The Bold Type Stars on Kadena, Work Place Struggles, and What’s to Come for Season 2

At ATX Television Festival, we had the opportunity to participate in a roundtable interview with The Bold Type stars Aisha Dee (Kat), Nikohl Boosheri (Adena), and Meghann Fahy (Sutton), along with Executive Producer, Amanda Lasher.

The stars and EP previewed what’s to come this season for our favorite trio and our favorite couple.

Kadena

For starters, you can’t interview Boosheri and Dee without talking about Kadena!

If you were concerned about Adena’s hesitance to be photographed with Kat on The Bold Type Season 2 Episode 1, Dee and Boosheri have some insight for you.

Dee attributed Adena’s hesitance as Adena “coming from a more experienced place.”

“Everything is moving quite fast and there’s obviously these incredibly strong feelings and this bond and connection that they can’t deny, but this is Kat’s first relationship ever and first lesbian relationship, so I think Adena is very aware of that and sensitive of that and just that she’s a little older and more experienced, she’d be more inclined to just like, ‘Hey, one thing at a time,’ and I don’t think it’s necessarily to protect herself. I think she’s protecting Kat too,” Boosheri added.

See, there’s nothing to fear. Adena’s just looking out for her girl.

Dee described Adena as being “literally the best girlfriend ever. She deals with so much of Kat’s shit.” Dee continued, “Kat is messy as hell. It’s crazy.”

Boosheri also gave props to Kat, saying “Kat’s been so incredibly patient” when it comes to Adena’s struggles, citing how Kat handled Adena’s inability to fully immigrate.

There’s so much more Kadena goodness to come.

We caught a glimpse of domestic Kadena in the two-hour premiere, and we can expect more of it according to Dee and Boosheri.

“They nest,” Boosheri shared, but she also foreshadowed that “nothing lasts forever,” which is a little ominous.

Don’t worry. Generally, the Kadena teases were of more good times than bad ones.

Boosheri stated that the show “open[s] up the world and that’s an interesting part of a relationship too, where it’s like, really exciting but also scary where you start letting someone into the other parts of your life, and everything kinda starts overlapping.”

Boosheri was also excited to share that “Adena gets to hang out with the crew, finally.” Finally, indeed! We’ve all been waiting for this.

Kat’s going to be stepping into Adena’s world too. Dee teased that “we’re gonna get to meet Adena’s circle of friends, very cool circle of friends.”

Boosheri elaborated that we’re going to see more of the “art world scene.”

A New Boss

Behind the scenes, that is.

Amanda Lasher stepped in as Executive Producer at the start of The Bold Type Season 2. When asked what her goal was this season and if she wanted to change anything, Lasher joked, “I wanted there to be a lot more murder.”

In all seriousness, Lasher stated she “came in with the intention of continuing what was already being done so well.”

Lasher also said she “wanted to just continue the show and just seeing those friendships and seeing the girls interact with each other and the challenges that they had at work.”

As for what she wanted to change, Lasher explained that “it’s not so much change as much as I wanted to just deepen and go deeper and learn more about the characters, and where they came from and who they were, and what caused them to make some of the decisions that they made” in Season 1.

Work Life

Poor Jane. At the end of The Bold Type Season 2 Episode 2, Jane is fired from Incite, which Lasher said she “was weirdly excited about” exploring.

“That’s such a scary thing in life, is the thought of failure. And it was very appealing to me to be like ‘someone’s gonna fail spectacularly. And, guess what? You survive,'” she stated. “You pick yourself up and you go on, and you don’t fall apart. You don’t actually die on the spot as you feel that you are doing.”

Lasher also commented she is looking forward to us seeing, “Jane going through that journey of failing and building herself up again, how she goes through that.”

Dee teased that we will “get to see Kat go up against the board again and again and also kick some ass too, which we all want to see, and make mistakes.”

For Sutton, she’s already had to make the choice to focus on her career instead of her love life.

Fahy commented that Sutton realized “that what she needed more than love at that moment was to grow her career. And I think that’s so brave and self-aware and hard. So I was really proud of her.”

Lasher said that Sutton “definitely gets a lot more responsibility throughout the season, which is exciting and scary.”

“What you see is three steps forward and then maybe one step back,” Lasher commented before elaborating, “it’s not the kind of thing where all of a sudden everything clicks into place, and she’s, you know, taking over the fashion department, but I think it’s pretty realistic in terms of like ‘Okay!’ It’s like step by step, gradually building.”

Fahy said that one thing Sutton will struggle with is the fact that she “doesn’t have the connections […] and so she feels that.”

One thing is for sure, no matter what is going on in Kat, Sutton, and Jane’s work lives, those three will always be there for each other, a sentiment that Fahy fully agreed with.

“The thing that I love about the show is that these women do stand up for themselves and they do advocate for themselves, and they may have moments where they stumble and where it’s hard for them or they have doubt, but that they eventually get to where they need to go, and they support each other in that. And I also feel that that’s really true of the millennial generation in a way that is really refreshing and cool and really fun to have on TV. And important, you know. ‘Cause it’s not always easy, but it’s worth it,” Fahy said.

Boosheri pointed out that Adena doesn’t have that support system. “Adena a lone wolf, kind of in the world. She’s on her own in a way, so, maybe we’ll see less of that because she now has Kat to confide in,” she explained.

Social Issues

The Bold Type does not shy away from discussing important issues young women are facing in the workplace and in their lives.

Lasher said Season 2 “tackle[s] the issue of privilege, issue of white privilege, issue of racial identity…bi-positivity.”

The Bold Type will also continue to discuss “sexuality and what it’s like to be in a relationship for the first time.”

—

The Bold Type airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on Freeform.

Check out all of our coverage of the ATX Television Festival right here. There is a lot more to come!

Follow us on Twitter @telltaleTV_

Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!