'GLOW' Season 1 Plot, Review, News: Alison Brie Shares How She Got Ready to Rumble in Wrestling Comedy [VIDEO]
There is already much buzz and rave about "GLOW" season 1 on Netflix. The new wrestling comedy series, which will drop on the streaming site on Friday, June 23, stars former "Community" actress Alison Brie (Ruth) in what would be her most empowering role.
Brie related via New York Post that her training for "GLOW" was a pretty serious regimen. She and the rest of the cast were under a rigid course with pro wrestler Chavo Guerrero Jr. and the show's stunt coordinator, Shauna Duggins.
"We turned into badasses," Brie proudly shared and also said her body had bruises and soreness but it helped make playing the part of a female wrestler so real. "People who call wrestling fake couldn't be more wrong," the actress learned after her training. "The amount of physical strength and agility you have to have — it's like doing acrobatics."
"GLOW" is based off the '80s docu-series featuring the Glamorous Ladies of Wrestling, at time when wrestling on television was slowly finding its niche and gaining a wide following. Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch, who both worked on "Nurse Jackie," created the show for Netflix with "Orange Is the New Black's" Jenji Kohan serving as an executive producer.
But more than wrestling, at the core of "GLOW" is the friendship formed between the women. "We knew from early on that we wanted a strong, complicated female friendship," Flahive told IGN. Matched against Brie's Ruth is Betty Gilpin's Debbie, who is her opponent on the wrestling stage and her frenemy in the profession.
To get into character Brie, Gilpin and the writers watched countless of episodes of the original series on female wrestlers. They also sourced out other '80s materials like the Miss America pageant and the '80s culture. Check out a featurette to "GLOW" below and get ready to view all 10 episodes when it's released on Netflix.