Hannah Simone: 'For the sake of comedy, they pit the women against each other'

It is, in essence, the ultimate embodiment of life during your late 20s and early 30s.

Encapsulating the day-to-day escapades of four equally quirky characters living under one roof, the show quickly achieved cult status, running for a grand total of 147 episodes before finally drawing to an end in 2018.

Now, as the show prepares to mark its 10th anniversary, Disney has announced that New Girl will be available to a whole new audience when it arrives on Star on the Disney+ streaming service this April.

"I mean, I would be up for it. If the rest of the cast was in, then, of course I would," says actress Hannah Simone, who plays Cece Parekh in the show, of a potential future reunion.

"It'd be so interesting to see where the characters are now and what they're doing.

"Because of the way the show ended, they flashed forward and showed who ended up together - they showed I think about 700 children.

"So because they've already shown so much, it would be very interesting to see what it actually all looked like."

However, reunions aside, what was it that ultimately transformed a run-of-the-mill sitcom like New Girl into an international hit?

The show's comedic foundations

"I remember just first stepping on set and seeing the cast, first walking in the loft," recalls Simone, 40.

"That was my first show. And it felt so special and so honest in the comedy.

"Everybody was so lovely and excited to be there. It was just one of those moments that you never forget."

It's a show that centres itself around the ditzy yet undeniably endearingly Jess Day - an off-kilter 30-something school teacher, played by 500 Days of Summer star Zooey Deschanel.

Prone to eccentric rambles and regularly voicing an unfiltered stream of consciousness that is both entirely relatable and borderline concerning, Jess moves into a loft apartment with three male strangers who put up an advert online.

Starring Simone as Jess' fiercely loyal best friend-meets-protector, the show also stars Jurassic World actor Jake Johnson, The Big Short star Max Greenfield, and Sandy Wexler's Lamorne Morris as Jess' new male flatmates.

The realities of female friendship

Despite its strong comedic sensibilities, New Girl is a show unafraid to shy away from the harsh realities of life as a female.

"I feel like Liz Meriwether did an incredible job of capturing the truth of female friendships," says Simone of the New Girl creator.

"I think I was only in a couple scenes in the pilot, but it showed so much about who Cece was.

"She just found out that her best friend in the entire world had moved in with three strange men off the internet, and she showed up and stood in front of those men and said, 'I love my best friend and if you do anything to her, I'll murder you'.

"And to me, that is like the essence of real true female friendships."

It's a bond relatable to so many women, including Simone.

"I'm so happy that I was cast as Cece because I completely identified with how she is in her relationships, and especially in her best friendship," says Simone.

"I feel often, for the sake of comedy with female friendships, they pit the women against each other - or my character would have shown up as sort of flirting with the guys.

"But that's not the truth. That's not what would happen if you found out your girlfriend moved in with three men off the internet.

"And I feel like she managed to stay true to female friendships, and showed how funny it is."

The on and off-screen dynamics

"I do think one of the things that I genuinely love is that Lamorne and I are such close friends," reflects Simone.

"We shared a trailer for the entire time that we shot the show - there was a wall in between, don't worry, but you know, we had a double trailer. So our friendship was really close.

"And then when the writers and the creators of the show genuinely saw how close Lamorne and I were, they then started to write it into the show, which is why Winston and Cece became this kind of like very odd but wonderful duo."

It's a friendship that translated seamlessly onto our screens, including the finer details such as the pair's synchronised finger clicks.

"I remember Lamorne and I on set doing this kind of like, snap, snap thing; that kind of moment when we agreed on something.

"And then it made it into the show.

"And it was just a wonderful, genuinely funny moment for me; that my weird little friendship that I have in real life with Lamorne had become such a huge part of the show and something that people really liked.

"So I love that I love that people really dig Winston and Cece and their mess arounds."

The show's lasting legacy

Comprising of seven series and making up over a hundred hours' worth of viewing time, New Girl's legacy will continue to live on - both on our screens and as memories for the actors themselves.

"It was almost a decade of my life," notes Simone of the show's run.

"It's a huge part of who I am personally now... We all kind of grew up together on that show, in a way.

"And professionally, it was a show where I felt I never had to do anything I wasn't really excited about - and that's so rare."

With the majority of the show filmed solely within the four walls of the characters' apartment, the show's set was bound to harbour memories, as Simone can attest.

"One of my favourite moments of the show is that last moment of us standing in the empty loft all squeezed onto a box that I think they intentionally made about three sizes too small," laughs Simone nostalgically.

"Maybe three people could have stood semi-comfortably on it, but there were five of us, so we were literally holding on to each other for dear life so nobody fell off this big box.

"And that was a really special moment.

"We've never seen the loft empty before, so it was genuinely emotional on so many levels.

"It's such a fond period of my life to look back on."

New Girl is available to stream on Star on Disney+ from Friday