Rainbow Wedell on Claire Zomer’s Twists & Growth in School Spirits Season 2

[00:00:09] Rainbow, thank you for joining me today on Pop Culture Unplugged. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. Exciting times. We have School Spirits Season 2. Congrats on that. Everybody's loving what they've seen so far. Thank you. I hope so. What's been your reaction with all this so far? I love it. I love it a lot. I love looking at all of the theories online. Everyone is so interested in it and I'm really happy that they are because the story is so well done.

[00:00:38] So I'm glad that people are appreciating it. And Claire, you know, she's been more like a complex character this season. You know, how did you... What was the difference between Season 1 Claire now to Season 2 Claire? Yeah. She was a lot guarded in Season 1. She's the type of person that she's been like lied to a lot in her life by her parents. They just don't... they don't give her honesty. They give her money and to be told to be perfect. She kind of realizes that her cheerleader friends are kind of yes men to her as well.

[00:01:08] And Xavier lied to her. Maddie lied to her. All these people like lied to her in her life. And so she had to put up this big wall, which is what you saw in Season 1. And then Season 2 is just her chipping at that and letting those walls down, which is very difficult for her. But she finds her people and that is Simon, Xavier and Nicole and those people because they're so real and they're so genuine. She doesn't get that a lot in her life. Then she learns to actually let them in, which is really tough.

[00:01:36] It feels like Claire went from being this mean girl to someone with much more layers now, right? Do you think the fans see her differently or are they going to see her more differently by the end of this season? I really do hope so. Nate and Megan, the writers and creators, did such an incredible job at making each character so complex with layers. It's not just like you have all the stereotypes in the show. You have the jock and the goth and the cheerleader.

[00:02:04] But they make the stereotypes so much more than just the tropes. And that is why this show is so incredible. And Claire is definitely one of the most layered kind of damaged ones. Do you think she has more secrets that we're going to find out down the road? What do you think? I think she might. Yeah. What do you think that like her mindset is now that she realizes that, you know, that Maddie is back, you know, let's do that.

[00:02:31] And does she believe it right away or do you think there's she senses something is off? She definitely doesn't believe right away. I mean, like being told that your friend is a ghost is not something that she would immediately believe. But she does. She does get convinced and she joins the gang, which I'm really excited for.

[00:02:56] Do you think like one of the questions I was told to ask you, you know, like if Claire was able to see or interact with the ghosts, who do you think she'll want to be like friends with or have like most conversations with? Oh, I love that question. I think Ronda. Okay. I think they would be like best friends. They would be they'll kind of like be snarky towards each other. And but I think that they I think that they would ultimately kind of respect each other.

[00:03:24] I also think she would be I think she would love Charlie with all her heart. And I think that she would maybe have maybe I think like it would be the most stereotypical to have be friends with Wally. But I don't think that. Well, that's Wally. It's good. If if Rainbow was a character in school spirits, would you want her to be a ghost? Would you want to be part of the live crew? Oh. Oh. I think maybe a ghost. I want Claire to die. Honestly. Do you really? Yeah.

[00:03:54] I would love to be. Why is that? So you'd be part of the ghosts? Yeah. They're so fun. One of the one of the big twists, obviously, this season is, you know, we find out that Janet has taken over Maddie's body. How does Claire react when, you know, she knows something is off. But at the same time, like how cool is that that part of the story? Yeah. I think Claire is the most removed from the entire group.

[00:04:19] And so she can make these like decisions that might hurt Janet. But it is. She realizes that it is Janet, not Maddie, where some like Xavier, it's it's it's his ex-girlfriend or currently maybe still girlfriend's body. And so he has this emotional tie with her and sort of Simon and and Nicole. So I claim does do some risks.

[00:04:47] What's your thoughts of that scene where Janet goes, you know, she's in Maddie's body that she goes back to like where she grew up. And then that grave where she just lays in there and the house is burning. Oh, my God. I love that scene. I love my favorite is the flashbacks with Jess. I and and incredible. Jess and Joshua is phenomenal. I love that house was so annoying to shoot at because we had to go there when it was like when to see the graveyard as well.

[00:05:15] And when it was all debris from the fire and it's so hot. It was really, really, really tough to shoot at that house. But it looks amazing. And that fire sequence as well happened. And it switches between both of them. I loved that scene. Yeah, it was pretty. It was like, I think is that is that the way that's the way the episode ended? I think, too. I'm trying to remember now. Yeah, it's crazy. What about with Claire Xavier? Do you think there's still like do you think she still has feelings for him? Because there's tension also.

[00:05:43] Yeah, I think. I think Claire really, really loves Xavier and she needs Xavier in her life. I think she she did fall in love with him because she was able to be open. He's not he sees a different side of her and she's she feels really comfortable with him. But I think she needs him in his in her life. Also, in like a platonic way, I don't I think that they had a conversation about setting boundaries.

[00:06:12] And I think she respects that. And she realizes that she loves him, but not in a romantic way. She also has like a pretty much like a new friendship with Nicole also feels like. Yeah, I think Nicole is like she's also they're very they're actually surprisingly similar. And I didn't think that at first. But when I started more looking into it, Nicole also like doesn't deal with like BS.

[00:06:38] She she's also she's completely honest to Claire and tells her that she doesn't like her to her face. And Claire, I think, respects that because she would do the same thing. Claire is completely like no BS as well. So I think that she is Claire's really drawn to Nicole. And trust her. What do you think of that storyline with Nicole and Xavier messaging each other in that forum there? I love it. I actually ship it so much. There's one there's one scene in was it five?

[00:07:06] There's one scene in five and it is note four note five. There's one scene in five and it is four. I'm sorry. There's one scene in four and it is there in this like it's so good. It's so good. And that after watching that, I'm like, oh, these I love these two together. But I don't know. We'll see. They don't just they just don't know that they're texting each other. And that's what's right. Which I feel like eventually they're going to find out, which we'll see how that turns out. But do you think Claire feels guilty about Maddie's disappearance?

[00:07:37] Oh, 100 percent. No, 1000 percent. She like she even said in the first episode that if thinking was she still thought it was Maddie at the time. So thinking if Maddie can back a truck into Xavier who cheated, then she would do. I think Claire is worried that she would do even worse things to to her because I feel like Claire thinks she wronged Maddie more than Xavier did. Definitely.

[00:08:07] From like such a young age as well, like their friendship ended when they were like 10, nine or 10. So that's like and then years of like ignoring her and and maybe talking shit about her. And so I think there's a lot that Claire feels guilty for. Do you think if Maddie gets her body back, that Claire and Claire and Maddie could fix their friendship down the road? I hope so. I really do hope so.

[00:08:32] Because that that I think like unresolved friendship, like breakups, friendship breaks up is the worst in general. And unresolved ones are even worse. So I think I really do hope that they will be able to. But even in like in three, she sees. Can I say this? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. In three, she sees Janet in Maddie's body thinking it's Maddie because she doesn't believe at the time. And she.

[00:09:00] You can just tell that she is super guilty already and she's like worried because this is the first time she's really spoken to Maddie being in high school. So she definitely is worried to like go up to her and then Janet Maddie runs away and then Claire thinks it's her fault again and blames herself again. How would you describe like Claire's arc this season from season one to me from episode one to now and all the way to episode eight? Of season two. Of season two.

[00:09:28] How would you like how would you describe her arc? It's it's her being vulnerable and learning to be vulnerable and that's really tough and making boundaries with her parents and her friends, her like the cheerleader friends and realizing that. She doesn't have these real genuine people in her life and then when she comes across them that Simon Maddie and Xavier, she would do would do anything for them.

[00:09:58] She needs those people in her life. And having a good family. You mentioned before you wanted to you might want to see Claire die if she dies or like say she's about to die. Who would you want to jump into Claire's body? Whoa. You know what I would love. Oh, wait, that would mean I would have to play. Like you're kind of kind of like Maddie. She's not dead. Okay.

[00:10:27] As just for the story, I would want Wally to jump into her because I think Spencer said the same thing. But as Rainbow, I don't think I could play Wally. That I think Spencer could play Wally for sure. What if Claire? What about if Claire could jump into somebody's body? Who would you want her to be? If Claire could jump into somebody's body, I think that. Oh, that's a tough one.

[00:10:55] I think if Dawn hadn't crossed over, I would have said Dawn for sure. Interesting. I love it. What's been like your favorite scene, you think? Or story? Like a little story. My favorite scene. Oh, my God. Episode five is my favorite episode. And there's two really, really, really juicy scenes in episode five. And they were my favorite to shoot. And we call it the UN.

[00:11:22] And once you watch it, you'll realize what scene that is. And it was really fun to shoot. It was really long because I can't say anything, can I? That's okay. What about, would you be friends with Claire if she was a real person? I would be friends with Claire in season two. I wouldn't be friends with Claire in season one. Okay. Is it because the way she was in season one, now season two, she's kind of opened up a little more. She's more friendly. Why do you have that many walls? Like, just let them down. Right.

[00:11:53] What would you, if we see a season three, what are you hoping Claire's story goes next? Oh. I would love her to. Oh, that's a good question. I think I would love her to be more, even like, even more open.

[00:12:15] I think I would want her to continue doing these like good extracurricular activities that she does, but not take it herself so seriously. Definitely. What's next for you? Any projects you're allowed to tell us about that you're coming up, you're working on, that you could tease? Or are you just taking a break? I'm just taking a break right now. Yeah. There you go. Has there been any talks for season three? I know Spencer said there's a couple of talks, but nothing really official. There's a couple of talks.

[00:12:40] I had a great little chat FaceTime yesterday and we had a few talks and I'm hoping so, especially like Vancouver's so beautiful to shoot in the summertime. So I hope we'll be around the same time. When you're talking to the writers and the creators also, do you go back and forth with like about Claire's storyline or like input between each other? Yeah. Yeah. So they like, you don't know anything about what happens at the end. We only get the episodes that we're shooting at that time.

[00:13:08] And so we know what our character does, but the creators take us to lunch and they kind of tell us what our character needs to know. And there's a lot of like, there's a lot of our characteristics that do go into the characters. Yeah. That's funny because Spencer said the same thing and he said to the writers, please don't kill me. Because he didn't know what would happen to his character when he was in the hospital. So he's like begging him, please don't kill me. I really like this character. That's funny.

[00:13:35] If you die on the show, this is the only show that if you die, you're still in the show. Right. Right. Yeah. You never know how those writers could do that. That's amazing. Rave, I want to thank you for giving me a few minutes today. This was great. We got to get you back on. We got to continue this chat. Hopefully we see a season three and more of Claire. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you.