“Dead to Me” dropped its third and final season last week, and viewers who binge-watched their way through the final 10 episodes experienced an emotional series finale.
That was also true for star Linda Cardellini, who opened up to The Hollywood Reporter about how difficult it was for her and co-star Christina Applegate to maintain their composure while filming the final episode.
“There’s one line where I say, ‘I had the best time.’ And I think when we did that in the table read, it gutted me because we really all have had some of the best times — some of the worst times and some of the best times — together. It really resonated for all of us,” said Cardellini.
READ MORE: ‘Dead To Me’ Creator Explains Why Ending Of Final Episode Was Left ‘Ambiguous’
“When you see us cry, those are real tears of us knowing we’re saying goodbye,” she added.
Their characters’ friendship depicted onscreen, she said, is reflected in their real-life relationship.
“We’ll be friends forever, but we won’t be seeing each other on set every day. We were sitting on the bed and crying and, there was nothing pretty about it — there’s snot and we both look wrecked — and so we looked at each other and laughed,” Cardellini recalled.
“And then we looked behind the camera and there was [series creator] Liz [Feldman] crying and all of our crew, producers — everyone was losing it,” she added. “So, it wasn’t just us. It was the whole community saying goodbye, it’s just those words came out of Jen and Judy’s mouths.”
