Courtesy/CBS

Back in March of this year, The Bold and the Beautiful dropped a major bombshell, and even if you guessed the secret, you never thought the daytime drama series would actually go through with it … but they did!  It was revealed that the character of Maya Avant (Karla Mosley) was actually a transgender woman.  The shocker came when Maya’s younger sister Nicole (Reign Edwards) arrived in Los Angeles, and was armed with some information she was going to use to her own advantage.  Nicole confronted Maya about it, and informed her she knew that Maya was actually born as her brother, “Myron!”

Actress Karla Mosley, who for two years played Maya without this back-story of her character, learned back in December of last year that series EP and head writer, Brad Bell had this planned for her, and that the long running soap opera was going full force with this story of love and acceptance for this under-represented segment of our population on television … the transgender community.

But Maya’s story is so much more complicated than just even having all the people she knows, and or loves, find out the truth she took great pains to hide!  Maya is deeply in love with Rick Forrester (Jacob Young), and he is deeply in love with her.  However, while on a trip to Big Bear, Rick proposes marriage to Maya.  Before Maya accepts Rick’s proposal, she decides to disclose her truth so that there are no secrets between them.  Maya knows first-hand that lying to Rick does not sit well with the Forrester CEO. In fact, Maya blew up his marriage to Caroline (Linsey Godfrey) after his then wife was found out to be locking-lips with Rick’s arch-enemy and half-brother, Ridge (Thorsten Kaye).

On-Air On-Soaps sat down with two of daytime’s finest actors, the recently Daytime Emmy nominated Young, and the engaging Mosley, to get their thoughts and a preview of what is to come in this on-screen love story that will continue to shed light, compassion, and understanding for those who have struggled, or faced prejudice when striving to be their authentic selves.    

MICHAEL:

Did you anticipate such fervor in the mainstream press when the secret came out on air that Maya was born a man named “Myron”, and was in fact, transgender?

KARLA:

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I really didn’t.  I knew the work we were doing was important, but I really didn’t realize how big this was for daytime television in general: to have a character who is a regular series character, and who is not the butt of a joke, and who happens to be transgender.

JACOB:

Nothing really shocks me in daytime, but I thought immediately it was brilliant, and then I thought, “Oh crap!  What if they can’t execute this the right way,” and then I got concerned.  I wanted to make sure of the educational aspect of it, and that it was just coming across well.  When you have someone playing this, and someone as talented as Karla, she can probably make anything work even if they weren’t telling it right.  Karla has definitely put in her two cents worth, for sure.

KARLA:

It’s so interesting.  There are things I wouldn’t have stood up for, for myself, but because I knew of its importance for the transgender community, I was like, “No, we cannot do that.”   I have had to be more firm on things than I have been in the past, because you want to tell the story, and you want to tell it right.  We are all committed to that.

MICHAEL:

Was there a concern of, “Will we look like buffoons?  How will we make this story work, because this was not originally part of Maya’s story previously? “

KARLA:

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When the first episodes aired, of course, I was holding my breath with the reveal, but it was really the follow-up episode, where we had those long four days in between, because we were pre-empted for March Madness Basketball … that was insane!  That was really the episode that I felt was so important, because everyone was waiting for an explanation.  I was thinking, “Please make this not be awful! (laughs), and in fact, let it be good.”   I think the writers really did a fabulous job, and the whole team, with the two key episodes.

MICHAEL:

What does Rick truly feel for Maya at this point, now that he knows her secret past?

JACOB:

He really loves her.  You will see … expect the unexpected!

MICHAEL:

Your characters are both so bitchy and awful to other people! (Laughs)

KARLA:

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It has been great awful!

MICHAEL:

Did the two of you not laugh when doing these types of scenes, in particular where you literally have this takeover of the Forrester mansion, displacing people, and then taking down the picture of the matriarch of the Forrester clan (Stephanie Forrester) above the living room mantel, and replacing it with one of Maya?

KARLA:

Of course, there is this huge ridiculous portrait of me hanging over the mantel, and Rick is making people wash Maya’s feet, and that’s what I love about it.  Their love for each other comes from them both being victims in life.  They are such open-hearted people, who then have had to guard their hearts from being disappointed.  But, they are also connected, because they are assholes! (Laughs)

JACOB:

They value each other that way!  (Laughs) You know what I think is funny, that after all the antics they pulled; Eric (John McCook) comes in and says to Rick, “You should have the house!”  I read that in the script, and laughed, and laughed, and went, “What?”  Eric is like, “I will go live in the guest house, son.”  (Laughs)  Rick is being rewarded for being a jerk!

MICHAEL:

Photo Credit: HutchinsPhoto.com

Karla, what can you say about Jacob’s incredible performances this past year, in which he received a Daytime Emmy nomination in the Outstanding Supporting Actor category, and being his main scene partner throughout a good portion of it?

KARLA:

I think as actors you get something that pushes you to the next level, and pushes you even deeper to where you can go, and that’s what I see when I look at Jacob’s work.

JACOB:

We have good days, and bad days, and not with every material are you going to have that connection that Karla is talking about.  The episode I submitted for the Emmy, had where Maya busts open the truth about Caroline (Linsey Godfrey) and Ridge (Thorsten Kaye), and in that same episode, Rick also found out that Ridge was going to be made CEO.  It was a double-whammy that hit him, and so Rick was like an emotional basket case.

KARLA:

You saw the rage that was there, but you saw the years of their relationship, and his love for Caroline, and the betrayal by his father.  You saw all of that, and that is not an easy balance to find and yet make the character sympathetic.

JACOB:

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It was just before the Emmy calendar year cut off, and thank God I got it in, where I had an episode that had all that emotional material in it.   I was thankful that I had it, and so grateful and honored to be recognized by my peers.

MICHAEL:

Karla, let’s talk about the interview you did with Janet Mock on her TV show, So Popular.  She was coming at you to see if you knew your stuff, and if you could handle her questions.  Being transgender herself, it was like Janet was putting you through your paces going: “You’re going to play this character?  Let’s see if you get it!”

KARLA:

She was so tough, and she was coming at me.  Janet is amazing!  I have her book up in my dressing room.  She and Laverne Cox (Orange is the New Black) are my new idols.  I was so honored to be on Janet’s show.  It was really nice to have a conversation with her that wasn’t in sound bites.  So often we get a minute or two to tell our story, but here we actually got to have a conversation, and I had to think.  I knew I would have to show up and know my stuff, and speak honestly, because I knew Janet was not going to have it any other way.  I have to say afterwards I got a tweet from Laverne Cox who said, “I am watching Janet’s show and I really enjoyed your interview.”  And I said, “Thank you so much!”  I am jumping up and down, and my mother said, “What is wrong with you?  You never get like this!”  And I answered, “Because I feel I am sitting at the ‘cool girl’ table at school right now!”  Laverne said, she thought I handled it with care, and so to hear that from both of those ladies was a really shining moment for me.

MICHAEL:

One of the first things Janet asked you was that you, Karla, are not transgender, and why do you think B&B had you play transgender instead of hiring a transgender actress to play this kind of key role?

KARLA:

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That was one of the first questions I asked, too.  I called my friends and I asked, “Why me?”  Like I said during the Janet Mock interview: “Why me?  Why this body?”  And I think there are plusses and minuses to both, but I think one of the assets is that people in the audience have known Maya, and they have loved her, or loved to hate her.  Now just like with any other disclosure or coming out process, there is another emotion that comes up from some viewers, such as, ” I don’t like her now.”  We are then forced to look at why?  What is causing that?  Is there some latent prejudice that I am not aware of?  And that is what has been so incredible on social media is to really process this with people. Why are you not wanting to look at this storyline … or … what nerve is this touching upon?  Even if they don’t understand, that it’s touching upon real things in them … we do!

MICHAEL:

Jacob, what did you think about how Maya went about disclosing her truth to Rick?  What did you  think of Rick’s reaction?

JACOB:

I think she waited too long, but at the end of the day she was still forthcoming and truthful.  I think Rick’s reaction was refreshing.  A step in the right direction.

KARLA:

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She is the same ‘cuckoo pants Maya’ that we have always known, and so that doesn’t change.  It just deepens what we know about her.  But I did read in a chapter in Janet Mock’s book about disclosing to her then fiancé, Aaron.  I have some passages that I will go back to when I need a refresher.  Kate Bornstein is also amazing, so I have been watching some of her talks.  Thank goodness for the internet.   There is so much there, and just listening to people’s stories.  We don’t have to go very far to hear people talking about this subject.   People are waiting to be heard for years, and now they will be getting to be heard, and I hope this storyline on B&B will help with that.

MICHAEL:

Let’s talk about the ‘elephant in the room’ storyline-wise!  The fact that Maya supposedly had this baby with ex-boyfriend Jesse!  Weren’t you concerned as to how they were going to make sense of this?

KARLA:

Of course!  The baby makes sense to me.   Jesse (Ricky Paull Goldin) helped her to transition.  She was helping him raise his child.  It also made sense why they both went to jail, and in this mysterious unknown way; why she would have risked so much for him if she had his child.  That was always one of the things that sort of bothered me.  If she had this child that she was so in love with, why would she risk everything to do something illegal with Jesse?  But, if that was funding her transition, then that makes a lot of sense.

MICHAEL:

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Remember Maya’s humble beginnings?  When Rick found her all raggedy at the mission in downtown Los Angeles? (Laughs)

JACOB:

From rags to riches!  Rick has had a history of that, like with Amber (Adrienne Frantz). She was from the trailer park! (Laughs)  She was also, at times, compassionate and lovely, and was all about him.  Rick needs somebody that is there supporting him.  He doesn’t view that he can be alone with his company …he has to have that person in his life that has his back.

MICHAEL:

What does Rick think of ex-wife Caroline at this point?

JACOB:

That she’s a liar, but there was definite love there.  If he wasn’t in love with her, he would not have been so devastated.

KARLA:

There is a part of Maya that worried that if Rick knew the truth about her, he would go back to Caroline, and that was scary for Maya.

MICHAEL:

Who has been the bigger bitch in your estimations … Caroline or Maya?

KARLA:

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I don’t know if people remember how awful Caroline was to Maya, but they do remember Maya being awful to Caroline, because she did it in such a public way.  Caroline almost had Maya thrown back into prison.  I mean, that was awful.  Maya just broke up her marriage. (Laughs)

JACOB:

And Caroline never said Maya’s name correctly…

KARLA:

Uh-huh, she called her “Myrna”!

MICHAEL:

Karla, what can you say about working with Reign Edwards (Nicole)?

KARLA:

She is amazing.   I call her my 18-year-old teacher.  She is so good.  Both Karla and Reign, and Maya and Nicole, have a great balance.  Reign is so grounded and fabulous.

MICHAEL:

What did Lawrence Saint-Victor (Carter) do when he found out Maya was going to be revealed to be a transgender woman?

KARLA:

Photo Credit: HutchinsPhoto.com

He fell out of his chair.  We were all in the make-up room, and everyone was trying to guess Maya’s secret.  Lawrence actually guessed-it, and then we left the room.  I was not going to say it in front of everyone.  So I said to him, privately, “You guessed it!”  He said, “I did?”  He was then texting me all night.  People would guess that theory, but not actually believe it would be true, and that happened a lot.

JACOB:

I would go, “What is this secret?”  I was thinking … was she born a man?  Just as a guess.

KARLA:

I knew a few months before, but poor Jacob was one of the last to know.  It got around the set to everyone, but Jacob!

JACOB:

Ed Scott, our producer, at the end of a tape day came to tell me.  I looked at him and said, “You’re joking?”  I said that because I can never take Ed seriously.   He is so damn serious all the time, and so you never know because his jokes are as serious – you know two-bit comedy! (Laughs)  He then goes, “No.  I’m not joking!  It’s fabulous!”  I then said, “I guessed it!  I knew it!”  So I guess, somehow instinctively I knew.

KARLA:

I think most people who guessed it did not think we would really go there, but what else could it be?

JACOB:

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The only other one that I kept thinking was that Nicole was Maya’s daughter.  That is so classic soap opera.

MICHAEL:

I thought that as a possibility, too!  But then I thought that Maya would have been way too young to have given birth to Nicole.

JACOB:

No, I did the math.  It would have been OK! (Laughs)  But that would have been too obvious, but everyone was shocked, but in a good way.

MICHAEL:

This reveal has been one of the best laid shockers on a daytime drama series!  But Karla, what was your family’s reaction to the news when you told them about the character twist?

KARLA:

My husband Jeremiah was like, “Oh, Oh OK.”  He couldn’t really wrap his head around it.  I told him the day that Brad Bell told me.  I thought, you know, maybe I should run this by my partner, and let him know.  He did watch the reveal episodes, which was great.  He has been totally supportive.  Now my mom first went, “Why?” (Laughs)  But, my mom has also been so supportive, and she actually went with me when I taped the episode on Janet Mock’s show.  Originally, I told my mom that she can’t tell anyone, because she is a talker, and everyone at church watches the show, so I told her she can’t tell anyone.  But I told her she can talk to Jeremiah!  So they have had conversations on their own, I know it.  (Laughs)  My mom is always skeptical at first, and then she comes around, and she is the biggest fan.  Now she is texting me all the time going, “I think this is great, Karla!  I think this is wonderful.”  I think that is the best thing about being a parent is that your kids can open your mind.

MICHAEL:

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Karla, what kind of emails, tweets, letters are you getting from the transgender community who have begun to follow Maya’s journey on B&B?

KARLA:

Through Twitter people are saying, “You’re telling my story, and these are conversations I’ve had.”   I got a tweet the other week where someone said, “My friend’s mother hadn’t spoken to her in 20 years, because her daughter is transgender, and after watching B&B, she made a call to her.”  It’s amazing, and that’s why we’re here.

JACOB:

You can’t deny there is such an impact with some of these storylines on the soaps.  I can’t tell you when I did the cancer storyline on All My Children how many people reached out to me.  How many people said they had gotten through whatever it is we are going through at that time, because of watching the show.  Some families don’t know how to deal with it, and so they saw a family coming together, and being loving on TV.  It’s important what we do here.  We have a responsibility to tell these stories the right way, and to be compassionate about it.  I think it’s brilliant.

KARLA:

I think what Jacob is saying is so important.  It’s not only Maya’s story, but we are also seeing Nicole, Rick, and Carter, and the people she works with, and who she loves, and their responses.  So even if people have trouble relating to what Maya is going through, they might be able to see themselves in the reaction of the other family members, and friends.  Someone recently said looking at Carter’s reaction, especially initially, it was so emotional.  I think we can all understand all the varied reactions he was having, and yet he, and Maya are working through it, and are still in the same room together as uncomfortable as it is.

MICHAEL:

Final thoughts: Jacob, is Rick going to continue to be an asshole? (Laughs)

JACOB:

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Yes, (pauses) but whom he is going to be an asshole to … that is the bigger question!

MICHAEL:

And Karla, where do you hope Maya’s story eventually goes?

KARLA:

I keep saying, I can’t wait till we get to the point where we are past the shock, and where Maya is just living her life as a model, or whatever career path she has chosen.  And, we get to just go back to the ups and downs, and the craziness of Maya Avant, who also happens to be a transgender woman.