When Netflix announced The Baby-Sitters Club it would be the premiere on the 3rd of July, could not have been more happy. Although the 10 episodes of the series has been updated from the ’90s until the present, in order to cope with modern problems, you can still expect the adventures of Kristy Thomas (Sophie Grace), Mary Anne Spier (Malia Baker), Stacey McGill (Shay Rudolph), Claudia Kishi (Momona Tamada), and Dawn Schafer (Xochitl Gomez) that we have come to know and love.
The first season revolves around the creation of the owner of the club, along with the trials and tribulations of the girls face in their relationships with each other, the children and their families. One of the best things about the books and the original 1995 film adaptation is how strong is the group dynamic is, and it seems that the most recent The Baby-Sitters Club the stars have taken this seriously. The group of five spoke with POPSUGAR before the premiere about his love of books, how the group came together outside of filming, and what I hope that people outside of the series.
POPSUGAR: Before being cast in the series, do any of you read the Babysitters Club books?
Shay Rudolph: To all my friends in the fourth grade were obsessed with them. All of them read the giant of the novels, and I always begged to borrow a copy. I have read as many as I could before they start shooting.
Sophie Grace: My older sisters and I, we have a big age difference, so it was really difficult for us to find something that relate to each other. My sister loves the books. She had every copy that my grandmother gave, so that gave us something to bond over.
Malia Baker: Yes, I am definitely going to read the books to grow. I remember my mom always refers to herself as a Sunrise. And I, of course, the curiosity of 10 years, was wondering who the hell Dawn was, so when I discovered The Baby-Sitters Club books. I found a large box [of them] in our garage, and I started to read all of them.
PS: Were the books of what initially attracted you to the project, or was it simply the identification with the characters in the script?
Sophie: I loved those books when I was younger, and I totally grew up with them. So when I got to the audition, I was on the moon. Then I read the script, and I’ve always identified so closely with Kristy, so it was really, really great to have the chance to play with it and turn it into something that children who are younger than I and more generations can watch, too. I was pumped for this.
Momona Tamada: I totally agree with Sophie. I grew up reading the books, and when I found out I was going to be an audition for this remake, I was so excited. This is going to sound very, very cheesy, but I think that none of us had this feeling and this emotion because we saw it in the script.
“This is going to sound very, very cheesy, but I think that none of us had this feeling and this emotion because we saw it in the script.” — Momona Tamada
Xochitl Gomez: Well, that’s pretty funny, because I am much like Dawn in a way. We both care about many of the same things, we both have empathy for others, and, like Dawn, I would say that I am a chill person and have a strong will. The main difference I feel is that she’s way more into politics than I am and she has a way bigger vocabulary than me. And I would probably also say that I’m a bit more absurd than what she is, but that is all.
Malia: Mary Anne and I can be very similar, sometimes. Mary Anne is a theater guy. I also have a love for the theatre. She is coy. She is very hot and the acceptance of the person, and I like to think of myself as a acceptance of the person. She is fun, without knowing who she is, and I have been told that I am funny. In the background, I am a shy person. So of course, I am able to overcome that, while I’m performing or just doing my job, but we definitely have that in common.
Shay: So for me, it was more reading the script because the truth is that I didn’t have a huge connection to the books to grow. But once I read the script, I had this brilliant feeling and felt that it was really a special project. I felt that really needed to be a part of it, and Stacey felt like a character that was written for me.
PS: Once you were all of the cast and met with the rest of the club, did you do anything to the bond?
Sophie: I sent her a text message during the summer because we all live very far away from one another. So after that we met each other, we made a group chat, and I sent her a text message without stopping and FaceTimed all the time — even while we were filming. If we weren’t filming, we were hanging out.
Momona: If I had my phone for a day, I would like to have thousands of texts from the group chat. I’m not joking. We would be working together Monday to Friday, and then we would like to hang on the weekends. It was very fun.
“We all formed a friendship, as well as our characters.” — Malia Baker
Malia: Since the casting was almost so precise, so dead, and we are all so much like our characters, we have all formed friendship, as our characters. We were of course only a very good option as friends.
PS: to See as everything is so close to your characters, do you have any real-life babysitting experiences that have contributed to The baby-Sitters Club?
Momona: Yes, indeed, I took care of a very cute child with blue eyes and blonde hair a couple of years ago. She spent a lot of time in my home and loved miso soup and onigiri, which are rice balls. She always insisted that she was my little sister, and even said to her parents and family that she was Japanese! I thought that was adorable.
Sophie: I am a great babysitter. I think I’ve taken care of children all over the world in my neighborhood. The funniest thing that ever happened to me when I was babysitting was one day I was watching the kids swim in his pool and pushed me in — fully clothed!
PS: What is it that you want people to take away from this new iteration of The Baby-Sitters Club?
Xochitl: I’d probably say the word “girls”, because people need to take note of that girls can do anything.
Shay: I hope that all the world can take away the important of friendship and family values are. It is very useful to have loving people around you who can help you with your problems and be with you every step of the way.
“Always believe in yourself.” — Sophie Grace
Momona: There are so many things! I would love the viewers to feel empowered and embrace every part of themselves. I also love to take away from what’s important in building friendships can be; we all need that support.
Malia: I think I’d like to take away from the friendship and feminism because all these girls are feminists and they will rise to the challenge with everything you have.
Sophie: The two things that I hope people take the end of the series is: First, that at the end of the day, it is your friends and family is what matters most. Second, always believe in yourself.
