Every high school story needs a will-they-won’t-they relationship, and for the first season ofClone High, that relationship was between the clones of Abe Lincoln (voiced byWill Forte) and Joan of Arc (voiced byNicole Sullivan). At the end of the show’s first season, it seemed like this friendship might become something more, as Abe was getting ready to reveal his newfound feelings for Joan, but Joan was caught sleeping with JFK (voiced byChris Miller), before the entire student body was frozen for twenty years.
But withClone Highfinally back for a second season, we get to see the repercussions of that, as Abe is now longing for his friend—much like Joan did in the first season—while Joan is in a new relationship with JFK. But most exciting about this duo’s return is that Forte and Sullivan are also back for this highly-anticipated second season, full of more loving, learning, sharing, and judging.
Will Forte and Nicole Sullivan talked to us about this new season ofClone High, what it was like to return as these characters 20 years later, their favoriteClone Highjokes, who are their favorite characters to interact with, and more.
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COLLIDER: So how did you both react when you found out thatClone Highwas actually coming back after 20 years?
WILL FORTE: It was very exciting! You just don’t expect something like that to happen after 20 years. As much as you loved the show, you just kind of think, “Oh, that was some wonderful experience we got to have in our past,” and you think about what could have been with it, but most people aren’t so lucky that they get to have a second shot at something like that. So it was pretty exciting to get that news.
NICOLE SULLIVAN: Yeah, I agree. Part of me always thought, like, “If there’s a show I’ve been on that is going to come back, it’s gonna be this one,” because I didn’t really get it when I was recording it. Like, I got the idea, but I didn’t until I watched it as a fan, and then I was like, “Oh, this is genius.” Then I just wanted more, and I always thought, “I bet if there’s anything that comes back it’s gonna be this,” and this is before all the reboots even started. So when Bill [Lawrence] called me and told me, you know, “Mum is the word, but I think we’re bringing it back,” I was like, “Oh, yeah!”
How was it coming back to these characters after 20 years, especially considering their new positions at the school? Were you excited about that?
SULLIVAN: I think Joan came back– She’s in a different position, you know, socially, so I think that’s very difficult for her to process. But I like that, although every character is being highlighted, I do enjoy the fact that there’s a lot more emphasis on the female’s point of view on things, you know? And not to say that the other guys don’t get to do the thing, but I enjoy watching Frida, and I enjoy watching a female point of view a little bit.
That makes sense, yeah, there definitely is a much larger focus, just friends even, more than just relationships.
SULLIVAN: Right, right, right, exactly!
FORTE: Chris [Miller] and Phil [Lord] are such brilliant guys, and that whole team of people who wrote, Erica Rivinoja especially, who was running the show.
SULLIVAN: What a delightful showrunner she was, so efficient and great, and Eric too.
FORTE: They were able to capture the essence of these characters from back then and push them forward. It’s seamless, they’re seamless. Everything makes sense, it’s funny, fun. You have the same feeling, but it’s totally different at the same time. It’s really pretty amazing what they’ve accomplished.
SULLIVAN: And it’s one of those shows, I think Will agrees, that the writing is there. There are shows that have been done that there’s a lot of sort of improv you need to sort of bring to it, and you just read the lines here and it’s hilarious, like they do the work for you.
Was there anything that you wanted to bring to these characters that they didn’t have originally, or was it just whatever was on the page?
FORTE: Well, to me it was always whatever was on that page. I have known Chris and Phil forever as friends, worked with them as partners atThe Last Man on Earth.
SULLIVAN: That’s a great show, by the way, such a great show.
FORTE: It’s so easy to just completely give yourself to these guys. It’s very rare in this business that you can completely trust people, and with them, I just don’t even think about it. I’m a control freak, and for me to be able to cede control and just trust in somebody is pretty rare, and those guys just make it so easy.
SULLIVAN: I feel the same way about Bill Lawrence who’s an executive producer. I’ve worked with him, for him a million different times. I know him well, I know his wife very well, and anything Bill asks me to do, he already knows I can do it. And that’s the best feeling is that you don’t have to go and prove something. He’s like, “You know how to do this, just do it,” and that allows so much more creativity.
Since, like we said, this season is particularly a lot about relationships, who is your favorite character to see Joan and Abe interact within the show?
SULLIVAN: For Joan, I think her creative issues with Harriet are, to me, some of the funniest things. Like, just two different visions and them trying to make it work is hilarious because they’re best friends, except like, “I don’t think you heard what I said!” “No, I don’t think you heard whatIsaid!”
FORTE: I love the interactions with everybody, so it’s hard for me to choose.
SULLIVAN: That’s what’s great about Abe Lincoln, too. Like, that’s such an Abe thing to say. He’s like, “I kind of like everybody! I want to talk to all of them!” It’s such an Abe vision, I love it.
FORTE: It’s just all fun to me. The concept is just so perfect. Really, I’ve always had a real fascination with time travel type stuff, and I know this is cloning, but there’s something about cloning historical figures where there’s an element that satisfies that time travelly part of my brain. It’s kind of an endless– you could really go anywhere, bring in anybody you wanted to. The concept has always just been so fun to me, and it seems like you could just do anything with this, and they really take advantage of that and just go nuts in the best possible way.
What is your favoriteClone Highjoke? I’ve been obsessed with this show since high school, and I have so many.
FORTE: Man, my memory is so bad that I can’t even like– it’s like when record stores used to be a thing, you’d have all these records you want to get and then you get inside the record store and it’s like, I couldn’t remember. Took me five minutes to remember, “Oh, The Beatles! That’s their name!”
SULLIVAN: I remember because I’m always pitching to Erica things that should be on our swag sweatshirts, which we haven’t gotten, but I’m always looking for the sort of douchey ‘90s quote that goes on a swag sweatshirt from a show. That’s why I remember certain lines.
FORTE: But this show, it’s just a nonstop barrage of stuff. You might not even know that something’s a joke until a second airing, they’re so good at layering stuff in there. Everything has a purpose. There are very few lines that aren’t necessary. These guys are just next level, great writers, as is that entire staff, Erica, you know.
SULLIVAN: Yeah, it’s amazing what those writers do, and how new writers have fallen right into it. You’re right, Will, it’s startling.
