Girls5eva is ready for their comeback.
The hit Peacock comedy returns for a brand-new season on May 5. Stars Sara Bareilles, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Busy Philipps and Paula Pell sat down exclusively with E! News' Daily Pop to chat about all things season two, including who some of their favorite guest stars were.
Filming in New York City, Bareilles said the show's creative team—Tina Fey, Meredith Scardino, Jeff Richmond and Robert Carlock—had an "embarrassment of riches" when it came to picking guest stars. But, one of Goldsberry's favorites from season two happens to be one of her real-life friends.
"One person I loved working with was Mario Cantone, this season," Goldsberry told E! News. "He's just a friend anyway, and he's so good. And I got to spend two days just laughing with him. So, we kind of fall in love with each other and we get to really celebrate some actors that we don't get to work with."
Playing a girl group from the late '90s and early 2000s was something Philipps found relatable, having grown up in the industry on hit shows like Dawson's Creek and Freaks and Geeks.
Recalling being a vulnerable young star, Philipps said: "When you don't know any better, you don't know any better. You answer the question about whether or not you're still a virgin because this nice man sitting across from you is asking you if you're still a virgin. And so you're just like, ‘Okay, well, I guess this is what girls get asked when they want to live their dreams, so I'm just gonna answer it.' And it's like, I have no judgment about that because I did and was asked and answered terrible f--king things back in the day."
When it comes to their characters' girl group inspirations, the women mentioned several popular bands of the time, such as the Spice Girls, Destiny's Child and Danity Kane. Perhaps the biggest inspiration they took away from those groups was how they were treated as young women in the music industry.
"I was really looking back at those manufactured pop groups that were put together," said Philipps. "But then also—the way that female pop stars specifically were treated in the late '90s and early 2000s and this sort of complete tearing down of every choice that they would make, while also holding them up to impossible standards set by misogynistic a--holes who were ultimately trying to give it this ‘slap a sticker of girl power' on it and say that it was all what the ladies wanted."
The actresses portray members of a girl group that rose to fame with a one-hit wonder. But Grammy Award-winning artist Bareilles confessed that she has a "a beef with the one-hit wonder situation."
"I know so many artists in the world who we think of them as being one-hit wonders, but they've like written records," she said, "and I've had perceptions of people where I was like, ‘Oh boy, they're really washed up,' or whatever. And then I've encountered them in real life, and I'm like, ‘Oh, you like started a foundation, and you have all these records, and you play these big shows.' And I'm like, ‘I don't know if there's maybe even such a thing. It might not be a thing.'"
Goldsberry agreed, saying, "I just think the world sees you in a certain way, and then if you're not there anymore, it's like, ‘What happened to them?' And you know it's like, ‘A lot happened. It's none of your business.'"
But if the cast had to pick their favorite one-hit wonder, Pell has a classic in mind: "Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice.
Girls5eva season two premieres on Thursday, May 5 on Peacock.
(E! and Peacock are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)