James Roday Rodriguez on ‘AMLT’ Finale Loss: ‘Maybe That’s the Trick We Pulled Off’

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the A Million Little Things series finale.]

A Million Little Things said goodbye — to the series and Gary (James Roday Rodriguez) — in a touching finale that featured a tough decision, heartbreaking moments, and a look to the future.

The drama that began with a suicide concluded with an assisted suicide, with Maggie (Allison Miller) by her husband’s side at the end. The rest of the friend group and their loved ones were gathered at Katherine’s (Grace Park) for a big dinner, laughing and telling stories about Gary, just as he’d wanted.

Rodriguez, who also co-wrote the finale with creator DJ Nash, opens up about saying goodbye.

The last two episodes really go hand in hand. It’s such heavy material, and Gary’s the only one trying to make people laugh consistently.

James Roday Rodriguez: Well, that’s who he is, and I think he realizes how difficult the situation is for everybody, and so he kind of went out doing the same thing that he always did for that group. I think the difference is they’re a much stronger group than they were when this show started and where they were and what happened when they lost Jon [Ron Livingston] at the beginning of the series compared to where they are now and saying goodbye to Gary was sort of night and day.

If we accomplished anything — because I know that a lot of times it just sort of felt like every bad thing that could possibly happen to people happens to people on this show — it’s sort of like when Daniel LaRusso was washing the cars and sanding the deck and sweeping the floors and then he’s like, “Why am I doing all of this?” And then all of a sudden, he can block all of Miyagi’s shots, and he’s like, “You’ve learned karate.” Well, these people actually learned how to cope and how to support and how to love better and how to be better so that when this tragedy happens to them, they’re able to cope with it in a completely different way, a much healthier way. Maybe that’s the trick that we pulled off.

The Gary and Maggie scenes, from the wedding to their last scene together, were joyful, heartbreaking, and pretty much exactly what you expect from A Million Little Things. Talk about working with Allison on them.

From the very beginning, Allison was an absolute powerhouse. Our processes are very different, and I think they complement each other very well, and I have a great deal of respect for how committed she is and how dialed in emotionally she is at any given moment. So, I knew that she would be able to handle what we were throwing at her for those last two episodes. I knew we could count on her to carry the water. I felt bad because I also knew that it would absolutely destroy her, but she did it, and she did it beautifully. And I think it really is sort of the emotional spine of the end of our show, watching this woman dig deep and find extraordinary strength and peace in order to deal with this.

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How was the last day of filming? What was the last scene you shot?

I was the first one done, thanks to scheduling and locations and stuff. I was finished, I think, two days before everybody else, and my last scene was outside when Maggie showed Gary the billboard. So we were on a corner, it was about 25 degrees, the dog was ready to go indoors, and we took a moment.

They wrapped me for the series, and I think that was probably the moment when everyone kind of realized that we really had come to the end like we have to start saying, “It’s a series wrap on so-and-so.” It sort of hits you like, “Oh, wow, five years. Yeah, it’s done, we’re done.” But it was very warm, and we always had a really supportive crew and a really supportive group. I think you think about it more once it’s over, probably, but in the moment, it just felt like, “Yeah, we did it. Good for us.”

You also did a fantastic job writing the finale with DJ. How did that come about? What was that process like?

I kidnapped him in an unmarked van and — no, he approached me at the TCAs, which was not that long ago, and said, “I think we should do this together.” And my first thought was, “You’re crazy. No one has ever cared more about a thing than you care about A Million Little Things. This should be absolutely you. You should land this plane. You’re the pilot.” He convinced me that no, we’ve been on this journey together, and he and I had known that this was how things were going to end for Gary for quite some time and he wanted us to cross the finish line together, and I have immense respect and appreciation for that. I basically sort of rode shotgun and Robin’ed his Batman. But make no mistake, the finale came from DJ’s brain and heart, just like every other episode of this show did.

How much had you known specifically about Gary’s ending?

I think we lied over the years and said things like, “Oh, we have no idea. DJ doesn’t tell us,” and to some extent, that’s true, but in this particular case, he’s known he wanted to end the show like this since Season 1. I think he told me between Season 1 and Season 2, and my response was, “Great, as long as it feels earned, as long as it doesn’t feel manipulative. If we get there in an honest way, then it’s a very honest story.”

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We’ve sort of prided ourselves, especially as a network show, in trying to reflect authentic human experiences. They’re often on the sad side, but the truth is we had two people with cancer in this cast, and one of them beat it, and that’s wonderful, and that’s the ending you always hope for. But so many of us know that that’s not the way it always goes, and I think in order to balance the scales and represent both sides of that coin, it made sense to have to have it go the way that it did.

How do you want Gary to be remembered?

A guy who picked himself up by the bootstraps and realized that he was wasting his life and that he needed to start living and he needed to open his heart and take things in, be a better friend, be a better partner. Proof that someone in middle age can actually change, can evolve, can let love in. If you look at him at the beginning and where we started and now, he made real changes in his life, and it’s proof that no matter what kind of adversity you face or where you come from, you can do that. You can find reasons to change, you can let love in, and I think he’s a good case study for that.

He got what he wanted, his friends laughing and telling stories at a big dinner. Is there one story he would’ve definitely wanted to be told and one he definitely would not have?

I don’t think Gary had a ton of decorum, so I’m not sure that there’s anything that would’ve bothered him. In fact, the grosser, the more inappropriate, probably the better, for sure. And in terms of stories that absolutely needed to be told, I think he would’ve probably been really, really tickled that Katherine told the story about Gary accidentally seeing her boobs. That feels like pretty close to the top of his list just because he knows it would’ve made everyone cringe, and I think he got true pleasure out of those types of moments in life.

I loved their friendship.

Yeah, I think Gary, for better or worse, was always able to put a finger on the fact that Katherine gave more to that group than she ever got back.

He says it in the toast at the wedding.

It doesn’t make up for the fact that that was the truth, but at least he was able to acknowledge it for her so that she felt a little bit more seen. And I think he grew to appreciate her more over the years as well as someone who was just doing what needed to be done because his good buddy was dropping the ball all over the place.

We got some great callbacks, like Gary and Regina’s (Christina Moses) date. And then the Gary and Delilah (Stephanie Szostak) stuff in the finale…

I was so thrilled to have Szostak back. She was kind of the mother hen of that cast, and we felt her loss when she left the show. It’s interesting who she was to us versus who Delilah was to the group. It was pretty polarizing. But having her back so that we were all together again in those final episodes was important to us. I know the fans have their own opinions — thank God they do because, without them, there would be no us, so we’re thrilled that they get invested and have their favorites and get worked up.

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But the truth is, we are like a little family when you’re up there in a bubble making television. Stephanie was a big part of that family, so it was really nice to have her back. And that relationship was always very sort of brother-sister, so it’s a completely different dynamic, and you can get away with stuff like farting on each other, which is one of my favorite moments in the episode. I’m so thankful to ABC for letting it live because it felt very much on-brand for both of them.

How will you remember A Million Little Things?

I will remember it as a curveball that came along when I was least expecting it and, not unlike Gary, it kind of wore me down and opened me up for the better. But it wasn’t something I was looking for. It wasn’t something that I knew I needed, for sure. But by the time I was in it and realized how lucky I was to be surrounded by these people, how lucky I was to be working with the Allison Millers of the world… I do have a much greater appreciation for the opportunity and the journey and the fans, and the fact that I think maybe we did some good.

Was there anything you wanted to include in the finale that you couldn’t do for any reason?

We talked about wanting to represent as many perspectives as we could on the issue of assisted suicide, and we do sort of subtly use Regina as the point of view of “I’m not OK with this.” I think in a perfect world, we could have had a longer runway for that, but it’s tough when you don’t want people to know where you’re headed but you also kind of want to lay as many breadcrumbs as possible.

I think there’s a version that probably would’ve never flown on network television where you find out in Episode 10 that this is Gary’s plan and then you have three episodes of the group being split right down the middle, and what do those debates look like and how do they reconcile it and what does it do to them as a group? And you know, you still ultimately have them come together and support their friend. But maybe in a multiverse situation, there would’ve been an opportunity to explore the individual feelings people had about this issue, but with the amount of real estate that we have, and again, the fact that I don’t think ABC wanted a show to be talking about death with dignity for four hours, so…

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And also, that way you could celebrate the fun group in these last episodes.

Exactly.

Did you take anything from the set?

I had every intention of taking the phonograph from Gary and Maggie’s place, and I called dibs on it, and I think meant to be boxed up, but I never got it. One last sad story on top of a million others, Meredith.