Thursday, October 22, 2009

WED-LOCKED With Lawrence Saint-Victor & Karla Mosley, Part One

We Love Soaps recently spoke with WED-LOCKED producers and stars Lawrence Saint-Victor and Karla Mosley about the upcoming web series. Saint-Victor and Mosley played Remy and Christina on GUIDING LIGHT until the show went off the air in September and will now bring that chemistry to their own show which will debut on November 1.



We Love Soaps: Thank you both for being here! Tell me about this exciting new series called WED-LOCKED.
Karla Mosley: The idea actually came from my mother. My mother has a million ideas. She said, “You and Lawrence should do a spinoff, you guys need to keep working together.” I said to Lawrence, “My mom said you and I should do something together. And he said, “That’s a great idea! Hel-lo? Why didn’t you tell me this five months sooner?” So we started brainstorming about what stories we’d like to tell, and what we think is missing in television today, and what are strengths are, and we came up with WED-LOCKED.

We Love Soaps: What is missing in television today?
Lawrence Saint-Victor: This is probably going to sound dramatic, but I think what is missing is the deconstruction of the marriage and family. Everything is about these teens getting in trouble and divorce and people who are single and can’t find love. Where is that place where you see two married people trying to work it out? Where is that place where the family stays grounded and rooted no matter what? Where are our “Cosby” shows today? Through all Remy and Kristina’s complications they stuck together. Even when they didn’t want to. And she [Karla] is recently married, and I’ve been married two years so we have a lot of stories about men and women and miscommunications. When you’re married, it’s like, “We’ve got to figure this out.”
Karla Mosley: That’s the ultimate goal is that they’re a team. Robbie and Denise [the couple in Wed-Locked] are working together. Ultimately they love each other. That’s what our director has really been working on a lot. Like they’re going through a lot, but we never want to feel like they’re really in trouble. We always want to be rooting for these people and ultimately feel like they’re rooting for each other, they’re having fun.

We Love Soaps: And these ideas came out of the cancellation of Guiding Light?
Lawrence Saint-Victor: Yes. We found out about the cancellation on April 1st. And I guess you told me your Mom said this around June...
Karla Mosley: July...
Lawrence Saint-Victor: But her Mom really told her this back in April. Even on Crystal’s show [Venice] and our show, we just really like working together. The GUIDING LIGHT cast is really a tight cast. And the idea of never working with each other again, or having to wait and hopefully fate will put us in the same [cast], it’s like no, let’s work together on something. Then your mom gave us the content, so it’s been smooth from there
Karla Mosley: And it’s really exciting to bring other people in because everyone has been really excited about the project and wanting to work. It’s been so easy. It’s been a lot of hard work to have a promo together and five little episodes shot after finding out in July we were going to put this project together. It’s been pretty incredible. But that’s because everyone is so excited about it and wanting it to be successful.

We Love Soaps: What do you see as the advantages to doing a web series versus going to television?
Lawrence Saint-Victor: I think a web series let’s it be interactive. We are setting up many things were characters will Tweet. Rob and Denise will Tweet about what happened in an episode. Or we can create a video vlog of them talking, or just having the characters interact with the fans in a way they just can’t do on television. Our vision is to have these characters be part of your family. Where soaps make it like they’re with you, with a web series they’re more than in your living room, they’re sitting right next to you.
Karla Mosley: And also I think for the artist there’s a certain amount of control. We don’t have to wait on a network, we don’t have to listen to executives tell us, “We’ll pick up your show if you cut that character and wear a string bikini and...” whatever it is. We can do the episodes we want to do and play the way we want to play. Also, as far as the interactive aspect of it, we can listen to feedback from the fans, and then include that in episodes and show, and that’s really lovely as well.

We Love Soaps: You mentioned control. I imagine having been actor on a daytime television soap operas versus being producers on a web series must be a very different experience. You don’t have the networks and the executives to answer to, you get to tell the story as you want to. What is that like?
Lawrence Saint-Victor: I love it. And that’s nothing against our experience as actors. On GUIDING LIGHT is where I really studies the producers. Especially in the new model, in the new format, with how they shot, and how they got everybody together. I would often talk to them, talk to the directors, and get their different fields. I learned so much there. It’s not so much control, there is a team. We have me, Karla, and two other producers on this. We get to sit down and bounce it around without a network saying, “We need this by this time.” We say, “Let’s figure out the story first. Let’s take whatever time we need for the story.” And I feel like that freedom is what we may not have when you have corporations [involved].
Karla Mosley: And it goes both ways. We have the artistic freedom, but we also are the people who have to get it done at the end of the day. There’s something really wonderful about going in and just doing your job and going home. It’s another thing when you do your job and then you have to make sure the promo gets out because if that doesn’t get done, no one else is going to do it for us.

We Love Soaps: Speaking of timelines, I’m amazed with how fast this has happened. You started talking about this in July, and it’s going to be debuting November 1st. What did you learn from the GUIDING LIGHT production model that is assisting you now?
Lawrence Saint-Victor: When we first started the new [GL] format, everyone was learning as we went. Producers, directors, everyone learned as we were going. So I got to see producers trouble shoot and figure out what works. If you watch the show in its first couple of months [of the new production model] versus the last couple of months, it is drastically different in the way it’s shot. And I got to be a fly on the wall watching them figure that out. Seeing how each and every one troubleshoots, it was tough at first. But I was watching them figure it out, and I was writing notes.

We Love Soaps: Was continuing Remy and Kristina in a web series ever a part of your dialogue?
Karla Mosley: I think one hand it wasn’t contractually possible because they belong to CBS and GUIDING LIGHT. But also, Remy and Kristina had a very specific story and we loved many things about their story, but there were many things we were ready to leave behind. It’s great to start fresh with a new couple that is experiencing life in a different way. There are some similarities, like that playfulness that Remy and Kristina have and that dynamic of staying together. And the trials and errors and crazy mishaps, but Robbie and Denise have their own flavor and we’re really having a good time exploring that.

Click here for Part Two of our interview where Mosley and Saint-Victor offer more insights into WED-LOCKED, share which GUIDING LIGHT stars will appear on the show, and Mosley's passion for marriage equality.

1 comment:

  1. Awesome! The promo looks interesting.

    So much creativity is coming out of the former GL cast! And it's good that whoever runs the show's official Facebook and Twitter has been continuing to be promoting projects like this too.

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