‘You’re the Worst’s Awful Couple Tries to Survive Each Other on Season 2

You’re the Worst - Chris Geere as Jimmy, Aya Cash as Gretchen
Byron Cohen/FX
YOU'RE THE WORST -- Pictured: (l-r) Chris Geere as Jimmy, Aya Cash as Gretchen. CR: Byron Cohen/FX

It was a surprise to everyone—including themselves—when hyper-independent couple Jimmy Shive-Overly (Chris Geere) and Gretchen Cutler (Aya Cash) moved in with each other at the end of You’re the Worst‘s first season. Season 2 of the FXX comedy picks up just after the chronically self-absorbed and emotionally stunted pair have begun their cohabitation, but not without the hope that maybe, just maybe, these two human disasters can make it work. As Cash puts it: “They may both be a—holes, but they’re right for each other.”

Here’s what the two actors had to say about their characters’ romantic development going forward, plus their own worst dating experiences.

How have Jimmy and Gretchen changed, now that they’re living together? Is it the worst?

Cash: They’re living with the ramifications and trying to keep it “fresh” and “sexy” when you’re around someone 24/7.
Geere: They’re far more familiar with each other now.
Cash: They’ve been together about three months, and at the end of Season 2 it’ll have been around seven.
Geere: Where most couples would call that the honeymoon period, this is kind of the anti-honeymoon period. They reveal a few things about each other that maybe they wouldn’t have the first night they hooked up.

You got to do some scooter racing for a mall montage in Episode 2 of this season. Were you good or bad drivers? How many people did you injure?

Cash: I was an excellent driver, but my keys got taken away because I wouldn’t stop driving it off-camera.
Geere: I…was not. I drove into a display board and knocked it over, and a normal member of the public kind of shouted at me. So then I plowed into him. No, no, I’m joking about that last part. [Laughs] Also, I think over the course of those two 16-hour days the cast and crew had sampled all the delights of mall food.
Cash: We had Cinnabon. And we ate a lot of Wetzel’s Pretzels. That was my favorite.
Geere: We had…”Orange Julius”? What is that?
Cash: Chris is looking at me like, “You crazy Americans.”

YOU'RE THE WORST -- "Equally Dead Inside" -- Episode 107 (Airs Thursday, August 28, 10:30 pm e/p) -- Pictured: (L-R) Chris Geere as Jimmy Shive-Overly, Aya Cash as Gretchen Cutler -- CR: Byron Cohen/FX

Geere and Cash from “Equally Dead Inside” (Season 1, Episode 7)

What’s the worst date you’ve ever been on?

Geere:Oooh I have one! The date had actually gone well; it was on a Friday. But then after the weekend, I saw her, and she kept doing this thing with her voice, where she went, “I came ’round to your house, but you weren’t in, were you?” She had that tone at the end. And I slowly realized that was how she spoke. So I thought, “Is this a long-term thing? Noooo.”
Cash: I had a guy arrested on a date. He got pulled over and never came back to the car, and the cop had to drive me home. And then we dated for two years! The arrest was just for not paying tickets—it wasn’t murder or anything serious. He is one of the best human beings, but we just got off to the rockiest start.

But now you’re both out of the toxic waste pool that is the dating scene.

Cash: Yeah, we’re both Old Marrieds and boring. I live vicariously through friends’ Tinder, though. I find it so fascinating. I’ve never done the online dating thing. Actually, I did date someone off of Friendster, back in like 2004. [Laughs] But that was my only real experience in “online” dating. And I remember we told everyone we met on the subway, ’cause that’s a cooler story, and we reenacted it for ourselves so we’d have a story to tell.
Geere: I wonder if there are any couples out there that say, “Oh yeah, we met on Friends Reunited.” Or what was one of the early ones, before Facebook… What was it called?
Cash: Myspace?
Geere: Yeah! Myspace! “We met on Myspace.”
Cash: I think lots of people met on Myspace. In their wedding vows: “When I first saw your profile pic on Myspace, and I listened to your demo of that song you wrote…”
Geere: And then it just kind of disappeared, didn’t it?
Cash: I think it’s a music site owned by Justin Timberlake right now. That’s all I know about Myspace.
Geere: …I think I might check my Myspace page. I think I’ve still got one.
Cash: I don’t think I ever closed it.

So back when you weren’t Old Marrieds, did you ever date a Jimmy or Gretchen?

Cash: I dated a pretty terrible human being. [Laughs] But I think Jimmy’s better than that guy. Like, mine was a pathological liar who was very manipulative and not a great human; he didn’t like me very much. But that says more about me than it does about him, ultimately. ‘Cause there’s plenty of a—holes in the world, and I chose to date him.
Geere: I think you’re looking for someone you compare everyone else against. Every relationship, every date, whether good or bad, along the way, you take little elements and you just know when you find that one. Because you had that experience beforehand. So even if you have a bad date or a bad experience, it isn’t a bad thing.
Cash: Yeah, I don’t think I would’ve been interested in my husband had I not had a horrible relationship previously. Because I was just like, “I don’t want to chase someone and make them like me. I want someone who likes me.” And my husband was very into me from the beginning, and normally that would’ve turned me off ’cause the chase was over, but instead I was like, “Yeah, I like this, it’s really sort of lovely that he’s so upfront with his feelings about me.” You learn from each relationship. There’s someone for everyone, too! People are weird, and there’s a weirdo out there for everybody. You just have to find your weirdo.

You’re the Worst, Season premiere, Wednesday, September 9, 10:30/9:30c, FXX