From show creatorDJ Nash, the ABC seriesA Million Little Thingsfollows a group of friends who initially bonded under unusual circumstances, but who stayed tight over the years since. After one of them dies unexpectedly, it leads the others to re-evaluate their careers and relationships, as they each wonder if they’re where they should and need to be. The series starsDavid Giuntoli,James Roday,Romany Malco,Allison Miller,Christina Moses,Christina Ochoa,Grace Park,Stephanie Szostak,Lizzy GreeneandRon Livingston.
During this 1-on-1 phone interview with Collider, actor James Roday talked about how he came toA Million Little Things, the appeal of this character, whether he personally relates more to Gary Mendez or Shawn Spencer (from his previous TV seriesPsych), treating the issue of suicide truthfully and with respect, the chemistry he has with this cast, whether it’s harder to be funny in a comedy or a drama, researching what it’s like for a man to have breast cancer, and whether he’d ever direct an episode of this show. He also talked about the plans to definitely make anotherPsychmovie, how humbling the staying power of that series has been, and directingTreehouse, which is one of the 12 movies that’s a part of the Blumhouse horror seriesInto the Dark, being released once a month on Hulu.
Collider : After so many years of talking to you aboutPsych, I have to admit that it’s a little weird to be talking to you about another show, but still good to talk to you, nonetheless.
JAMES RODAY:It’s weird the way that works sometimes.
And since we’ve also spoken about our mutual love of Twin Peaks before, do you think Gary is a fan ofTwin Peaks, or do you think he’s never even seen an episode?
RODAY:Do you know what? I think Gary has heard ofTwin Peaks. He probably vaguely remembers that it was a show, at some point, but I don’t know that Gary was rushing home to watchTwin Peaks, as a 7thgrader.
How did this show and role come your way? Were you just reading pilot scripts, or was it specifically this one?
RODAY:It was specifically this one. I was not reading pilot scripts. It was quite the opposite, actually, as I was focused almost exclusively on directing. My peeps, my team, my gents called and said, “Look, there’s one script that you have to read.” When they call and say that, it’s an easy decision because, the truth is, it doesn’t take that long to read a script, and if they’re that excited about it, it actually means that they’re curating the material and are only sending me something that they think is special. So, when those calls happen, you usually get pumped because you’re like, “Let me see what you’re so excited about.”Psychactually happened very similarly. In that way, there’s some symmetry. So, I read it, and I totally got it. I got it in terms of what the show is, and what the responsibility and obligations would be, but more specifically, I got it because I personally have been touched by just about every issue that we’re dealing with. It really resonated. We just recently got through a breast cancer scare with one of my very best friends, about a year and a half ago. I just really felt like, “Hey, if you’re gonna call yourself an actor still, then these are exactly the kinds of things that you have to do.” And once I sat down across from (show creator) DJ [Nash] and talked about what his approach to the show was gonna be and what was important to him, it became clear that, at the very least, I would be doing a pilot calledA Million Little Things.
I really appreciated that the series also had a PSA about suicide. It’s really important that people know there are people out there who want to and can help.
RODAY:We want to treat that issue respectfully, truthfully and authentically because of the fact that it is so ever present in our lives right now and it’s becoming something of an epidemic. It’s a really fine line that you have to be aware of. When you’re trying to craft a narrative and a television show around an issue like suicide, you can very easily fall into a lot of traps. I think the good news for us is that we we’re able to identify what those traps were, based on some other shows that have tried to do this, and say, “Okay, we can’t do that. That’s not right. That doesn’t feel real.” There is a pretty big checklist of don’ts, when it comes to how to deal with this. We’ve been working with so many consultants, and talking to so many survivors and people that have dealt with it firsthand that, collectively, we’ve got a pretty good handle on what not to do, moving forward. For anybody who’s concerned that this is a show that is somehow going to romanticize suicide, or glorify it in some way, or trivialize it in some way, or attempt to tell you that there’s a reason for it, we’re not doing any of those things.
Was Gary the only character that you’d thought about or talked about playing, or had you looked at all of the characters and felt most drawn to him??
RODAY:It was 100% Gary for me. The only thing that I knew, going in, was that Rome was African-American, so that wasn’t going to work. Gary spoke to me, so that was the direction that I went in.
Do you find that you personally relate more to Gary or Shawn (fromPsych), or a combination of the two of them?
RODAY:I certainly feel like I relate more to Gary than I ever did to Shawn, and I think the reason for that is that I am the right age for this show. It’s a major wake-up call for any of us that are tiptoeing around that half-way mark, at the half-time of life, and are look in the mirror going, “Is this what I should be doing? Are these the people that I should be doing it with? How am I treating them? How am I treating myself? Am I living my best life?” All of those things that you don’t really care about in your 20s, and you’ve only begun to think about in your 30s, really become a daily part of the process once you hit 40, and that’s what this show is to me. That’s what it was when I read it. That’s what I felt when I read it. We’re all dealing, either directly or indirectly, with most of these issues that are in the show. It hit the middle of the target for me, as opposed to a role like Shawn, which was just more fun than you could ever shake a stick at, but I don’t know who can actually relate to being Peter Pan because you just can’t live like that.
You were part of a duo for so long, with Shawn and Gus, and you were with thePsychcast for so many years. Did you have a moment, walking onto this set for the first time with this cast, where it just felt weird to be looking at so many new faces?
RODAY:Well, the good news is that we’re back in Vancouver, so there were some familiar faces on the crew. That’s always warm and nice. That always helps with the transition. But the truth is, this show is so different and these people are so different that it really is a separate, unique experience. Maybe it would’ve been different, if it was another comedy that was even in the same zip code, but this is so different, and our objectives are so different. What’s very similar is that this group really appreciates and respects one another, and gets along. I feel like I have once again got lightning in bottle, as far as being with good people and having chemistry, and not having a bad apple in the bunch. I’m two for two, and very, very lucky in that regard. It’s still early, so these people could go haywire, but at least for now, we all got that no one is bigger than this show, and no one can ever be bigger than this show. We have a real responsibility here, and our focus is the storytelling and not nonsense. That has worked for us, and it allowed us to get down to business right away.
Do you find it harder to be funny in a comedy where there is that expectation there, or is it harder to be funny in a drama, especially when it’s about some pretty serious subjects?
RODAY:That’s a great question. AsPsychwent on, deeper in the run, I started to feel more of a challenge just because, how many jokes are there? How many times can you reinvent the wheel? How many times can you make people laugh at the same shit? Whereas with something likeA Million Little Things, that humor is part of life. Gallows humor is part of our coping mechanism. It’s part of our grief process. If we don’t know what else to do, we laugh. That’s a very real thing. So, I think leaning into that takes off the expectation of, “Oh, my gosh, this has to be funny.” The truth is, none of these people are comedians. The jokes don’t actually have to slay. They just have to represent someone trying to make a joke, in a moment where what the hell else could you possibly do? I hope that’s what people can relate to and tap into. I don’t necessarily feel the pressure of having to hit a bunch of home runs with the jokes themselves versus being on a comedy where people aren’t laughing while they’re watching a show.
On top of dealing with the loss of someone he cared about, Gary’s also dealing with what it means to be a cancer survivor. How did you research that aspect of the role, especially finding out what it’s like as a man with breast cancer?
RODAY:I started by talking to all of my own peeps in my own personal circle, of which there are too many that have dealt with this. None of them were men, though, so when it came time to get specific, I was given recommendations by several people. I ended up talking to a pretty good sampling of men, in terms of generationally and whether they were married or single. I got a pretty solid sample size of men that have had this experience, and it’s pretty fascinating how wide the gamut is, from guys that at no point felt stigmatized because it was breast cancer, all the way to guys who could not have felt more alienated and emasculated, and who lost their sexual mojo and had their confidence completely destroyed because it was specifically breast cancer. And interestingly, you could almost draw a line down the middle between the guys that were single and the guys that were married and had support systems already in place. I found that very interesting, as well. Within the last 75 years, breast cancer was actually called “women’s cancer.” It had to evolve to being called what it actually is. Men aren’t supposed to get it. That’s how we’ve been conditioned. So, when it happens, you’re already dealing with a societal stigma before you even have to start fighting it. You’re already like, “How could this possibly have happened to me, when it only happens to 2% of the male population?” It’s a challenge, and I’m very, very pleased that we can shine a light on this life, that hundreds of thousands of men in this country are living, and not just in our country, obviously, but around the world. We’re saying, “Hey, we see you. You have a seat at this table, too. Get over here. You’re a part of this conversation. We love you. You’re not alone.: That was a huge part of why I did this project, as well.
You talked about how, before this, you were focused on directing. Would you ever want to direct an episode of this show?
RODAY:No, I would not, and it’s a really simple reason why. This show is not about directing. This show is about capturing moments, truth and performances. It really is an actor’s show and a writer’s show. For me, that means my job is to focus, 100%, on bringing this guy to life, as authentically as possible. To step out of that and put on a different hat would do a disservice to the work that really needs to get done, in order to make these episodes as good as they can possibly be. Now, if we’re on the air so long that we have no choice but to do what every other show does, and start doing black and white noir episodes, musicals and crazy shit like that, than I might change my answer. But right now, I very much feel like I know what my priorities need to be, and that’s staying in front of the camera.
Do you still have plans and hopes to do anotherPsychmovie?
RODAY:Absolutely! They’re not hopes. They’re not far-fetched. It really is just a matter of getting everybody’s schedule aligned for a couple of weeks, to get back up there and do it. The appetite is the same. Our fans are still as incredible as ever. Everybody’s game. At the very least, we all feel like we owe the Psych-Os a larger dose of Lassiter, so that’s gonna happen. I hope that definitive yes is enough to keep people satisfied for a little bit. The only thing we can’t really say is when exactly, but we’ll figure it out, and then there will be more.
When you first started out withPsych, 12 years ago, could you have ever imagined that it would last eight seasons, there would be a movie, there would hopefully be more movies to come, and that it would be something that would make so many people happy? Did you see that potential in it, or would you have thought that was completely insane, if somebody had said that to you then?
RODAY:I would definitely have been in the group that said, “That’s completely insane!” Dulé [Hill] will tell you that he absolutely saw it. Dulé was also coming off of seven very successful seasons ofThe West Wing. His only experience of being in television was success and affecting people, so he was like, “Yeah, now, it’s gonna be the comedy version of that.” And I was like, “Okay, dude, let me clue you in on how the rest of us have been living.” I knew it had potential. The character really spoke to me because of my love forReal Geniusand Chris Knight, and Val Kilmer’s performance in that movie, so I was certainly excited that I was gonna get to put my spin on a vibe that had been really big for me, from the time I was a kid. But beyond going, “Oh, my gosh, I’m gonna get to go to Vancouver and have a lot of fun playing this guy,” I never ever would’ve dreamt that it would’ve become what it did, and that it would’ve had the staying power. Perhaps, most incredibly, it’s continued to find a younger audiences, since we’ve stopped making the show. That’s the thing that continues to blow me away and just never ceases to amaze me. Younger people continue to seek out this show and find it, and we get approached by 11-year-olds who say, “Oh, my god,Psychis my favorite show.” It’s like, “You weren’t born when we started making that!” It’s fascinating, and also awesome and humbling.
Obviously, you’re busy starring on a TV series, but do you have any other scripts written, as far as features go, that you’d like to direct, as soon as you get a chance?
RODAY:I got a chance, and it was one of the craziest things that I’ve ever done. Between the pilot and starting this series, I jammed in a feature calledTreehouse, which is part of a 12-movie anthology that Blumhouse is doing with Hulu, calledInto the Dark. The first one [is available now], and there’s gonna be one a month. Each movie is loosely centered around a holiday, which is why there’s 12 of them.Treehouseis March, and it’s for International Women’s Day. That’s about all I can say about it. It’s one of those things where you almost can’t say anything about it without ruining the experience because, if you know too much, it’s almost not fair. But it was an incredible experience that I had, with an incredible group of women designers, technicians and producers, and the incomparable Jimmi Simpson. We’re pretty proud of it. We did it in a flash, and it’s about as timely a subject matter as you could possibly hope for. It could not be coming at a more opportune moment, I think.
