The Sex Lives Of College Girls Is About To Get Messier

It’s time to return to Essex College for The Sex Lives of College Girls Season 2. The series, created by Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble, follows four freshies — Kimberly, Bela, Leighton, and Whitney — in their journeys of self-discovery. And if you thought things were wild in the first season, Pauline Chalamet, who plays Kimberly, hints The Sex Lives of College Girls Season 2 is only going to go further off the rails.

In The Sex Lives of College Girls Season 1, fans last saw Kimberly losing her scholarship after getting caught cheating on an exam. Unlike her well-off roomies, Kimberly really relied on her scholarship to pay for tuition. Not only that, but she had also just found out the guy she was hooking up with, Nico (Gavin Leatherwood), had a girlfriend the whole time. Unfortunately, if you were hoping Nico and Kimberly were going to work things out and become endgame, that won’t be the case, as Leatherwood left the series after Season 1.

Don’t fret, though. Chalamet reveals that despite Nico being out of the picture, Kimberly’s love life will be “not nonexistent” this semester. In fact, she says there might even be more than one potential hookup. Below, Chalamet shares some behind-the-scenes deets about the show, including her thoughts on the sex scenes and her own advice for college co-eds like Kimberly.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Elite Daily: Fans got to watch Kimberly embrace her sexuality in Season 1, but with Gavin Leatherwood gone for Season 2, what can you tease about Kimberly's love life going forward?

Pauline Chalamet: Kimberly's love life is not nonexistent and there's definitely some exciting things — plural — to look forward to. But Kimberly is kind of left at the end of Season 1 in such a difficult position that affects her ability to stay at school, and that's what we're gonna see really take the forefront of Season 2. If Kimberly was confronted with difficult situations in Season 1, those situations just get even messier by the end of Season 2.

ED: Did you warn your family about certain scenes before they watched the season?

PC: Absolutely not. No.

ED: What's more awkward: filming a sex scene or watching it back later?

PC: Watching it back later.

ED: You said in a previous interview that the sex scenes weren't that hard on this show.

PC: No, it's a comedy. We have an incredibly safe set and it feels like it's part of the storytelling. Shout out to Kelley Flynn — She's an amazing intimacy coordinator. She gives everybody what they need.

ED: What's your relationship like with Mindy Kaling?

PC: I idolize her. Mindy's the best. She's so funny, so smart. She's great.

ED: What’s the best lesson you learned from her?

PC: You can do it all.

ED: You've said in past interviews that you previously stayed out the spotlight after you saw your brother, Timothée Chalamet’s, experience with fame, so what attracted you to The Sex Lives of College Girls?

PC: Mindy Kaling and the script — the comedy. I never thought I would do comedy, and I read her script. I had done The King of Staten Island and I was like, “Well this is kind of a comedy. I'm working with comedic geniuses.” I mean, the comedians on [The King of Staten Island] were just insane. So I was like, “Wow, this is amazing. I'd love to kind of re-explore the college years, but through a comedic light.”

ED: Did you predict that the show would be as big as it was gonna be when you signed on?

PC: No. I think so many people work so hard on so many shows, you never really know how it's gonna turn out. And I was really appreciative and grateful that so many people responded to the adventures of these four girls.

ED: Now that you're a few years removed from college, what piece of advice would you give to other college women like Kimberly?

PC: You don't need to figure it all out in college. This is the time to really tighten your debate skills and have the arguments be wrong, be right, be stubborn. And then, as you get older, you kind of find the nuance in things. I think college is such a great time for young women to develop their opinions.

The Sex Lives of College Girls Season 2 premieres Nov. 17 on HBO Max.