When it comes to relationships, we tend to immediately think of romance, but a true and honest friendship is one of the most important relationships one can have. And one show that continues to hold platonic bonds on a pedestal is Freeform's The Bold Type. Following Jane Sloan, Kat Edison, and Sutton Brady working at fictional prominent magazine Scarlet, the series explores the unbreakable bond between the three career-driven millennials while also tackling difficult topics like gun control, sexuality, immigration, and more.
To celebrate The Bold Type's fifth and final season, we chatted with series stars Katie Stevens, Aisha Dee, and Meghann Fahy about highlights throughout the seasons, their final table read, the hardest storyline to film, and more.
THEN: What were your initial impressions of each other?
Katie Stevens: My impression was that I knew that I could feel comfortable around both of them. Like, I'm pretty sure within the first hour of knowing them, I peed in front of them [laughs].
Meghann Fahy: Yeah, that's true. I remember thinking Aisha was very cool. Yeah, you. And she was, like, so supportive when I was auditioning. It was so cute.
Aisha Dee: Yeah, I didn't want anyone to fuck with you. I was like, "Don't worry about what anyone thinks of you." I was ready to ride for Meghann.
KS: Well, I had a lot of FOMO because I didn't get to test with them. So like, they already knew each other. But I do remember meeting Meghann and then meeting Aisha, because she had flown in later to New York. The thing that stayed true about Aisha is that she showed up with headphones in her ears — which, I now know, she does all the time...anywhere and everywhere. It doesn't matter.
MF: Like even if she's going into an elevator to go down one floor.
AD: I can listen to a whole song in that amount of time. That's three minutes of my life I'm not going to get back, and I don't like silence — it makes me feel weird. So, I always have like a podcast or music playing, or something. I love music, making playlists all the time, and not socializing.
NOW: What did you learn about each other that surprised you the most?
AD: I feel like when we first met, it was almost like I already knew — not that we haven't learned things about each other — but I feel like the first time we all met, at least for me, I was like, okay here are all my cards. Here's all my bullshit. I didn't even try to give a cool version of myself. I was just like, here we go, this is me. When we met, I was going through a breakup — when am I not going through a breakup [laughs]? But I think I cried in front of you guys the first night we met and it was really nice. I felt very okay with being vulnerable around you. I feel like that was something that was true for us from the get-go.
THEN: What was your favorite behind-the-scenes moment from the pilot?
AD: We were shooting in Toronto and I was supposed to walk down stairs, but it wasn't a real subway. So they put up these little rails, and usually you would have steps going down into the subway, but because we're in Toronto, it was fake — it was actually just a sidewalk. In the scene, I had to get angry and walk off, but in reality I had to bog down, and pretend I was walking down the stairs [laughs].
KS: There was one night where we had a crazy night out. We forgot that we committed to going paddle boarding the next morning, so when we got there, we were all hungover on our paddle boards [laughs].
AD: It was not good.
MF: It was a struggle for sure. But for me, it was when we shot a couple of days of the pilot in New York. I think that was probably my favorite part of shooting it, because we all got to go. Shooting in New York is just, like, the best thing ever!
NOW: What has been your favorite behind-the-scenes moment while filming the final season?
KS: I don't want to ruin anything, but there was a final scene that we did that none of us could get through without crying. I'm pretty sure we each got like one take of it, because we were all sobbing.
*I notice Aisha Dee making a confused face as if she didn't remember that scene. She catches my eye and then we both start laughing.*
MF: What, do you want me to pull up the receipts?
KS: I have videos! After we shot the scene, it was just the three of us, and we were just crying. We had already wrapped the Scarlet set, so the producers let us go into the Scarlet office while no one else was there. And we got to just walk around and talk about all of our memories there together. We laid on the floor together and just cuddled each other. Those are pictures that I'm gonna wait to post for the last week, when I feel most nostalgic.
MF: Mine was the same. My favorite little moment was when we got to walk through all of the sets together when the lights were off. It was a sweet way of saying goodbye.
AD: I've never seen The Hills before. So one of my favorite memories is when we were all having like a sad time, because sometimes "the sads" will get you — they will creep up on you and take you down. We all decided it was a good idea to start watching The Hills from the very beginning. And I now have the complete series of The Hills on iTunes and I think that's like my favorite memory, watching that show. Katie and Meghann both knew scenes word-for-word.
KS: What was it? I want to forgive you...[I help finish Lauren Conrad's iconic line from The Hills] and I want to forget you!
THEN: From the beginning, the series has done a great job addressing issues important to women of all ages, ranging from navigating your career to the #MeToo movement. Which storyline was the hardest for you to film?
KS: I feel like the gun episode was one that I was kind of worried about, given everything that's going on in the world. I was trying not to let, like, my own feelings about it come into the story. But I will say, with every storyline that we have done or topic that we've tried to touch on, I think that there's a nice gray area because everything is not so black and white. It was a way to open up conversations and encourage people to also have those talks with one another.
AD: I think they're all kind of tricky, because I don't know how you can cover an entire topic in 45 minutes or however long our episodes are. I think the one I loved the most was probably the finale of Season 1, the "Carry the Weight" episode. That was actually really hard to film. As beautiful as I think those scenes are, it was not an easy day to just show up and to be talking about this stuff. It was, like, very difficult. But I'm really glad that we all were able to sit in those uncomfortable conversations, because I think it was some part of the zeitgeist, and everyone's kind of moving into this space where they were more comfortable talking about sexual assault, how you move forward, and how to support each other through that.
MF: Yeah, that was a really special episode.
NOW: As more and more important topics were explored, like breast cancer, racial identity, gun control, and immigration — which storyline would you say you’re most proud of?
MF: I think I'm actually really excited about something that happens in the new season for Sutton, which is that she goes to therapy for the first time. I'm a huge, huge therapy lover. So I think it's really cool that we get to kind of touch on that this season with her.
KS: I would say, for me, getting to touch on Jane finding out that she has the BRCA1 mutation. I've gotten a lot of really lovely messages from women who have the BRCA1 mutation and how happy they were to see it portrayed and talked about on television. I feel like I didn't know enough about it before I was given the storyline, and I feel like it's taught me a lot about awareness, especially as a woman — awareness of your body and making sure that you're staying on top of things, checking yourself, and not being afraid to go out there to get information, even though it might be scary. Ultimately, that information could save your life one day.
AD: I think one of the things that I continue to really love about the show is the way that Kat came out and experienced that whole thing, as well as the way that her friends were so supportive, and nothing changed for them. It was just all love. I think that's really important to see. It's not everyone's experience, but seeing that is powerful.
THEN: What was the initial audition process like for the show?
MF: I put myself on tape in New York, because that's where I was living at the time. Then ultimately I flew to LA and tested with Aisha and a bunch of other girls. Katie was not there that day because she already had the part at that point.
KS: I auditioned and there were a bunch of girls there. Then I got called to test, and when I went to the test, there was no one else there. I didn't know until later that I was the only person at that point that they were choosing to test. But then I had to go because my cousin was getting married, so I had to leave town, and that's when Aisha and Meghann got to do their test together. I was super bummed I couldn't test with them. I found out through a friend, who was friends with Meghann, that Meghann got it. So then I started texting with Meghann, asking her for Aisha's number. Then I group-messaged all of them just like, "You guys already know each other but you don't know me. Hi."
AD: Wait, didn't you message me on Twitter or Instagram or something?
KS: Yeah, I stalked the crap out of you! I was like, "You're gonna be my friend. Bye!"
NOW: What was it like going through the final table read?
MF: Well, it was super different this time around because everything is over Zoom. So it was weird. We were in our apartments in Montreal, signing on to something that looked a lot like this, but we're used to doing it during the middle of the day with everybody who's there. And we even have lunch while we do it. The energy is so much different. It was also really weird to be doing that in the context of it being our last season too.
KS: There was a lot of crying at the last one though. We've had the same people who read our stage directions and help us out at the table read. They're amazing actors in their own right and they've been with us since the beginning. They started crying while reading during the final table read, which then sprung everybody else into tears. So, it was really emotional. Especially that one.
THEN: How has playing your character changed you personally?
AD: I think I feel a bit braver. I feel like playing Kat, someone who's so unapologetic and really knows who she is, kind of motivated me to look inward. I started asking myself, "Why do I always feel the need to apologize for my existence?" She's empowered me to be a bit more brave in my life.
MF: I love that Aish! You're very brave!
AD: Thanks, bro.
MF: I think that Sutton helped me to be a little bit more assertive. We're really similar in the way that we have trouble speaking up for ourselves, Sutton and I. She got a lot better at that over the course of a few seasons, and I think so did I.
KS: Yeah, and I would say I'm similar to Jane in many ways. Jane and I are both Type A people, but I think that Jane's an even more heightened version of that. Along the way, as Jane's been learning what she wants out of her life and who she wants to be, I feel like I similarly have gone on that journey with her. I've learned so much about myself in terms of both of them not needing to apologize for being a certain way or wanting to be a certain way. At the start of the show, I was very scared of all of my intimate scenes that I had to do. In the past, I feel like if somebody was to ask me how to describe myself in three words, "sexy" would be nowhere near the list of things that I would think to say. I feel like Jane kind of found her comfort level with finding that part of herself. I went on that journey with her and I now feel empowered to be like, "Oh, I'm a sexy woman! I'm a sexual being." The way that somebody else might view theirs and however they lead with their sexuality, sexy looks different on everybody.
MF: Yasss!
NOW: With the series ending, where do you see your character in the future?
KS: I think I still see them being together. However that looks like, I think that the beauty and the heart of the show has always been their friendship. I hope that wherever they end up, and however they grow, they continue to grow together and continue to support one another. I hope to continue that in real life with Meghann and Aisha. But I definitely will miss these characters and just hope wherever they end up, they're happy.
MF: I think Sutton is going to become exhausted from the fashion world and open a really cute breakfast and coffee place, where they sell little muffins...in Pennsylvania. I'm going to get a horse too. Wait, hold on. Is this my dream [laughs]?
AD: The girls are approaching 30 and, you know, the hangovers just hit different now. That's it [laughs].
Be sure to watch the fifth and final season of The Bold Type every Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET on Freeform, or stream it on Hulu the following day.