Hannah Simone. Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Photographs for A-Sport Public Relations
Prince was recognized to be a fan of New Woman, however the cultural icon was mentioned to be a very large fan of Hannah Simone, who performed Cece.
The actress, now 44, talked about the episode whereas talking to costume designer Debra McGuire on the October 24 episode of Simone and Lamorne Morris‘ New Woman rewatch podcast “The Mess Round.”
“The explanation he wished to do it’s as a result of he had a crush on our little Hannah,” McGuire mentioned, referring to the late singer, who died in 2016 of an unintentional fentanyl overdose.
“Yeah. He tried for a really very long time,” Simone mentioned, referring to Prince’s curiosity in her. “He tried for a really very long time to discover a solution to be in the identical room collectively.”
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Simone, who has been married to husband Jesse Giddings since 2016, mentioned that she didn’t reciprocate these romantic emotions. “I used to be not excited about that means,” Simone mentioned. “Love a Prince tune. Comfortable to placed on a Prince file. I used to be not excited about anything. So I used to be by no means in the identical room with Prince. After which yeah, he was like a teenage boy who confirmed up at my job, which was actually humorous.”
The “Purple Rain” singer appeared on the hit Fox sitcom (which aired from 2011 to 2018) in a season 3 episode, which premiered proper after Tremendous Bowl XLVIII in 2014. The episode featured Prince serving to Nick (Jake Johnson) and Jess (Zooey Deschanel) work by means of some relationship drama — however he was actually there for his scene with Simone’s character through which they performed ping-pong.
New Woman no extra! Hannah Simone is again with a brand-new sequence — however she all the time makes time in her busy schedule to reconnect together with her former castmates. The ABC star — whose new sitcom, Not Lifeless But, premiered on Wednesday, February 8 — solely gave Us Weekly the within scoop on her day by day routine, […]
“Apparently, with folks that he actually likes to have that high quality time with, he favored to play ping-pong,” Simone mentioned. “It was like 5 within the morning, they needed to write within the tag [scene for the end credits], ’trigger how had been they going to include ping-pong into the present? And so they needed to write this tag the place Prince would get his request, which was: He wished to play ping-pong with me.”
The ultimate scene of the episode exhibits Prince enjoying desk tennis with Cece, however the crew made positive it wasn’t shot till they’d all of the footage of the icon they wanted.
“They saved it as the very last thing that we shot, trigger they had been low-key scared that if we shot that early, he can be — he’s Prince,” Simone defined. “So he could possibly be like, ‘OK, I’m gonna go now.’ And so we saved it for the top.”
The difficulty, nevertheless, was that Simone didn’t actually really feel like enjoying video games on the finish of an extended shoot.
“And the factor that I’ll by no means [forget] is: I don’t play ping-pong, I’m not a great ping-pong participant,” she mentioned. “I used to be so drained. It had been a 20-something hour day, and I simply slammed the shot. My physique simply went like, ‘We’re doing it.’ After which he was like — he genuinely did stroll off, which was actually humorous.”
Whereas a doable romance was off the desk, the episode did spark a friendship between Simone and Prince. In a Could 2020 Instagram caption, she mentioned they’d a “distinctive” connection.
“It was about 4 am and I used to be curled up in a nook behind slews of background actors who had been ready to shoot an enormous social gathering scene after which the seas parted and Prince walked although and got here and stood in entrance of me. He mentioned “How are you?” And I replied just like the candy angel I’m “I’M TIRED.” And he mentioned “Effectively then tonight, I’ll dream for you.” He then evaporated and I took this photograph.. hours later he reappeared and taught me to play ping pong and it turned the start of one of the vital distinctive pretty friendships I’ve ever had.”