‘A Million Little Things’: Christina Moses Teases Regina’s Possible Career Shift in Season 5

Heading into A Million Little Things Season 5, Regina (Christina Moses) is one of the few people who know Gary (James Roday Rodriguez) has cancer. But Gary and Maggie (Allison Miller) don’t know that Regina and Rome (Romany Malco) watched that video.

With the drama returning to ABC in the midseason (and possibly for its last season), Moses didn’t know much about what to expect when TV Insider caught up with her. “I do know that we’re going to deal with [Gary’s cancer] on some level,” she said. Read on as she speculates about how that could happen, discusses the stability of Regina and Rome’s relationship, and teases what’s next for her character career-wise.

How do you think Regina and Rome are going to deal with keeping the secret of Gary’s cancer?

Christina Moses: I’m so curious. I can imagine they’re going to try to keep it quiet, like how the pattern of our show goes. Someone is withholding information. They try to pretend they don’t know and then somehow someone blurts it out or gets it out. I can see that being the situation. I can’t imagine Rome being able to keep that quiet from Gary.

Especially because they’ll want to help their friend but can’t too much in a way he suspects they know.

Right? There might be a little bit of humor around [that], like [game night] when we were pretending to not make a big deal of waiting for Gary’s results and how it was a little bit humorous where we were overcompensating a little bit. I can see something like that happening… we had a lot of fun [with that episode].

Regina had a rough season just with everything involving her parents. 

Yeah, I was so pleased that we actually went there because I feel like that’s such an important topic within the topic of molestation or rape or sexual assault: where you place blame inadvertently or how much people don’t understand, even victims themselves. Because of society and conditioning and shame, people can feel that they were responsible in some ways, like how Regina thought it was her fault because she was sad and her mom had mentioned something about her flirting with her uncle, just needing attention, so she thought she brought that upon herself. So many people have DMed me after that just saying, “I thought it was my fault, too,” but that’s very, very common. And so to have this angle, the mother and daughter both realize it wasn’t the mother’s fault when she was a little girl, it wasn’t Regina’s fault when she was a little girl, but to have it brought up with such detail from the perspective of the father …

ABC/Sergei Bachlakov

Parts of our psyche block things out out of sheer protection, it’s part of the beauty of our brain, and people don’t understand: “If something so traumatic happened, of course you would remember that, of course you would do everything to protect your daughter, friend, from ever experiencing something like that.” But the truth is, as Shelly reveals, “I had no idea that happened to me. I was acting purely out of my subconscious and my body trying to keep me safe, but I had no cognitive recognition and remembrance of what happened.” I thought that was a super, super important issue to bring up and then to watch these two beautiful actors and two beautiful human beings go through that journey was an actor’s dream because they’re so talented and they’re so generous in their emotions, their talents, their work, and their energy, that we had a great time.

How is she feeling about herself and her relationships with both her parents after that?

I think she feels much closer to both of them, like she understands more about why her parents have kept such an arm’s distance from each other, why they’re so contentious. It was just based on pure misunderstanding, it was based on trauma, and I think it did lightyears of healing between them as a family unit. And divorced children, sometimes they play the middle man, that’s just something that happens a lot, especially if you’re the only child, and so I feel like that may not be such a heavy thing for her anymore because her parents understand each other now.

On the happier side of things, Regina and Rome are probably one of my favorite couples on TV. I’ve told DJ Nash that they’re the one couple on the show I just want together and happy.

Aww, yeah, I don’t think Rome and Regina are ever gonna split up. I hope not.

ABC/Darko Sikman

What is it about them that makes them such a stable duo? 

They respect each other, they listen to each other. They view their relationship as a team. They are team members at life. It’s not always about you and the individual and I think they kind of have a good way of balancing when it is about the individual and how they can support the other and then when they have to pull together. They’re always a team, so whether they’re focusing on like, oh, Rome’s going through a lot right now so maybe Regina has to sacrifice a few things or vice versa, it becomes just about the other person, but it’s really about the whole team.

Now they’re empty-nesters —

I know! Tyrell’s going off to college.

How do you think Regina’s going to handle that?

Regina’s going to do what she always does, which is try to get busy. I think she’s going to try to figure out what to do with her food truck business. Maybe Rome will do another documentary or something. I don’t know if it’s a full-on career shift, but I think there might be — nothing’s set in stone yet — a little shift in what Regina does with her work.

ABC/Darko Sikman

I was going to ask if Regina found the path she wants to continue down for her career but now it sounds like it’s leading to something else?

I think it might, but it’s all in the realm of helping people. Regina really does enjoy helping people: when the pandemic happened, the way she turned her restaurant into something that was beneficial to people, the way she is with friends… I think it’s still going to be in the realm of that.

Could Regina and Rome think about bringing another kid into their lives?

I have no idea. I don’t think so. I think because Maggie’s pregnant, as we know, just logistically, that might not happen because it’s really hard production-wise.

I feel like they wouldn’t be willing to adopt another baby because of what happened last time. They don’t need that heartbreak again.

Right. I think that might be a little too much. And I think the official fostering of Tyrell kind of fulfilled that dream because he’s always going to be in their lives. He’s just off to college, and he’s not even that far away. I think their parental desires have been fulfilled. With the new baby coming within the friend group, I think that will also feel really supportive and nourishing for them without having to have their own.

And baby Charlie is away.

Yeah, even though Delilah [Stephanie Szostak] will be coming back at some point.

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What are you hoping to explore with Regina in Season 5?

I think the food truck is really great and finding that she can live and fulfill her dream without it being exactly what she thought it needed to look like and being able to accept the restaurant thing isn’t for her, which was hard for her to accept because that’s what you do: You become a chef, you work so hard to become a chef and so you think the logical next step is to eventually own your restaurant or to be a head chef at a very successful restaurant. That just isn’t in her cards anymore but it’s also not her dream anymore, so I like the idea of her just evolving and finding more of how she can live her dream in different ways, in ways she didn’t think were possible before.

I know COVID affected production, but I hope we get more group scenes. We haven’t gotten enough of those lately.

I know! It really did affect production a lot. They tried to be really picky. Because if one cast member goes down with COVID but we’re all there filming, the whole production will shut down. We have been one of the only productions to never shut down. I know we’re still going to be wearing masks and testing, but I’m hoping there will be more group scenes because it’s hell for the directors but it’s amazing for us because we have so much fun together and we just love working with each other so much. I say hell for the directors, just because it’s like herding cats when we’re together. We just have too much fun.

Some of your castmates have made the jump behind the camera and directed. Is that something you’re interested in doing?

Yes, I actually will be directing Episode 10 this season. Romany’s directing an episode as well this season, but he’s already directed before, not our show but his own movie.

A Million Little Things, Season 5, 2023, ABC