'New Girl' was the wildly successful US sitcom that followed Zooey Deschanel's Jess, an out-there teacher who loves a bit of song and dance.
Throughout its seven-season run, 'New Girl' proved to be popular with viewers and critics (with a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 95%), mostly down to the off-the-wall happenings of the five main characters, of which Hannah Simone was part of.
Ahead of the series launching on Disney+ this weekend, we caught up with the actor who plays Cece in the series, getting her to take a look back at the sitcom that still remains one of the best from the past decade.
What did you initially think of Cece before you were cast as her?
I resonated so much with Cece, just because Liz Meriwether ('New Girl' series creator and writer) did such an incredible job of capturing the truth of female friendships. I was only in a couple of the scenes in the pilot, but it showed so much of who Cece was - she had just found out that her best friend in the entire world had moved in with three strange men off the internet... And she stood up to those three guys and said 'I love my best friend, and if you do anything to her, I'll murder you' [laughs]. And for me that is the essence of real, true female friendships.
I find often, writers pit the women against each-other or my character would have shown up to flirt with the guys. But that's not the truth, that's not what would have happened here. She was able to stay true to female friendships, and show how funny it is. So I'm so happy that I got cast as Cece as I completely identified with who she is.
Working on a comedy series, you must have a favourite funny moment?
There's no way in 146 episodes with those incredible actors and the guest stars that we had - to pick the funniest moment? It would be absolutely impossible. But one of the things that I genuinely love is that Lamorne (Morris, who plays Winston) and I are such close friends, we even shared a double trailer for the entire time that we shot the show. I think the writers on the show saw how close Lamorne and I were, they then started to write it into the show. And this is why Winston and Cece became this very odd but wonderful duo. It's so funny that my weird relationship with him became such a huge part of the show - and something that people really liked!
Did you have a favourite moment, either on or off the screen, that you look back now and think, 'that was pretty cool'?
To be honest with you, I have two. First time stepping on set and seeing the cast, first time walking into the loft... It was my first TV show and it felt so special and so honest. Everyone was just so excited to be there. it was one of those moments that you never forget.
And one of my favourite moments of the show is that last moment of us standing in the empty loft, all squeezed on a box that I think they intentionally made about three sizes too small! We were literally holding onto each-other for dear life so we didn't fall off of this box. We had never seen the loft so empty, and it was genuinely emotional on so many levels.
Do you think you or your other co-stars would ever return for a revival of the series?
I would be up for it! If the rest of the cast was in, then of course I would. it would be so interesting to see where the characters are now, and what they're doing. It's kind of interesting as the way the show ended, it flashed-forward and they showed who ended up together, and about 700 children [laughs]!
Because they've already shown so much, it would be very interesting to see what it actually all looked like. but yeah, if the rest of the cast was in, I would say yes!
All seven seasons of 'New Girl', starring Hannah Simone, are now available to watch via Star on Disney+.
