Exclusive: Christina Moses Talks ABC’s A Million Little ThingsPosted by Wilson Morales
October 2, 2018
Currently airing on Wednesdays at 10pm on ABC is their newest series, A Million Little Things, which stars David Giuntoli as Eddie Saville, Ron Livingston as Jon Dixon, Romany Malco as Rome Howard, Allison Miller as Maggie Bloom, Christina Moses as Regina Howard, Christina Ochoa as Ashley Morales, Grace Park as Katherine Kim, James Roday as Gary Mendez, Stephanie Szostak as Delilah Dixon, Lizzy Greene as Sophie Dixon and Tristan Byon as Theo Saville.
They say friendship isn’t one big thing, it’s a million little things; and that’s true for a group of friends from Boston who bonded under unexpected circumstances. Some have achieved success, others are struggling in their careers and relationships, but all of them feel stuck in life. After one of them dies by suicide, it’s just the wake-up call the others need to finally start living. Along the way, they discover that friends may be the one thing to save them from themselves.
For Christina Moses, the Los Angeles has been seen on the small screen these few years with roles in The CW Network series “The Originals” and most recently in the AT&T/Direct TV series “Condor,” opposite Oscar winner William Hurt. This is her second show where she’s a series regular. She previously had a main role in the CW series “Containment.” She also guest starred in Showtime’s “Roadies,” opposite Luke Wilson, Fox’s “Rosewood.”
In speaking with Blackfilm.com, Moses talks about her role and how best to approach the series when deciding to watch it.
What was the attraction to doing this series?
Christina Moses: I think it’s a story about friendship and about loss and love and you know what happens when you’re confronted with a tragedy and how we handle grief. It’s a group of people who are in various levels of success whether in their relationships or their careers all of us are kind of not where we want to be. So there’s a level of stuckness and we experience a tragedy together and like with life it’s like you either have an opportunity to kind of move through your stuckness or not. All of that is human and so we’re just dealing with those issues so I think the attraction is just it’s just humans being humans and that’s always good to see yourself reflected in some way, that’s why we love television and film.
How would you describe your character?
Christina Moses: I play Regina Howard who’s married to Rome Howard played by Romany Malco and she’s a chef and right now she’s working as a sous chef and she’s tried to have her own restaurant at one point, but it failed horribly which is actually how she ends up meeting John seeing as he’s just in this group of friends. She and Rome just start dating and she realized she was really quickly going under, and he told John about it and John being the real estate developer that he is was able to help her get out of her lease. And so we find her in this story that John ended up leaving her this restaurant as one of the last things that he did before he passed or he took his own life.
So we’re going to follow her journey to either going forward with this restaurant and her eternal issues, fear of failure, success, etc. She’s gung hoe about things and she brings her friends together, she loves to cook, she’s that kind of like mama bear and then she also has to deal with the fact that her husband is depressed and she doesn’t know that, and that might bring some interesting things going forward.
How would you relate to the character? One, are you a cook, are you good at it? And two, have you ever consoled somebody who was depressed?
Christina Moses: I cook, I wouldn’t say I’m a cook but I do cook and I do like it. Yeah, actually it’s interesting ’cause my relationship with food has changed a little bit. I love food but watching cooking shows so that I can learn how to cut like a chef. I’m watching all these cooking shows and chef teaching shows and taking lessons just so I can actually really embody this so it’s fun. And yes, have I consoled people who are depressed? Yes, I have, I have had friends who deal with depression and had family members. I myself have dealt with depression on and off for many years and yes it is something that I am not unfamiliar with.
I’m assuming all actors go through trials and tribulations. Getting work, maintaining that work and so forth, so could any actor relate to that sort of depression?
Christina Moses: Oh sure. I definitely think there’s different degrees of depression, right? There’s somethings we were born with or developed chemical imbalances, right? Some things only medication can handle or herb and supplements of the natural sort. And then there’s circumstantial depression like you lose your job, you just can’t … like with actors and artists. It’s so horrible to be an artist ’cause all you have is yourself and your instruments. My instruments is my body, myself, and there’s so much rejection and the odds are so high and stacked against you.
There’s just so many actors, the process is really grueling and so yeah, it’s hard sometimes to not take it personally. When you start making it about yourself like there’s maybe something wrong with you or maybe you’ll never fulfill your dream, yeah that is depressing. I think that for me what really helped was not placing my value on whether or not I booked work. That my talent, my gift, my passions and my worth as a human being and my worth as an artist was not contingent upon whether I booked a job, which is a hard thing to really get into your bones and I still go through it.
But once I really started saying, ‘I actually love this,’ there was a time where I did theater solely just for the pure joy of the artistic expression and, ‘let me go into these auditions and go in for me and have a great time, and if they like it great, if it works great, if not okay on to the next.’ And I mean really it would change my audition. I’d go into one audition and feel like I’d have that mindset and then next one and I’d be like, ‘oh god, I hope I get it, I hope I get it,’ and try not to feel attached to it. So it definitely took practice, but once I really started doing that I started to book more work.
Now, at least from the first episode you and Romany seem to have good chemistry as well as the rest of the cast. How was establishing that chemistry as an ensemble?
Christina Moses: Chemistry is one of those things that either you have it or you don’t, and if you don’t hopefully you can work on it and sometimes you can and develop that, but our whole cast right off the bat had it. We all get along really well and there’s just that creative magic that’s natural chemistry that we all have. Romany and I had it like when I tested because the role was created for him so when I went to go test for the role he was in the room ’cause we had to do a chemistry read and just off the bat we just completely vibed, got along, riffed off of each other, improv’d, and it was good. Then when we all met and had our very first table read it was the same, and it was awesome. It was just that magical syncretistic coming together.
How would you best try to sell the series to anyone based on the first episode which deals with depression? What’s the selling point to keep watching it?
Christina Moses: I think it’s a story, a human story. It’s a simple story telling, going back to the roots of what it just means to tell a simple story. There’s a time and place for sci-fi and fantasy which I love, I’m all about that stuff, and action but it’s also nice to just kind of be like, ‘oh hey, well who are these group of people, what’s going on in their lives, and let’s follow it, let’s follow the drama, let’s follow the success.’ I really hope from the pilot that you get to see, ‘hey, there are these people who are dealing with a lot of issues. It’s not about depression, but there is an element yes of mental illness and one of the main things too that might get people going is we don’t really talk about depression in the black community so much or illnesses for that matter, right?
That’s been something that’s just been developing or not developing, but coming out over the last decade that we can actually share who we are without fear of retribution and I think part of healing is being vulnerable and having confidence in that. I think that’s not on the nose but that’s a part of what this show is going to address, and I love that. And also de stigmatizing depression.
With the different series that you have been on over the last few years and developing a fanbase, how do you stay humble?
Christina Moses: I don’t know, I’m just grateful I think really helps. I think one thing is knowing I’m really aware that with each new show my insecurities come with me. Yes, I do get more confident in my abilities but then there’s this part of me that’s like, ‘oh god, can I really do this, do I really deserve this?’ And so for me it’s the balance of listening to that part of me and tending to that part of me that needs love. Then also being like, ‘ok, well you have these goals and dreams and fears just go for it,’ ’cause fear is also another form of ego, right? So either way I can have a deflated ego or I can have an inflated ego.
Its’s the checks and balances of, ‘hey, I did this work, it was fun, I learned this.’ I think keeping it really practical like, ‘this is what I learned, this is what I’m into, what I desire, these are my goals. How can I keep growing, how can I keep loving myself, loving my work, loving the people I’m with, loving the …’ I also realized being really, not to sound cliché but really just, ‘I have a gift,’ and it’s not about me per se it’s just something that’s been given to me, and so to honor that I have to give it, I have to share it. Irrespective of my fears, irrespective of any insecurities that I have. It’s a gratitude balance that helps.
