‘A Million Little Things’ Floriana Lima on Darcy & Gary’s Relationship, Working With Eddie & More
Q&A
A Million Little Things‘ friend group has expanded in Season 3, with Darcy (Floriana Lima, now a series regular) both Katherine’s (Grace Park) friend and Gary’s (James Roday Rodriguez) girlfriend.
And while she may not like Eddie (David Giuntoli) — she still hasn’t forgiven him for cheating on Katherine with Delilah (Stephanie Szostak) — she is going to be handling his physical therapy. (He was paralyzed after getting hit by a car at the end of Season 2.) Speaking of complicated relationships, she’s also perfectly fine with her boyfriend FaceTiming with ex-girlfriend Maggie (Allison Miller), who’s at Oxford. But that’s bound to get messy, right?
Here, Lima discusses Darcy and Katherine’s friendship, Gary and Maggie, and more.
As someone who had wanted to see someone on Katherine’s side, I was so happy when Darcy showed up. And then she builds those ramps and takes Eddie on as a patient for Katherine.
Floriana Lima: It’s a relationship that is like family. You’re always there for one another. We haven’t seen [it for] Darcy yet, but Katherine had her own little friendship going and someone who she could confide in. Darcy really knows Katherine and is there to help her through the hard times and even though she doesn’t love what Eddie has done to Katherine and their marriage, she definitely will do anything for her friend. They’re as close as family and when your family needs you, you’re there.
Everyone has sort of moved past Eddie and Delilah’s affair; even Katherine has accepted that they’re family because of Charlie. But in the last episode, Darcy makes it clear to Gary she hasn’t forgotten. Even though she’ll be professional, how is that going to affect what we see from Darcy and Eddie as he begins PT?
She’s a professional, she powers through. She doesn’t hate Eddie, but she definitely isn’t going to let him off the hook that easy but will listen to him and be there for him as his physical therapist.
Gary seems certain that she’ll warm up to Eddie. Will she? He is her best friend’s husband and boyfriend’s best friend.
Most people do warm up to Eddie, so maybe that’s what Gary’s saying. We’ll see if they end up being friends.
(ABC/Jack Rowand)
How is Gary and Darcy’s relationship going? It seems like Maggie may have gotten into his head a bit with him going home at the end of the last episode.
Yeah, Darcy’s aware of that. She’s a little, “OK, he’s still fresh out of this intense relationship,” and she’s wary but she’s definitely understanding and will give him some passes here and there. But the relationship is going good so far. It’s funny because she’s very understanding and I personally don’t know if I would be OK in this type of relationship. We see that she’s there to listen, she’s there to understand, and she’s no-nonsense overall about the relationship.
Darcy has to think about the fact that she has a kid, so how does that affect the decisions she makes about her relationship with Gary?
Yeah, she’s keeping it pretty light so far because she does have a kid. I think she’s almost saying to Gary it’s not that serious because she doesn’t totally want to dive in too deeply because of her kid. She’s cautious but really excited about what the relationship is becoming but if it goes anywhere, she’ll eventually have to introduce Gary as the boyfriend to Liam — that’s definitely in the back of her mind — and that would be really difficult.
Darcy says she’s OK with him being friends with his ex, especially if she lives on a different continent. Is that going to remain true? Will we see her confiding in Katherine perhaps?
Yeah, it does remain true. Darcy says what she feels, she’s pretty straightforward, so, yeah, she definitely means you can be friends with your ex, but respect our relationship, that little joke about being on a different continent. … With Katherine, I can’t really tell you. But yeah, you’re going to see how the friendship [with Maggie] does affect the Gary and Darcy relationship.
I’m very interested in seeing Darcy and Maggie without Gary as a buffer. Could the two of them become friends?
I love that possibility. I think that could happen down the line. I think Darcy is really open to that. She doesn’t really hold any weird grudges because she doesn’t really know his group that well, so she’s like, “Yeah, Maggie seems like a nice person. She’s your ex.”
(ABC/Jack Rowand)
What are Darcy’s thoughts on the friend group? She sort of has an outsider’s perspective, even though she’s becoming part of it, through Katherine and Gary, and now working with Eddie…
She thinks everyone’s really kind and really open. She likes that they have allowed her into their group with open arms. She’s really touched by that and thinks they’re a really sweet group. The Katherine and the Eddie and the Delilah of it all is probably the most confusing to her, but she is keeping an open mind and just being there for her friend and for Gary also. She’s just learning about each member in the group and I think she really does like them. It’s a really good dynamic for her to be joining.
But it’s intense to come into that group with everything going on in their lives.
Yeah, there’s a lot going on, and I don’t think Darcy really knows everything that’s going on. I think right now she knows a little bit about the Rome and Regina baby thing and has some compassion about that. She’s just getting a bird’s-eye view and then diving in as we go episode by episode.
Are we going to see some of Darcy’s professional life now that Eddie’s becoming part of it?
Yeah, we’ll see a bit of that. You’re going to see more of what she’s dealing with as a mom and her PTSD and how that affects her being what she thinks a good mother [should be]. We’re going to see more of what she’s dealing with mentally really. But we will see a bit of her in her professional world also.
Speaking of her PTSD and her past, how are we going to see that unfold? Bits and pieces over episodes?
Yeah, it’s been really cool to see for me to read her story and to see how it’s going to start unfolding and how the audience will also see a bit of Darcy and it’s been truly interesting and fun to play. We’re going to see a lot of why she has panic attacks and why she feels out of control in that area. We’re going to see bits and pieces of what her past was like.
(ABC/Jack Rowand)
I feel like for any other character, this is where Maggie would come in as a therapist….
Yeah, and Darcy’s really guarded about the PTSD she’s suffering with. She doesn’t tell anybody really about it so to open up to her boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend is probably not the first place she would go. But it is interesting that Maggie is a therapist and does kind of hold the key to help Darcy down the line.
A Million Little Things, Thursdays, 10/9c, ABC
