B&B’S Maya & Carter
Karla Mosley and Lawrence Saintvictor’s paths have aligned personally and professionally.
Soap Opera Digest: Before WED-LOCKED, you co-starred together on GUIDING LIGHT as Remy and Christina. Tell us about your first meeting. Could you ever guess you’d have such a long, intertwined history together?
Karla Mosley: It is truly phenomenal. It’s rare that you meet someone and literally from the first scene you have together, find a playing relationship that is as easy as the one that Lawrence and I have. We have to thank GUIDING LIGHT for seeing that and putting us together. From the first scene walking on set, we had a real ease and friendship that lasted on and off-screen.
Digest: And now, being new parents at the same time?
Lawrence Saint-victor: Yeah, that’s crazy! Digest: Even when GL ended, your friendship didn’t. Saint-victor: I don’t know how it happened. On GUIDING LIGHT, we kind of became the romantic comedy in the midst of drama, and I don’t think it was written that way at first. We just kept doing our stuff. Mosley: He ran into the first scene and it was silly, like, “Oh, it’s snowing outside. Pick up a snowball and throw it at me.” It’s great when you have someone who just says, “Yes and ...” which is the basis of all improv.
Saint-victor: And then they started writing toward that. By the time GUIDING LIGHT ended, the idea of doing a romantic comedy and keeping this theme of relationship and marriage going felt natural. Karla’s mother said, “Why don’t you do a spin-off?”
Digest: We hope she got a producer credit! Mosley: We definitely give her love.
Saint-victor: Lots of love!
Mosley: More than anything, she’s just happy to see it. She’s so excited that it continues on. I said it in this way, like, “My mom has this crazy idea that we should continue doing something,” and Lawrence was like, “Yeah, let’s do it!” We started improv-ing and then Lawrence was like, “Hey, I actually wrote down what we were talking about yesterday,” and WEDLOCKED was born!
Digest: In 2009, web series were barely a thing. Did you have any idea what this could have turned into?
Mosley: It was so new. We put it out there and just let it go. We put five episodes up and thought they were fun. People enjoyed them, and then fast-forward to Brad [Bell, executive producer/head writer] inviting us to do BOLD AND BEAUTIFUL, basically because of the work he saw in WED-LOCKED.
Saint-victor: By that point, web series started taking off more. I remember even before B&B, Karla shot me a text with a link to this web series about this young black couple in a relationship and was like, “Hmm .... ”
Mosley: “Why aren’t we making these?”
Saint-victor: Between 2009 and 2017, there have been so many examples of, “Oh, this can be something, and it can be monetized and it can be serialized and respected.” And now, you can win an Emmy off of a web series! Back then it was like, “What?” We used our apartments for locations, so that was pretty easy.
Mosley: And we used our friends and family for our PAS. It flowed really nicely, and that made us think, “Maybe we should make this again.”
Digest: How much material did you lift from your real-life marriages?
Mosley: A lot! We had to get real, which was at times uncomfortable, but when we felt uncomfortable, we knew we were on to something that people would relate to. I think everything that we’ve written about that has been the most uncomfortable has also been the most popular.
Digest: By 2013, you’re both on B&B, and your characters are then involved in a fictional web series called ROOM 8. Tell us about that collaboration.
Saint-victor: It was one of thosethings like, “This isn’t happening Karla, right?” Like any day now they’re gonna be like —
Mosley: CANDID CAMERA!
Saint-victor: It was just too good to be true. Brad was a fan of WED-LOCKED, and still is, and he loves comedy, too.
Mosley: We shot all eight episodes in one day. It was completely insane but our brains were in producer mode, in writer mode, in actor mode, and most of it was us just back-to-back-toback.
Saint-victor: Even just sitting in the room with Brad, and the other producers, and people who run CBS Daytime —
Mosley: It was an amazing learning experience. Saint-victor: It was fantastic. It was a
dream.
Digest: What went into reviving WED-LOCKED?
Mosley: For us, it’s more of a reboot than a hop forward. They’re still in their first year of marriage. The difference is that we’ve had more life experience in the past 10 years! We were really able to get into some of the messier parts of their relationship and get them out of the honeymoon phase more quickly.
Saint-victor: We just kept adding. With the first WED-LOCKED, he was more juvenile and she was more type A. For this round, we wanted to play around with gender roles. I think it’s more interesting.
Digest: Reboots are all the rage.
Mosley: Very true. We are living in a time where more people are getting married and having children later. It’s very current that these two people are figuring it out after they’ve already had their lives and settled into who they are as individuals.
Digest: Will we see any familiar faces?
Mosley: Yes, of course! Saint-victor: We’re always going to ask our friends. My man Rome Flynn [exzende, B&B] gives the performance he hasn’t given yet!
Mosley: I said I really want to write something for him that he would never be cast in because he’s always the pretty boy.
Saint-victor: The hunk.
Mosley: We really created something different, and he went all the way. It was great.
Saint-victor: We created something different, and he was like, “Let me add 1,000 percent to it.” I can’t wait for people to see what he does. Aaron Spears [Justin, B&B] comes in and effortlessly changes the whole scene. It’s great.
Digest: So, while all of this is happening on-screen, off-screen, Karla gave birth to daughter Aurora, and Lawrence welcomed son Christian.
Mosley: Like, within four days.
Saint-victor: Four days apart!
Digest: You couldn’t have planned that.
Mosley: We did not! We’ve gone Hollywood, but —
Saint-victor: Not that Hollywood!
Digest: How has parenthood changed your lives? Mosley: It’s grounded me, and it has also made the cream rise to the top as far as what I want do with my time and creativity. There
was a part of me that was afraid that I might not want to be creative after I was a mom, which would be totally okay, but instead it’s given me more inspiration. It also made it so that
I’m very choosy about the things I want to do because I want to be available for her as much as possible. It’s made the time that I’m away from her extremely focused, and the time that I’m with her, it’s like the whole world shuts off. I only have eyes for her.
Saint-victor: How do I top that? I can’t. It’s the same. I need to justify why I’m not with him, and if I’m not doing something I love or something I care about, then it’s not even worth walking out the door. The amount of focus and amount of commitment has even grown bigger, because I can’t leave him doing something halfhearted. It’s just crazy to see somebody change before your eyes and grow and develop a personality. It’s so weird to see myself in him. I’m rambling, but being a parent is fantastic.
Mosley: It’s also changed the way that we work. First of all, we can’t just run off
like, “Oh, I’ll meet you for coffee.” Instead, it’s like, “No, I’ll Skype you, maybe around this time, if they’re not crying.” Digest: Have the kids had a play date yet? Saint-victor: No! I
haven’t met her!
Mosley: I know! Shay [his wife] has. I haven’t met Christian yet. We definitely have to do it soon.
Digest: On B&B, Maya’s back from Paris solo and Carter is still single. Will we see sparks rekindle?
Mosley: That’s the fun thing about going back to BOLD: You just never know what Brad has up his sleeve. We will be just as surprised as you are.
Saint-victor: You never know. We find out just like everyone else finds out. We’ll open a script one day and be like, “Oh, shoot!”
Digest: What’s next for WED-LOCKED?
Mosley: Right now, we’re streaming it. Beyond that, who knows? Hopefully, we’ll make some more episodes. The great thing about WED-LOCKED is that we have endless episode possibilities.
Saint-victor: In the meantime, go to Video On Demand, type in WED-LOCKED, and the show will pop right up.
Digest: Have you ever thought about a second season? Maybe a rom-com?
Saint-victor: I think we’ve thought about almost every —
Mosley: Possibility. It’s funny, ’cause I actually hadn’t thought of it as a movie until we had the premiere.
Saint-victor: All we need is enough people to say, “You should do this.” We’ve made it this far ....