion. But afterwards, I think what Brit really needs to do is sit and talk with her friends, and listen even without words. So beautiful even sitting together at the end, and, okay, we’ve both messed up. We’ve done a lot and we’re going through it, and we just need to sit down and rebuild and restart.”
Where do you think we will find them in the second season, if we get one?
“I think that if we get a season two, we’ll see hopefully a lot of Brit and Sam just restarting their friendship and learning who each other is after we’ve been through some of the most magnanimous and huge pivotal moments in our lives.”
A scene that keeps coming up for me from the finale was the one at the wedding venue between Brit and Sam. When Sam goes and finds Brit, you can start to see the love these two characters have for one another? But then, Brit doesn’t get the answer she wants from Sam so, her response is to lash out at her. What was it like filming that scene with Sofia [Black-D’Elia]?
“It was honestly lovely working with Sophia, and Simone [Finch] was there as well. We all just sat and talked and thought about where we would be as our characters if we were sharing the biggest secrets, which is Brit having gotten together with Joel at Sam’s father’s Shiva, which is wow. Wow!”
Icing on the cake!
“Right! Yeah, icing on the cake and that’s been bubbling in Brit this whole time, and I think that Brit, she just wasn’t ready to forgive herself. The fact that Sophia, through Sam, was like, it’s fine, it’s okay. Not okay, but she was there for her. It’s seeing a piece of Brit that she wishes that she had in her self, right. That ability to still be there for Sam through all of her hiccups and missing our dinner when we had a date set in New York and all the stuff I couldn’t do. I couldn’t be there for her because I was so wrapped up in myself, and also thinking that Sam was so wrapped up herself. I couldn’t see that at the base of it, it’s our friendship that really gets us through. It was just such a lovely scene to work through, and to noodle with. We only did it a few times before we really hit it. I think we got it off the bat, and I was really proud of it. It was really lovely to see these two women just truly expose themselves, in less words, through the scene.”
For Sam, we saw her rock bottom at the beginning of the season. Do you think this episode we saw Brit’s rock bottom?
“For me, selfishly Sasha, I love playing flawed women. I wonder if this is the beginning because when is anyone ever truly as perfect as Brit has presented herself to be, right? There’s always something bubbling underneath, and I think for both these women, our problems will never end. It’s just how we attack them will be different. So, I’d love to see Brit attack her problems differently. Maybe not as sheltered and covered and sort of perfect as she’s tried to be in the past, and not as reckless I would say as she’s been now. This sort of calculated recklessness she’s put herself through, but I would just like to see her tackle them as a more mature woman, and as a woman who has sort of… Yes, maybe hit her rock bottom as a friend, but hasn’t quite gone through the cleanup and the changes and shifts she needs in her life for her to feel like, okay, this life is now mine and I can move forward happy with the mistakes I’m making.”
Well, if we do get a season two what are you hoping will happen?
“Well, I definitely want more with Brit and Felicia because we just are so polar opposite with our characters. In real life, Lily [Mae Harrington] and I are great friends and we have the same birthday actually. So we connected a lot on our Libra connection. September 23rd is the best day, the year.
But, I really want to see how Carol and Sam’s relationship evolve, and how Carol does moving forward now that they’ve, I don’t want to say put Sam’s father to rest, but they have talked about it, right? And how does that affect their lives moving forward. I’d love to see more flashbacks of Sam with her dad, and see where our friendship evolves as well. The three of us, hopefully the three of us. You know, myself, Lily and Sophia. We talked a little bit about, oh wouldn’t it be interesting if Rebecca passes the torch to Olivia, to Sam, and we see Sam kind of guide someone through recovery.”
Anything else?
“Yeah. I’d love to see more of Olivia and her story with her wife, and just how they deal with bringing on new sponsee’s, and also juggling their relationship. And do they have a kid now? I don’t know!”
Well, I’m hoping all of those scenes come true. Especially the Brit Felicia relationship, because that was one of my favorite moments from the entire season.
“Mine too!”
*This interview has been edited for length and clarity