Betty Gilpin Writes 'GLOW' Tribute: 'Everybody Got to Do Their Dream'

Actress Betty Gilpin has written an emotional tribute dedicated to the critically acclaimed Netflix series GLOW, which she of course starred in and which was canceled earlier this week due to the coronavirus pandemic. In the piece—which was published in Vanity Fair—the Emmy-nominated actress mourned the show's ending, saying it was a show that allowed everyone who worked on it to "do their dream."

The show's cancellation was reported on Monday. In a statement, the show's creators Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch expressed their disappointment to not get to film the show's fourth and final season. "We'll miss our cast of weirdo clowns and our heroic crew. It was the best job," the two wrote.

Gilpin echoed the two's statement in her remembrance, calling her time on GLOW "the best job I'll ever have." She opened up about the ups and downs that actors go through in the film and TV industry, saying that the dramedy, set in the world of an all-women '80s wrestling promotion, was a rare exception to what are often disappointments. "Our business is a strange mix of attempting childhood dreams to a room full of asleep people and shirking dignity for awake tomato-throwers for rent. This was one of those extremely rare times where we got to do the dream for awake people. And it didn't disappear in an audition room or unsent email," she wrote.

Gilpin, who played Debbie Eagan on GLOW (she's known as "Liberty Belle" in the ring), thanked Flahive and Mensch. She called the pair "two lapsed playwright genius women," who noticed her on an early show, when she was a struggling actress. "I will be forever grateful to you. You changed my life. It's sad and weird to end this way. But we did get to do it thirty times. I mean, I cried a lot on that subway. I never thought I'd get to do it once," she wrote.

Gilpin also shouted out costume designer Beth Morgan, makeup designer Lana Horochowski and hair department head Theraesa Rivers for their work. She also saluted stunt coordinator Shauna Duggins and wrestler Chavo Guerrero Jr. for their efforts, teaching the women how to perform the incredible stunts that they would need to in the ring.

The actress also paid a brief tribute to the late director Lynn Shelton, who directed several episodes of the series and died in May; Gilpin paid respects to Shelton for "never treating our poems like cartoons." She also highlighted the rest of the show's cast, especially her fellow Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, whom she described as "the clown-women around me wearing no pants who made me laugh so hard, every day." She also called costars Marc Maron and Chris Lowell "two perfect boys I'll love forever."

The last person she shouted out was her co-star Alison Brie, who played Ruth Wilder in the series. The two's characters performed alongside each other the most, as they often played frenemies inside the ring and out. "I'm going to miss you most of all," Gilpin closed her tribute.