Joanna Going – Kingdom

By: Lisa Steinberg

Q) What are the recent projects that you are working on?

A) It’s mainly “Kingdom” because we had a couple short breaks and I didn’t do anything during them. I did a short for College Humor that came out this Spring. Right now, I’m looking for something to do during this long hiatus.

Q) What is new this season on “Kingdom” and with your character Christina?

A) We continue to explore Christina’s battle with her heroin addiction. We left her in the last ten episodes having kind of had a relapse and now we pick up with her trying a new track of going to rehab. We’re going to see how she fairs in an actual rehab environment. It being Christina, there are some challenges. Also, we see the kind of fallout from the kind of codependent relationship she has with Jay. As much as they love each other, her mother and son there is quite a web of codependency and a history of behavior. We see them coming up against each other with that. Christina still hasn’t come up with a real purpose in her life – in her new clean life. So, she’s still kind of searching for that. It’s sort of exploring the bloom is off the rose with having mom around the house for both the boys. Everyone is kind of off in their own directions and having a difficult time connecting.

Q) How might dynamics be shifting as we enter season 2B?

A) the love fest of having mom home and initially clean of heroin is over. Now, as the boys (particularly Jay) go off on their own paths Christina is kind of left to her own devices. She’s lonely. She doesn’t have the attention of Jay and she needs someone’s attention. That is a driving force I think in how she behaves and the rather dubious choices that she makes.

Q) When we talk about her needing someone, will we see her reaching out to anyone?

A) She is continuing to try to connect with Nate (Nick Jonas) more. Nate kind of laid down an ultimatum to her and I think she is still trying to find a bridge to him. They are kind of left there in the house for a while together and it’s still very tentative, but his word and his opinion kind of goes straight to her heart because she doesn’t have the easy relationship with Nate that she has had with Jay (Jonathan Tucker). He is sort of holy to her. Because he isn’t as flamboyant in his behavior; in effect he is kind of this mystery creature to her. It pains her deeply when she disappoints him, which she tends to do quite often.

Q) What keeps challenging about this role?

A) Well, it’s challenging in the same way that she is kind of floundering around without a purpose it is kind of challenging to play her without a purpose. She’s such a fuck up. But I love her and I want the best for her. Sometimes I read the scripts and think, “No! No! Please! Don’t do that.” Yet, it’s still a lot of fun what I get to play with her. I want the best for her and yet I see her making these terrible choices and it pains me.

Q) You have played a number of strong female characters and vulnerable women. What is it about these women you connect with?

A) I don’t’ think there is a single character or woman that is both strong and vulnerable. I think some characters’ strength comes out of their vulnerability. For instance, the first lady on “House of Cards” was a very vulnerable sensitive person, but that was her strength and her enormous feeling for her marriage and for her husband. That ultimately believed that it needed to take precedence. That was her strength and what was the best thing for that couple to do. Christina is a mess and very vulnerable. But I also see an enormous amount of strength in her. She’s still alive considering what she has been through and the choices she has made in her life. She’s still alive. She’s street smart. She can handle what comes along. She takes care of herself, not in the healthiest of ways. But I think she has an independent streak and a will to live that is very strong.

Q) What has been the most rewarding part of being a part of the series?

A) It’s been an enormously collaborative project between the actors and Byron Balasco, the creator of the show. That’s been really rewarding. This sense of collaboration and challenge with a kind of character that I haven’t really been able to explore before. I’ve really enjoyed it. I’ve enjoyed Byron’s faith in me in bringing this character to life.

Q) What have you added to Christina?

A) That’s so hard for me to say. As I said, it’s very much a collaboration with how she looks, what she wears. I have a lot of say in all of that. We have a wonderful designer, Julia Schklair. But I’m given a lot of say in how she presents herself. I see Christina as somewhat stunted, stuck in a younger part of her life where things went awry. I try to give that feel to her in what she dresses, which is somewhat inappropriately for her age (or anyone walking around in public). [laughs] We do see a little bit of a transition in the upcoming episode with her trying to be a bit more toned down, but she is very free and easy – kind of like a hippy child – and she hasn’t grown beyond that. Of course, I work closely with hair and makeup with how we develop her look and I get obsessed with my fingernails for her for some reason. I made it a thing that when she is bored she does her nails, much to the chagrin of the continuity person I’m always changing her nail polish. I think of the ways she entertains herself when nobody is around and she can’t be doing drugs. She doesn’t have a lot of resources and she lives in this crappy house. So, I think that trying to find those things and put them into scenes whenever I can. Byron and I have a lot of discussions about life and my personal life and what we want for Christina. I think he will kind of glean from that and put it in to what he writes. The character is very much on the page. It comes out of the mind of Byron Balasco and I just get to breathe her.

Q) What do you hope fans take away from watching this season or the series?

A) I just hope they are having a great time watching it and love it. I hope they tell everybody that they know! I think it is a really entertaining and emotional rollercoaster of a show. It’s very real. We make a great effort to be authentic as possible in the lives of these people in this particular community and the world of mixed martial arts. It’s a culture of its own. I think it is fascinating watching the contrast between the discipline of these fighters and these personal lives that are haywire. I’m not one of the fighters, but I think she has the haywire life that adds to the fighters’ life. We have a fight consultant and choreographer, Joe Stevenson, who is this sweetheart that is always coming up to me and giving me big hugs because he really relates to the mother that I am. In his life, in lives of other fighters, he finds the Christina story very authentic. And that means an enormous amount to me. It’s not just the fighters we are looking at. We are looking at the people who made them what they are. I’m glad to be a part of that story and I hope that people are drawn into the drama beyond the fights. The fights are so exciting, but I think the personal lives and the relationships that we are telling are very relatable in a sort of mythic fashion. Not everybody walking around is a mixed martial arts fighter of the family of one, but it is a mythic way of telling the story of every day relationships and families.