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Yong Chavez

ABS-CBN News North America

<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1783669439012NUP_208743_00181.JPG" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>A scene from ‘The Five Star Weekend.’ Peacock</div>For Jennifer Garner, who plays celebrity food personality Hollis Shaw in “The Five Star Weekend,” the series reaches beyond the spectacle of family secrets and emotional reckonings. It asks what happens when the conversations people avoid become heavier than the pain they are trying to escape. Hollis spends much of the story trying to keep her carefully built world intact after a devastating loss, even as the emotional cracks continue to widen.“I think Hollis has trouble communicating,” Garner said. “While I don’t know that I have the same trouble that she does, (as actors) our lives are in emotion and words, so we all have a leg up on your average Joe because that’s our trade. But she was a reminder how important it is to have the hard conversation. Say the thing you’re afraid to say. Go after what needs to be communicated, and make sure that you’re getting it out.”This insight runs throughout the series, where silence often proves as consequential as betrayal itself. The emotional weight comes from people who genuinely care about one another and still manage to misunderstand, disappoint, or drift apart. Every friendship carries its own timeline, and every reunion reveals how much has changed alongside what remains familiar.Chloë Sevigny found herself reflecting on those timelines even after filming. Her character’s connection to Hollis stirred memories of friendships that gradually faded because of geography, careers, and changing lives. Rather than dwelling on what disappeared, the show encouraged her to consider what could still be reclaimed.“I have friends from different stages in my life, and some I’ve lost touch with, and some I remain close to,” Sevigny said. “It makes me mourn the ones that have drifted away because of geography and work and lifestyles. It made me have a desire to reach out to people and reconnect with people that I knew, especially from my younger years, like the relationship between Tatum and Hollis.”She recalled attending school with the same classmates from kindergarten through senior year, relationships that extended well beyond the classroom into family life.“A lot of those friendships I’ve kind of lost, and maybe I really just want to reconnect with those people again because they knew me and they knew my family in a way that nobody else will.”<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1783669485253NUP_208252_00221.JPG" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>A scene from ‘The Five Star Weekend.’ Peacock</div>The conversation prompted a shared laugh when social media entered the discussion.“I feel like that’s the only reason why I keep Facebook,” I joked.“Of course,” Garner replied.“Facebook is good for that,” Sevigny said with a smile.That longing for reconnection also resonated with Gemma Chan and D’Arcy Carden, whose characters enter Hollis’ carefully planned gathering carrying emotional baggage of their own. They saw the series as an invitation to reconsider friendships that faded through circumstance rather than conflict.“For me, the show says that it’s never too late for forgiveness and redemption and reconnection,” Chan replied when asked what message about forgiveness the story imparts. “Especially with friendships that have gone along for some time, and maybe there’s someone in your life that you’ve drifted apart from, I really hope that people are inspired to maybe pick up the phone, give them a call, and just say, ‘How are you?’ and ‘I’ve been thinking of you.’ It doesn’t matter what’s happened before. Just reconnect.”Carden shared a similar reaction after reading the novel that inspired the series. “Some friendships sort of fade away for no real reason.”Even with grief anchoring much of the story, “The Five Star Weekend” leaves room for joy. That balance extended into the production itself, particularly during the sprawling dinner scenes where the ensemble’s chemistry mirrored the relationships unfolding on screen.“Our first dinner scene was a very, very long couple of days, and I ate an entire side of poached salmon fillet in the process of shooting, which I haven’t had since,” Garner said with a laugh. “We had some serious giggles. You have five very professional, seasoned women. It is very unusual to get the giggles in a way where you’re keeping the crew waiting. Regina Hall is one of the funniest people you will ever meet in your life. She made us laugh. The five of us, we could have just stopped shooting for the day. It was so fun.”<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1783669515114NUP_207926_01466.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>A scene from ‘The Five Star Weekend.’ Peacock</div>Sevigny appreciated how each performance continued to evolve across multiple takes.“Everybody had such a great relationship to their characters, and the acting was so great that I felt like we could have just kept doing these same scenes because people would bring new things to every take. You’d be surprised by D’Arcy, Jennifer, everyone, and so we somehow got to keep it fresh. And overeat.”Those moments of laughter speak to one of the series’ central observations: heartbreak does not necessarily occupy every moment of a person’s day. Even during profound loss, people may continue to search for reasons to smile.“I think it’s such a big part of it. Maybe the biggest part of it,” Carden said when asked about humor and healing. “When I think of my hardest times, or when I was grieving, the moments that bring you out of it, or the things that feel like healing, are when you’re laughing with your loved ones, or laughing about the thing. As dark as that can be, it really reminds you what life is all about. I love that about this show because there’s so much humor in the drama. It really is true to life. When we’re dealing with dark things, you’re not dark all day. There is constantly humor.”The cast offered similar reflections on moving through betrayal and grief, each emphasizing that healing follows its own rhythm. Garner sees the series embracing the emotional disorder that accompanies heartbreak instead of trying to tidy it up into a simple lesson.“I think this show really shows that there are no rights or wrongs when it comes to dealing with heartbreak and grief,” she said. “Also that your friends are the ones who are with you through all of it, and who can love you through the messy bits of it as well, because sometimes grief is ugly.”<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1783669540975NUP_208248_00608.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>A scene from ‘The Five Star Weekend.’ Peacock</div>Chan echoed that acceptance.“I think there’s no wrong or right way to get through something. Sometimes you might just want to distract yourself and forget about it and not talk about it, and that’s totally fine. Other times, if you’re with someone that you trust, then you can go there.”For Carden, patience remains essential.“Time is a big part of it. When you’re in it, sometimes it’s so hard to see, and sometimes you need someone who has gone through something similar to let you know that this is all part of it. Time heals.”In the show, she sees the circle of friends as the reason healing eventually becomes possible.“We see that with Hollis’ journey in the show. She just wants to sort of forget, and her friends are all going through different versions of trying to get her out of it until it comes to a head. That’s such a natural thing to do, to want to distract or not talk about it. Everybody has their way. Surrounding herself with people that she loves is the thing that’s eventually going to help her get through it.”Peacock’s “The Five Star Weekend” is an adaptation of Elin Hilderbrand’s bestselling novel and also stars Regina Hall, Harlow Jane, and Timothy Olyphant. It is created for TV by Bekah Brunstetter and the pilot episode was directed by Minkie Spiro.

Peacock’s “The Five Star Weekend” is an adaptation of Elin Hilderbrand’s bestselling novel.

Peacock’s “The Five Star Weekend” is an adaptation of Elin Hilderbrand’s bestselling novel.

Here in Hollywood: Stars of ‘The Five Star Weekend’ open up about heartbreak, loss, and healing

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Here in Hollywood: Stars of ‘The Five Star Weekend’ open up about heartbreak, loss, and healing

Yong Chavez,

ABS-CBN News North America

Published July 10, 2026 05:18 PM PHT

Read More:

The Five Star Weekend

Jennifer Garner

Chloe Sevigny

Yong Chavez

Here in Hollywood

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