Hilary Duff Advises Millennials: 'Know Your Worth, Work Hard and Don’t Take No for an Answer'
From Scandal to Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, numerous television shows have started to address the #MeToo movement and inappropriate workplace conduct. Though the New York Times‘ Harvey Weinstein story that launched the movement hadn’t yet dropped when Younger season 4 ended in September, the show quickly found a way to address the current cultural climate.
“I don’t think we were always going to go in that direction, but I think that our show does such a good job of grabbing current events and peppering it through the show in a lighthearted way,” Hilary Duff told PEOPLE during Younger‘s New York City press day in April. “Obviously #MeToo and Time’s Up is not light hearted, and it’s handled in such a classy way on the show.”
The comedy goes in on its George R. R. Martin-esque character, an author of a popular fantasy book series who has previously made lewd comments to Liza (Sutton Foster) and had her dress up in a skimpy outfit at work.
“We have the perfect setup on the show with Edward L.L. Moore and how inappropriate he’s been with Liza in past seasons,” said Duff, 30. “It was right there for us and we took it. Things didn’t go too far, but he really gets served.”
The new season, which premieres Tuesday night, will also further explore LGBTQ themes through Molly Bernard‘s pansexual character, Lauren.
“You know Lauren, how unspoken she is and how free she is about her sexual orientation. She’s always educating us, which is great because our characters are not as immersed in that world,” said the mom of son Luca, 6. “She has this scene where she’s talking about her assistant as ‘they’ and it’s all very confusing to us, so she educates us on why she’s referring to him as a ‘they.’ ”
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As leading lady Kelsey — who runs Empirical Publishing’s successful Millennial imprint — continues to expand her world view, the actress playing her hopes to inspire others in her age group to achieve big by embracing fear.
“Her and Liza are both people who are taking risks in their life, and I feel like too many people are afraid to fail or fall on their face and deal with picking up the pieces or being embarrassed, and you lose a lot of opportunity by being too afraid to fail,” said Duff, who called out her neighbor on Instagram last month for smoking inside their New York City apartment building. “No matter what their career path is, know your worth, work hard and don’t take no for an answer. And have fun! That’s what your 20s is about.”
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Younger season 5 premieres Tuesday on TV Land at 10 p.m. ET.
