While Ginny & Georgia fans have questioned whether Diesel La Torraca‘s growth spurt will cause Austin to be recast — his costars have different thoughts.
Scott Porter weighed in on the discussion surrounding Austin’s age, telling Us Weekly at the Motion Picture & Television Fund NextGen Annual Summer Party on Sunday, June 22, “The way the show has been approaching it is pretty brilliant, actually. Going into promoting season 3, it was like, let’s just embrace it. Let’s wink at the audience and say, ‘Hey, guess what? We know. All of us know.’”
The third season of the hit Netflix series, which premiered June 5, inspired a lot of memes about how the show handled the amount of time that passed between filming seasons 2 and 3. Season 2 wrapped up filming in early 2022, but production on the third installment started two years later following the dual WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.
Le Torraca’s future on the show specifically got called into question when Austin appeared significantly older in season 3 — despite there not being any time jumps between episodes. The show notably had Austin wrapped in blankets and largely sitting to not draw too much attention to the fact that La Torraca, 14, is a teenager playing a child in second grade.
Creator Sarah Lampert acknowledged to Us that viewers will have to “suspend their disbelief” because La Torraca “grew [up] and it’s a TV show,” adding that season 4 of Ginny & Georgia will “really lean into” La Torraca being a teenager in real life.
“Anyone who works on the show will tell you I am fastidious about the details. I am just specific with so many things. Then things like Diesel growing five years [older], I’m like, ‘Whatever.’ Because you can’t control it,” she quipped earlier this month. “We can’t recast. Diesel is Austin.”
Lampert teased how season 4 will continue to address Austin’s alleged age.
“Honestly, it serves us because now he’s really a part of the family in a way that he wasn’t before,” she continued. “He was just a little kid. Now with everything we put him through in season 3 and having him enter season 4 as a preteen, he’s entering the chat in a way that he hasn’t before.”
Porter, 45, credited Le Torraca for making the audience care about Austin so much, adding, “Diesel is so fantastic — and it would be such a loss to not have him still be a part of our show. So if the audience can look past it, we can look past it.”
He added: “We can keep Diesel with us and that’s the real goal. He’s wonderful. The arc of Austin is just beginning to get really, really great and I love seeing what he’s done with it over these past couple of years. I can’t wait to see what he continues to do with it.”
While reflecting on the show’s success, Porter teased how long Ginny & Georgia can go on.
“Our creator, Sarah, is an infinite well of stories. I’m sure we could spin this thing for an awful long time but it’s up to the viewers and up to Netflix on whether or not we continue on,” he noted. “But let me just say to our viewers, thank you so much for tuning in over these first three seasons. We never expected the show to be a hit the way that it is — and it’s all because of you all. So thank you.”
Ginny & Georgia is currently streaming on Netflix.
