As ‘Playing House’ returns for its highly anticipated third season, Lennon Parham and Jessica St. Clair are opening up about the most rewarding part of ‘letting it all hang out.’

Photo Credit: Playing House/USA Network, Acquired From NBCUniversal Media Village

Since the second season of Playing House signed off in August 2015, a lot has happened in the real lives of its stars and creators Jessica St. Clair and Lennon Parham. St. Clair’s breast cancer diagnosis, which the comedy duo wrote into the third season of their series, inspired an “incredible closening” between the best friends on and off-screen. The journey we’ll see in Season 3 is the journey these women went through together, for better and worse.

St. Clair and Parham took care in opting for their art to imitate their lives, knowing that while cancer isn’t inherently funny, viewers who relate to their story could find healing—and they could, too. But it’s the strength in showing up for each other that drove the pair to bring their authentic and optimistic experience to their legions of loyal Jammers. During a conference call ahead of the Playing House Season 3 premiere, Hidden Remote caught up with the self-proclaimed comedy wives, who spoke about everything from drag queens to invaluable life lessons from none other than Beyoncé to the beautiful bond between kick-ass women.

Since its first episode (hell, from it’s very first scene), Playing House has been a series about women supporting other women. When Maggie’s six months pregnant and discovers her husband cheating on her, Emma uproots her life, no questions asked, to move in with her best friend. And when the going gets tough in real life, Parham and St. Clair share that same kind of front-lines friendship.

“When I got diagnosed with breast cancer, Lennon showed up within minutes of me getting the phone call, and she didn’t leave my side for the whole year,” St. Clair said.

Even though St. Clair went through an intense battle with her friends by her side, she kept a mental list of the moments of levity peeking in through the intensity. Between St. Clair’s doctor taking her and Parham as a lesbian couple to Parham picking out St. Clair’s breast implants, the necessity to share all of the lightness that comes from the darkness became clear.

“We’re sort of letting it all hang out in this season even more than we did in Season 1 and 2,” St. Clair said. “And the fact that our fans still connect to it and love us, warts and all, just makes you feel good about being able to be your real self with people.”

Photo Credit: Playing House/USA Network, Acquired From NBCUniversal Media Village

Having that freedom to tell their story honestly and humorously gave way to difficult moments behind the scenes. When breaking the stories for Season 3 and improvising their scenes, Parham recalls needing to take a beat to cry and hold hands as reliving these emotions became the perfect outlet for not only expression but finally unpacking the past year.

Their personal connection to the upcoming season of Playing House was magnified when they hit the road to attend fan events such as the ATX Television Festival in Austin. As much as they put into their work on television’s best comedy, their viewers take away just as much. Meeting groups of Jammers face-to-face opened their eyes to the impact of Emma and Maggie.

“The connection that they feel to the material is so deeply rewarding because, Jess and I always say, what we go to television for is comfort,” Parham said. “At the end of the day, I want to kick off my heels and I want to dive into Call the Midwife or [The Great British Bake Off] and get lost in a flan. And growing up, it was the same way. I wanted to get lost in Keri Russell’s decision to choose Ben or Noel or get a haircut.”

Photo Credit: Playing House/USA Network. Acquired From NBCUniversal Media Village

Parham continued, “That these people that we were meeting on the road are going through what we say ‘this is 40s,’ you know, when sh– starts to get really real, and that they come to our show for that comfort is—there just aren’t any words for me. To bring that joy, to bring that representation, that they connect to it, that they connect to the way that women are with one another. It’s just phenomenal.”

This season on Playing House, fans will have rich stories to get lost in and connect with beyond the Big C. As St. Clair puts it, they are letting it all hang out and, as Parham puts it, letting their ladies get bitten by the “hell yes!” life bug. While Emma’s breast cancer will be a major component of the back half of Season 3, Maggie’s arc will center on how her perspective shifts toward “living even more of her best life.” Mazels to that!

But aside from providing a meaningful source of comfort and connection for their Jammers, St. Clair and Parham count a particular part of creating Season 3 of Playing House as the most gratifying—and it combines dressing up in Tina Turner drag and discovering sage wisdom from Sasha Fierce herself, Beyoncé.

“Dressing up like a drag queen and performing Tina Turner’s ‘Proud Mary’ to a crowd of drag queens was and always will be a highlight in my life,” St. Clair said.

“Even though Jessica has a hard time with the actual show [RuPaul’s Drag Race], she really very much enjoys dressing like a man who dresses like a woman,” Parham added.

“I’ve never felt more beautiful,” St. Clair said. “Also, we found out why Beyoncé wears a dance tight underneath a fishnet. That’s a life lesson that I think we’re gonna take with us for the rest of our lives.”

Parham agreed. “We’re gonna carry that with us for the rest of our lives.”

There you go, Jammers. Life lessons from the sisters doing if for themselves and each other. If that’s not totes kewl and worth a body roll or two, I don’t know what is.

Playing House airs Fridays at 11/10c on USA and can be streamed on VOD.