This interview contains spoilers for Sweet Magnolias season 4
Heather Headley is just as excited about Sweet Magnolias season 4 as you are. The new season, which is on Netflix today, February 6, bring all kinds of storms to Serenity — both literal and emotional. But if there's one thing you can count on, it's that Maddie (JoAnna Garcia Swisher), Dana Sue (Brooke Elliott), and Helen (Heather Headley) are weathering the storms together.
"You know, when this all started, I just never thought we'd get to season 4. I didn't think season 2!" Heather tells Brit + Co in an exclusive interview over Zoom. "I was like, 'Oh, it's gonna be a great little show, we'll put it on Netflix. And so the fact that the audiences and women and men have embraced it and held on to it so tightly and want to know these stories has just warmed my heart and humbled me."
As a fangirl herself (more on that later), Heather understands how special it is for Sweet Magnolias fans to tune into a 10-episode arc. "I'm grateful to everyone who watches it, because now I know what it's like to sit down and watch 10 episodes of whatever else I'm binging. So I'm grateful that people give us that time. So thank you for that."
Keep reading to see what Heather Headley has to say about the most shocking Sweet Magnolias season 4 moments, as well as balancing motherhood and career, and her favorite TV shows.
Brit + Co's exclusive interview with 'Sweet Magnolias' season 4 star Heather Headley.
Netflix
Brit + Co: Congratulations on this new season! I think this is gonna be an ultimate comfort show for people, and I have to know what your go-to comfort show is to kick us off.
Heather Headley: Oh goodness, that's a great question. My husband and I sit in our bed after the kids have gone to sleep and so many times, I have one eye open because I'm so tired.
We have gone through a few shows in the past few weeks. Landman, we've gone through all of them, and I find myself in love with Billy Bob [Thornton]. I told my husband, I said, "It's what you're going to have to deal with. I love Billy Bob, and whoever Billy Bob thinks is not right and he needs to get rid of, I'm with him. Because you deserved it, it's fine, he can do whatever he wants." I loved it on many levels, it was just a good story. I watched Virgin River as well. I had watched it in the beginning because we're kind of sister shows, but then I got into the whole storyline and being hooked with that. I think we've been on Lioness now.
B+C: One of my favorite things that I think makes Sweet Magnolias a comfort show is the deep-rooted, female friendships. How do your relationships with JoAnna and Brooke inform the more intimate friendship moments onscreen?
HH: I think one of our first scenes was a margarita night. And so I had made this plan that I was not going to come into the relationship, going, "Oh my gosh, I love you guys. Oh my gosh, we're gonna be best friends"...My aim was, I want to be able to just do the work. And because we had to be so close, because this was such an intimate female friendship, I thought, "I just want to walk in and and do it from that angle and then fall in love with these women, if that is what I'm supposed to do." And within weeks, we did fall in love with each other. So we have a great friendship now.
It's one of those friendships that we don't need to speak to each other every day, every month, but we check in...When we get on set, a lot of times we sit and we talk about life and our marriages, or we talk about what's going on with the kids. We've cried together, we've laughed together as Heather, Brooke, and JoAnna. There are days that we sit and I might be reading a book and the two of them are talking about something, or Brooke is off doing something and Joanna and I are kiki-ing, or Joanna is doing something and Brooke and I are together.
We've all made the decision that what is on screen must never be touched. And so if there was ever a time that one of us felt you know, not so great with each other, I think we would address it. We try to fix that because we don't ever want anything off the screen to bleed to what that relationship is on the screen for the audience and for us and for all the other women that are watching it.
Netflix
B+C: With such an intimate internal understanding of your own character, what do you see Helen's life looking like beyond season four when you daydream about the future?
HH: I come in for the conflict, always. I'm all Landman, I'm all for conflict. They're always like, "We want her to be happy" — I wasn't happy for the first 3 episodes! I was one of the people that when the storyline was, Oh, she might get pregnant, I was like, "No, I think she has everything. I think we're here to show what women go through and what women don't go through."
There are women that go through infertility and miscarriage, and they go through being single and divorce and all this kind of stuff. And so I remember saying to them, "There are women who watch our show who unfortunately had miscarriages, and it's closer to all of us than we think. It's closer in the room than we think, right? Some of us have had it." And so I remember saying to them, "I think Helen should not have something that she wants. She should not get something that she wants."
And so I love the conflict, even though I want her to have a happy ending, I do think, like any other person on this earth, that she should have a few hindrances, a few hiccups along the way. My hope for her is that in the end, she'll find love and that she will be happy.
B+C: There were so many moments in Sweet Magnolias season 4 that made my jaw drop. What surprised you when you first read the script?
HH: I think I jaw dropped on the hurricane. I remember reading it going, "Okay, what?" Because I expected them maybe to get together, but I just didn't expect that. The wedding surprised me because we don't know about it in advance. There were a few. Mainly it was the Bill moment. I knew it was coming, but when it's finally there, it was kind of like, "Yeah, this is happening." I guess with Helen, we did have a few moments where I remember reading it going, "No!" We get the scripts two weeks in advance. So I don't know anything either, you know. So sometimes when we're reading it on the table or I read it a day before and I'm like, "You've got to be kidding me."
Netflix
B+C: You've done some incredible projects over the last few years. What's the biggest lesson you've learned about balancing career and motherhood?
HH: Every day I think I figure out what that looks like, because every day it shifts. It's always evolving as they grow up, as they need different things.
I've noticed that there are some times you have to say no to some things. My family has been so great about almost like [considering] my career as part of the family. My children have come along to things and moved to Atlanta and gone without going to birthday parties or friends things. My husband's traveled all over the world running after me to make sure that our relationship was together. So there's been a lot of sacrifice, and when I'm not working, my aim is to be present with them.
A woman gave me advice one time and she said, It's almost like you have four burners on the fire, you know what I mean? You've got to figure out if you've got a lot of pots that need to be cooked, right? You've got to figure out which one's the priority. My family's in a pot, the career's maybe in a smaller pot, and there are some days that you have to put the career pot on the side [but] the family stays on the stove as much as I can. It's been a good balance, but I will say that I owe a lot of that to the most amazing husband in the world. He's just so great and believes in me sometimes more than I think I believe in myself. And to a group of children who I really don't deserve, who kind of just come along for the ride, and they're sweet about it. They've helped me balance more so than I have.
B+C: I saw on Instagram you mentioned you're excited about your year of Jubilee, which I loved! What are you most excited about this year?
HH: I'm excited about a lot of things. It's a big year for me, I celebrated a big [50th] birthday and I was like, "I can't believe this is happening." And I'm Christian, and somehow my mother brought it up and I went and searched it up and it really is a year of Jubilee, so I decided to celebrate it.
I call it my relax, release, restore, restoration. The year for me has been that: things to release, whether they be grudges or things I've held on to. Like sometimes we hold people or hold things or hold dreams, and just to be able to release it and go, "That is okay." And relax to reset, and to just kind of rejuvenate my whole spirit.
I look forward to this year of just releasing and just embracing all that is there. And in order to embrace it all, I think you need to release a few things.
Watch Heather Headley in Sweet Magnolias season 4, streaming on Netflix now!
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
