Joanna Going – Kingdom

By: Lisa Steinberg

Q) Do you look forward to the feedback you will be receiving about the new season of “Kingdom?”

A) I’m looking forward to seeing the show because we don’t get to see it until you are seeing it. There is so much I am not around for like when Matt Lauria is doing his stuff or when Frank [Grillo] and Kiele [Sanchez] are doing their stuff. There is so much we aren’t there for to see. Seeing it all put together is a whole new experience for us when we are watching it. I don’t watch playback on the set or see dailies. Even for the scenes I shoot, I wonder how it looks and you don’t even know what the lighting was doing from the camera’s point of view. So, it is very exciting to watch a the show when it airs. Then, you get the feedback from the fans and see how it all goes over, which is really fun with Twitter. This show is my first experience with live tweeting and getting peoples’ reactions immediately. That’s a lot of fun!

Q) What can you share about where we pick up and storylines we will see?

A) We pick up about six months later. Christina is trying to walk the line with her sobriety and trying to stay clean. She is trying to do the right thing and has a job. It’s not a great job, but she is trying to find what the point of staying clean. Alvey and Lisa are preparing for a new baby.

Q) How do dynamics change as a result of Christina’s sobriety and Lisa’s baby on the way?

A) Kiele’s story is one of those in a different department. I’m not around for much of her stuff, but for Christina it definitely is staying sober. She is not doing drugs at the moment so it is finding out who she is without drugs and without prostitution. It became clear to me as we shot this season going along that this was a season about Christina having everything stripped away from her and trying to find out what is left. Who is she? Things that were her identity – a junkie, a prostitute and wife – are being taken away from her and I think she is trying to find out what is her self worth.

Q) What have you added to your role that wasn’t originally scripted for you?

A) I would say specifically I know that from the first season our showrunner/creator, Byron Balasco, originally didn’t see Christina being around as much as she ended up. I think when I started playing out the character he started writing more for her. I don’t think they originally envisioned her having her own story. I am very detail oriented, much to the annoyance of some people on set, but I do research and get very detail oriented. I get very fussy about details. So, I know I brought that to the character. Trying to be as authentic and truthful about her story, about someone who has descended into addiction, and in this season it kind of turns out that the getting clean which is so brutal is the easy part. Then what do you do? Now what? You have it out of your system, but now what? And how do you join society without the proper support? That’s what we are investigating in this season.

Q) talk about working with Frank and the chemistry the two of you share on screen.

A) It’s great working with Frank! He completely embodies that character, just the physical aspect of healthy and who he is. Frank has talked a lot about that. He brings it. He walks into the room with that, the training and having been trained as a fighter all his life. He still boxes every day. So, he brings a lot of that into the room. We have selected scenes, but they are pretty volatile. They are filled with this story of these two people who were together since they were young, had children, but lived the high life for a while when he was at the top of his game as a fighter. Both of these people are living with one leg in the past. Christina is somewhat stunted and somewhat stuck in the past because of where her life took a wrong turn. She kind of missed a lot of years due to her drug use. Frank and I don’t have to discuss much. We just get on the set and we are both invested in thee characters and we both have told ourselves our characters’ stories and we just bring that to the table. I think we have a chemistry that suits the relationship.

Q) You play Nick Jonas’ mom on the show. What have been your impressions of him?

A) Nick is quite a remarkable young man. It’s kind of strange because for me he is two different people. He is this superstar world famous musician that I hear on the radio and buy. I’ve become a fan and he just released his solo album. The person I know, personally, is this very serious, very sweet and humble actor who comes to set prepared, commits and is just right there with you. He’s very grounded. There is no celebrity hoopla around the Nick Jonas who comes to work with us. I think we are all so grateful to him for that. He is there and he is one of us. He just brings such a pained sweetness to Nate. You kind of see him carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders and then he explodes into this monster of a fighter. So, I love relationship with each of Christina’s sons. They are so different and She has such different relationships with each of them. I find it really truthful. A mother has a different relationship with every child and especially a mother who was absent the way Christina was.

Q) You mentioned being a part of social media. How has it been getting that instant fan feedback about the show?

A) I’m very new to it. I started about a year ago because of this show. I only started Facebook a year ago as well. Before I got in there, it seemed a very overwhelming thing to me, but it has been really fun and really satisfying to engage with people. To get that immediate feedback…It used to be you did your work on set and hopefully were satisfied with it. Then, it would go out and you were in this sort of vacuum and all that was left was what critics say. To get that immediate from the people who are actually tuning in and to hear them specifically pick out things you did makes you think, “Oh my gosh they get that! That’s what I was trying to do!” That has been so nice. I’ve done live theater in the past where you have dialogue with the audience going on. You are up on the stage doing the play, but the audience is part of the experience. They are feeding off of us and we are feeding off of them. So, to have that go on even though it is after the fact and out of our hands (since we have completed the show) is really gratifying. It’s gratifying to hear from people who have had drug issues. I did a radio interview where a lot of people were calling in and emailing in and we talked a lot about addiction. To be able to maybe, in some way, get a message across to someone struggling with those issues to inspire them to get clean is all one can hope for – to catch someone’s heart in that way.

Q) What makes DirectTV such a great fit for “Kingdom?”

A) It is the Audience Channel on DirectTV. What makes it such a great fit is they give us such a great freedom. This is a new venture for the last few years. They also have the original drama “Rogue” before we started and they have developed more original shows (comedy and drama) since we started. To be with them from the birth of this network and have so much support, belief and trust in our showrunner – we just have a lot of creative freedom because we don’t have to pander to advertisers. We really can tell the story the way we want and it being a very adult, mature content show we can push the envelope with the fights and the gritty reality of this culture and these relationships. That makes it really a wonderful place to be working.

Q) What would you like to be sure fans know about the new season of “Kingdom?”

A) I would like to make sure you know the upcoming season premieres October 14th on DirectTV on the Audience Channel. Season One is now streaming on iTunes and Amazon. Twenty-four hours after it was released it was the number one drama on iTunes. So, that was very exciting and like a whole other premiere for us to see all the people who have been waiting to watch. We also understand not everyone can get DirectTV so we are so glad that “Kingdom” is available now all over the world. Also, an exciting thing about the second season we have a new woman fighter entering the show. That’s pretty exciting with all of the excitement around Ronda Rousey and women are coming up in marshal arts. I’m really glad that we are seeing a woman in this world.