Interview: Younger Star Sutton Foster Dishes Season 2 Spoilers

Liza Miller (Sutton Foster) may not have taken the publishing world exactly by storm, but she did pull the wool over its eyes when the 40-year-old mother of a college student pretended to be 26 in order to land a job as an assistant and get her foot back in the working world.

Now, Liza’s back for Season 2 of Younger and the stakes get higher as her best friend and partner in the makeover, Maggie (Debi Mazar), is not the only one who knows her true age.  So does her young boyfriend Josh (Nico Tortorella), who says he doesn’t care.

“We have a really great lighting and makeup department,” Foster, who is turning 41 this year,­­ told Parade.com in an exclusive interview at the Television Critics Association press tour in Pasadena, Calif. “You know how some people—even in their 20’s—play older? I’ve always read younger. Even as I was in my 30s, I was still playing 20-year-olds.”

What makes Younger so appealing—especially to people over 35— is the thought of going back and reliving part of life over. While Liza doesn’t actually go back in time and get the years back, she does get to pretend to be 26 with all that it entails.

But is she is smarter this time around with those extra years of life experience, or does she still fall prey to peer pressure?

“I am nowhere as cool or as hip as Liza is going back,” Foster says. “But so much of me is in her. I really feel like with the help of her friend Maggie, she’s able to go back in a hip, cool way, although she’s still a dork at heart.”

Younger returns to TV Land tonight, but first, read the rest of the interview with Foster, who gives a few sneak peeks about what lies ahead for Liza, especially with the men in her life, real-life flashbacks and more.

What challenges are ahead for Liza this season? 

I think her relationship with Josh is a challenge now that he knows her secret and they’re navigating that. It’s definitely a lot more complicated. Also, how long she can really keep this up? She doesn’t want to hurt anybody. She really came into all of this to get a job, because that’s something she cared about and to make money and support her daughter. Then she got caught up in all of these relationships and also having fun. She hasn’t had fun in a long time. Now, she’s, “Really… is this all worth it?” So a lot of things are coming to head.

I would actually like to see her with Charles (Peter Hermann). I think they seem to be a good match.

Well, that’s definitely a tease. You can’t deny the chemistry between Liza and Charles, and he’s definitely more age appropriate for her, but that’s something we tease with quite a bit in Season 2.

The scenes with your boss Diana (Miriam Shor) are some of the funniest. Are they some of your favorites?

I love working with everybody. I love working with Miriam. She’s amazing. We have an awesome chemistry together. We can really bat back and forth. I love working with Debi Mazar, who plays Maggie. Every character brings out something different. It’s a different part that I get to play, and it’s really, really fun. But Miriam is the best. She’s hilarious and we have a great time.

When you’re going back and playing 26, do you get any flashes from when you were younger? 

I guess I do have flashes of my youth. I think age is “just a number,” but I always feel like I have a youthful sense about me. I have no desire to go back to my 20s. I’m so grateful for everything that’s happened to me in my life thus far and the things I’ve learned—the good stuff, the bad stuff; all of it.

When I was in my 20s, I just flopped around quite a bit and was a bit of a mess, so I can recognize that in other characters and say, “I do remember that.” I remember when you take things so hard and you feel like it’s the end of the world. Being older you realize, “No, it’s just one piece of the cookie.”

Season 2 of Younger returns tonight at 10 p.m. ET/PT on TV Land.