TIME TO FLOWER
Garcia Swisher seeks new life in ‘Magnolias’
Before she became the star of Netflix’s “Sweet Magnolias,” JoAnna Garcia Swisher had planned to stop and smell the roses for a while.
The actress — known for her roles on “Reba,” “The Astronaut Wives Club” and “Kevin (Probably) Saves the World” — decided last July after a particularly hectic stretch of work that she was going to take some time off.
“Everybody was kind of like, yeah, fair enough, take the summer,” Garcia Swisher told the Daily News recently. “And three days later, I got the script sent to me for the show.”
The “Sweet Magnolias” series, which is based on the popular novels by Sherryl Woods, centers on three woman in the sleepy, fictional South Carolina town of Serenity, where news travels fast and the local drama is treated like everybody’s business.
Garcia Swisher’s character, Maddie Townsend, is going through a bitter divorce with the father of her three children, who cheated on her and left her for a younger woman.
Amid the sudden chaos, Maddie’s best friends Dana Sue, played by Brooke Elliott, and Helen, played Heather Headley, help her forge the next chapter in her life.
“I was like, I have to do this show,” Garcia Swisher said. “There was so much heart, and it was about female friendships and survival. Thematically speaking, it was just a story I really want to tell.”
“Sweet Magnolias,” which premieres Tuesday on Netflix, follows Maddie’s journey as she grapples with new challenges in her life, such as raising her kids alone, seeking a career change and being single for the first time in years. Her friends, too, struggle with issues in their own lives along the way.
The series appealed to Garcia Swisher, 40, because it celebrates the sisterhood of the three leading women and presents experiences in their lives that many viewers will find relatable.
“It’s not a coming-of-age story by any sense, but it’s like a rebirth in a lot of ways,” said Garcia Swisher, who is married to former New York Yankees outfielder Nick Swisher. “She’s like, OK, who am I?”
The series also stars Chris Klein as Maddie’s estranged husband, Bill, and Jamie Lynn Spears as his new fiancée, Noreen, who is pregnant with their child.
Garcia Swisher sees a connection between “Sweet Magnolias” and “Reba,” which she starred on with Reba McEntire from 2001 to 2007.
“Reba inspires me in so many ways just as a human in real life, but one of the things I loved about that show was the way that she is a survivor and she was given kind of a crappy hand and made the best out of it,” Garcia Swisher said.
“When I read this script and I was first introduced to Maddie, I was like, I want her to have all of those moments to feel sorry for herself and to be sad and to be angry and all of those things that are very real when you’re met with the end of a long marriage, and a husband that’s left you for a younger woman, and they’re pregnant . ... t But I also wanted her to be strong and I wanted her to be a survivor. I wanted her to not feel like a victim on any level.”
For Garcia Swisher, the opportunity to star on a series that focused on a smalltown community and its residents was a big draw.
“It was nice to be on a show that wasn’t so much about a hook,” Garcia Swisher said. “It was really about the people.”