We are now less than a week away from the premiere of Awkward season 2 on MTV. My teen-drama-loving heart can’t take it. The letter! The triangle! Oh… the angst! In order to get a little fix before Thursday, I talked to Jillian Rose Reed aka Tamara, the bestest best friend Jenna could ask for.

Photographer: Vincent Sandoval Photography / Stylist: Audrey Brianne/ Hair & Make Up: Allison Noelle

First, I love the show. When I talked to Matthew Fahey last week, I told him I may getting a little too old to watch shows on MTV, but I love this one.

Never. Never too old.

We just won’t tell anyone I still watch all the Real World shows.

Exactly that will just be our secret.

(Melissa’s note: What? I don’t have to type out EVERY word from the interview? Curses!)

Tamara and Jenna have their dramas up and down as many teen girls do. But overall I think she is just a really great best friend to Jenna. What is it about her that makes her such a good best friend? What are some of her best qualities?

I also think that she is a fantastic best friend. I think it’s just that she honestly cares and loves Jenna so much and I think that’s kind of the bottom of it. They are just deeply rooted in this friendship. But also, she has this attitude that Jenna doesn’t have. She’s just this ‘get back up on the horse’ kinda girl. And even when things don’t go her way, she quickly figures out a way to fix it and make it all better. I think that’s a quality that maybe Jenna hasn’t fully developed yet. They balance each other out, really, and I think that makes the friendship extremely strong.

I guess that worked with her for Ricky too. She never really gave up there.

Yeah, maybe a little bit. She doesn’t act as strong as I’d like her to with the Ricky situation. But she’ll get there.

And how are they doing come Season 2?

Not any better than Season 1. [laughs] They start out pretty rocky and it doesn’t really get any better throughout the rest of the season. But I will say that Tamara stands up for herself a little bit more this season. And towards the end she will learn that, you know, she should be open to other people. And maybe this guy isn’t the right one. She get’s a little more of a backbone.

Well that’s good. But I heard from Matthew that he fixes his hair, sooo…

Yes he does. He does do that!
Back to the friendship – At the end of the finale it was revealed that Jenna’s mom wrote the ‘carefrontation letter.’ Does Tamara find out about that?

You know what, that’s actually something that Jenna… she’s a little bit more private and she’s dealing with it more with her family. It was a big deal for her and a big deal for her mom. That’s something she really keeps personal and she really tries to fix that in terms of just her family because it does have a really big impact on her family and her homelife. So that’s something she really just deals with them. She leans on Tamara in a different way this season which is really just about the drama with all the boys at school because to Tamara that’s a huge thing.

When you are a teen girl, it really is all about the boy drama.

Absolutely!

And with the Matty/Jake/Jenna triangle — what team do you fall on and what team do you think Tamara falls on?

I think that Jillian and Tamara fall on the same team and I’ll tell you why. That team is Team Jatty, which is a mixture of the two, because there are so many redeeming qualities about both characters and they are both so cute that I can’t decide who I want her to be with. And as far as Tamara goes, I think she’s just so caught up in the drama and the happenings as they happen that I think she’s just as confused as Jenna. And she doesn’t really have a choice because she likes them both too and she’s spent time with them now that Jenna’s hanging around them so she knows them pretty well. I think she’s just caught up in what’s happening. She’s just kind of wide-eyed and can’t believe all the attention that’s coming their way. I think she’s just confused.

So, as long as there’s drama, it’s all good, basically?

Right. As long as there’s drama and as long as there’s boys.

What more could you want?

Exactly. It’s perfect.

So the show – with the Sixteen Candles episode especially – is very John Hughes. Do you have a favorite John Hughes movie?

Breakfast Club. It’s the best. And Lauren [Iungerich], our creator, is very happy to be able to write kind of in that style – that’s her dream. We love it. We talk about that kind of stuff all the time.

Our site loves to do fashion write-ups – like what people wear on the show. I love your red carpet looks. What’s your fashion style? Where do you get your ideas?
Well, as far as red carpet goes, I have an amazing stylist who I work with. Her name is Audrey Brianne. She is fantastic and she just knows me and my style so well. I work with her and we create looks that are, you know, still classic and still young and fun, but I have a little bit of an edge I like to bring to some of my outfits. She is really good about getting that and putting that all together.

(Editor’s note: Audrey Brianne truly has put JRR in some fantastic, sexy-but-still-tasteful looks on the red carpet!)

And your personal style? When you’re not getting your pictures taken?

Personally I’m a little bit like Tamara – there are some similarities. I love the whole dress/boot thing that she does. I love that. I actually have a pair of the Doc Martens that Tamara wore in the first two seasons that I got to keep for myself because I was obsessed with them.

That’s awesome. Too funny.

Yeah – it was the floral ones. So I was just… I love them. Tamara mixes a lot of patterns which I’ve been starting to do now because I’ve learned that it’s okay through Tamara. But I’m a little bit more edgy. She’s a little bit more bright colors and floral. I’m a little bit more, like, rocker I guess, sometimes.

Nice… Yesterday my Entertainment Weekly came in the mail and I saw that you guys, the show, are in the center of the Bullseye.

Yeah! I actually just found that out last night!

How amazing was that? Did you freak out?

Yeah. It’s kinda crazy. I just found out last night, like I said, and I was with the entire cast, we were all together and… I mean… there are no words, really. We are just so excited. I mean, we didn’t know when Awkward started… you never know if your show’s gonna be a hit. And that fact that it was a hit is just amazing. Now we’re finding out we made all these Top 10 lists, and we’re the Bullseye and all these great things. It’s a little bit overwhelming, but we’re all just super excited that people love the show as much as we love working on the show.

And people will be falling back in love with these characters next Thursday, June 28th at 10:30pm on MTV. Tune in to find out what happens next with Tamara and the rest of the gang! You can check out Jillian Rose Reed on Twitter, and her website!

Also check back here at Small Screen Scoop to discuss the drama on Awkward Thursdays!

Written by Melissa Miller. Follow her on Twitter @serrae. Photos: MTV

Tagged: , , , , , ,