‘The Good Place’: D’Arcy Carden Couldn’t Get Through 1 Line at the Series Finale Table Read
When The Good Place wrapped after Season 4, many fans were devastated. Though the general consensus was that the series ended at exactly the right time, that didn’t stop fans from mourning the outstanding comedy show. But, viewers weren’t the only ones who had trouble saying goodbye. The Good Place cast all struggled with their final farewells.
With an ensemble cast, it’s sometimes a challenge to get everyone to mesh well. But all six members of The Good Place main cast got along famously. The actors have all stated that they genuinely enjoyed working together and that camaraderie was part of the reason the show was so great. Though the actors knew that Season 4 would be their last, it didn’t make saying goodbye any easier for them.
Kristen Bell reflects on the table read for ‘The Good Place’ Season 4 finale
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Kristen Bell (who played Eleanor Shellstrop) reminisced on how difficult it was for the cast to get through the final table reading. A table reading is when the cast, writers, producers, directors, etc. sit down around a table and read the script, in character, for the first time. According to Bell, the table read for the series finale of The Good Place was particularly difficult.
“It was so sad!” Bell exclaimed. “The level of sadness was in part because I knew we were doing it right. The table read was what was just a snot-fest. Everybody was bawling. It’s this mixture of saying goodbye to the characters, whom we’re attached to, but also saying goodbye to these friendships that we’ve been lucky enough to have on a daily basis. So there were these two levels to reading the finale that made us all extra-teary,” The Good Place star shared.
D’Arcy Carden struggled to say goodbye to the other cast members
Things got so emotional, in fact, that it affected the actors’ abilities to read their lines. One person, in particular, who was affected by the dialogue of The Good Place series finale was D’Arcy Carden. Carden, of course, played the role of everyone’s favorite “not a robot”, Janet, and she was moved by one line in particular.
“D’Arcy had the hardest time when she walked people to the door,” Bell shared about her fellow The Good Place cast member. “And with one specific line that I don’t think she got through at all in the table read, which was, ‘You can sit on that bench for as long as you like, and whenever you’re ready, you can just walk through the door.’ It was amid sobs for each and every person,” Bell confessed.
Bell reveals on the saddest moment for her character
But Carden wasn’t the only one who struggled. Bell also found it challenging to get through one particular moment in the Season 4 finale. “I had the hardest time with begging Chidi to stay,” Bell revealed. “It’s interesting: When Eleanor lets Chidi go is not the saddest part. That’s actually one of her strongest moments. But when she begs him to stay on the bridge, she’s so scared and so desperate and so selfish, that was the hardest thing for me to read. I had the hardest time shooting that as well. Those tears, there was [sic] a lot of them,” The Good Place star confessed.
‘The Good Place’ offered the perfect series finale
Clearly, The Good Place ending after Season 4 was hard on everyone. But, we truly couldn’t have imagined a better ending for the series. We’re so interested to see what the show’s creator, Michael Schur, does next.
