Chelsea Clark on Ginny & Georgia Season 3: “It’s Climactic”

Chelsea Clark is debating whether she wants to share her secrets with me. It’s a late-spring Friday afternoon, and she’s calling while walking her dog in downtown Toronto. The Ginny & Georgia star (and University of Toronto student) is back in her hometown for the summer—her “favourite place” to live. When I ask her to divulge her best haunts, she hesitates.

“How many secret spots do I share with you today is the question,” she teases, before launching into a seasoned itinerary. The Ossington strip is “10/10”, and Clark was there last night singing karaoke. (Her go-to song is “Since You Been Gone” by Kelly Clarkson.) The French bistro Maison T on Shaw Street is “so sweet.” For a daytime jaunt, she loves going to Agora by Trinity Bellwoods. “My little routine is: Walk through Kensington, go get a cupcake at Bunner’s Bakeshop, continue down to Queen Street, get lunch at Agora, and enjoy it in the park.”

Within minutes, a phone call with Clark, whom I have never met before today, feels more akin to two old friends catching up than a celebrity Q&A. She strikes an endearing similarity to her on-screen counterpart in Ginny & Georgia, the level-headed best friend character Norah. In a show full of high school drama, Norah is known as the peace-keeper of Ginny’s friend group “MANG”, with TikTok fan edits often hailing her as an “underrated” favourite.

Naturally, playing a teenage student at 27 years old comes with challenges. (“Sometimes I’m like, ‘Am I just like, reliving who I was like in high school?’”) But over the course of filming three seasons, Chelsea Clark has been able to give grace to the younger version of herself. Now, she’s settled back in Toronto for the summer, just in time for the season 3 release of Ginny & Georgia on June 5. And luckily for us, she still has a few secrets left to share. Below, she reveals what the Netflix show has in store next.

Season 3 is a return to form for Ginny & Georgia

“It feels like we’re getting back to the core of the series: the romance, the sexual tension and the high school drama. That’s what fans fell in love with in season 1. Season 2 was a good elaboration on everything happening, but it was different. With season 3, I think the main reasons we were there are coming back; it’s going to be a good time.”

The characters face a “breaking point”

“This season, the characters are a little bit more sure of themselves—but at the same time, completely unsure of themselves. It’s kind of like a breaking point; a climactic moment for a lot of them.

Watching the show, there are so many nuances specific to being a woman in modern times. That’s what draws people in: they think that it’s going to be this fun mother-daughter drama. But then you watch it and see women as the multi-faceted people that they are. It’s nice to give these stories such complexity.”

There’s one Ginny & Georgia season 3 scene that feels particularly special

“There’s this teaser photo of MANG where we’re all in little dresses, taking selfies. I am so excited for that episode. It’s such a classic high school moment, leading up to a party scene. Without giving anything away, there’s a little prank that we do later on, and it’s a really sweet female friendship feeling. I think that scene brings everybody out of their shell in a way that none of them were expecting. It happens later in the season and it’s one of my favourites.”

How Norah evolves this season

“I love how committed Norah is to her friends. That level of dedication is something that I have always looked for in my friend groups. The main similarity between Norah and I is the people-pleasing tendency. It’s something I’m trying to unlearn, and I think Nora is also trying to unlearn it. We’re doing that together. Norah feels her friend’s emotions as her own, and I’ve often been guilty of that: trying to make sure that everyone else is having a good time. It’s only in the past year or two that I’ve come to realize I do that. So, it’s been weird playing a teenage character, because sometimes I’m like, ‘Am I just like, reliving who I was like in high school?’ But it’s kind of a second chance to look at the way that I do things, and work on it through Norah.”