Karen Pittman from ‘The Morning Show’ on her character Mia Jordan’s evolution

0:12Hello and welcome to the Monaco Weekly. I'm Fernando Augusto Pacheco, and on today's show, I speak with Karen Pittman, who plays top television producer Mia Jordan on Apple TV Plus series The Morning Show, which is currently in its fourth season. Her character plays a big role this season. Let's hear more from Karen.

0:37I'm a firm believer in second chances. Maybe this is an opportunity to make it right. Karen Pittman, welcome to Monaco Radio to talk about The Morning Show, which I am a huge fan, so it's a pleasure. Thank you. And fourth season, of course, is in. No spoilers here, but I have to say, your character this season is on fire, literally. No spoilers. It's difficult, right? No spoilers. It's so hard. It's really hard. How much do you think your character have changed? Because, I mean, there's a lot of growth. There's big changes from Mia Jordan in this season, right? Yeah, I mean, you know, Mia starts out, you know, when we encounter her in the first season of the morning show, she's got that self-inflicted wound, having been involved in a workplace romance with Mitch Kessler, who we know has, you know, been taken down through that Me Too movement in this really heroic gesture by Alex and Bradley at the end of the season.

1:37And then season two, we're in COVID. And season three, we experienced a merger. And during this whole period, Mia has been one of the people at the morning show that has really held it together on behalf of all of the employees. She is a company woman. She is, you know, there for the morning show and taking care of the people there. And at some point in season four, we see a turn in her where she decides that she is going to be more ruthlessly for herself. After having handed herself over to the company, she decided to take herself back. And this is brilliant. I mean, because she does have kind of new alliances in the series as well with characters like Chris, for example, which I thought was fantastic.

2:29And it felt quite organic as well, the way she did it. It is, and it also is, you know, hearkening back to the center of who the character is. Mia ultimately does not change that much, right? She is about what the whole is in her perspective on her work. She is more centered around herself, but she is stepping forward on behalf of this effort that her and Stella decided that they were going to focus on, which was lifting women up as they climbed. And that's really part of what she continues to do in season four. But we see her do it in a much more callous, probably, is the best way to look at her effort, but also definitely more pointed, more ruthless.

3:18And I have to say, her Russian does work her this season. I shouldn't say anymore. She speaks no Russian this season. She speaks no Russian this season. But she does play pool. Which is very important. I mean, the writers just keep giving me great things to do. She speaks Russian. She plays pool. I mean, it's a fun character. One thing I like about The Morning Show, of course, it does talk about all the topics that we're all discussing right now. AI, Russia, Trump. It's incredible how the writers have their finger on the pulse, for sure. But it's mainly about the characters in a way, because you have all of those in the background.

3:54But in the end, we want to know how is Mia feeling? How is Alex Bradley feeling? Do you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. Because I think one of the things, Billy Crudup and I were interviewing today and we talked about this, that the plot twists are important and these character arcs are important. But at the center of the morning show, from the beginning has been these rich characters. And the plot twists around them, they don't twist around the plot, do you know? That's very important because once you become invested, sympathetic to the characters, Once you can start to track them as individuals in their journeys, you want to go with them wherever they go.

4:33The whole show is this huge adventure. And because we have these great actors on the show, including, as I said, Billy and Jen and Reese, but also Greta. And we have a bunch of new actors on the show. And Aaron Pierre and Jeremy Irons and Marion Cotillard. Again, Nicole Bajari. We just keep adding these great actors. So the stories are so rich The characters are so deep Like you want to follow them from season to season And I think that's why The Morning Show Has just gotten better In my opinion The fourth season is probably the best To get what you want You need to burn the house down I know what I deserve And it's my time now And I can relate very much to the series as a journalist I think everyone interviewing you Because of course we're talking about Big production here something that perhaps wouldn't happen in the usual life of a journalist, but there is something, that tension before the show goes live.

5:29You know, it is quite realistic in that sense. Yeah, I think everyone says that to me when we go visit them in television news. No matter where we are, they're always like so authentic. Are you guys behind the scenes here at our show? You know, again, that's just a hallmark of the great writing on the show, that they have their finger on the pulse of what people want to talk about. But also, I think we find that journalism and television journalism is more interesting every day because of this extraordinary cult of personality that now is a part of how we get our news. From whom you receive your news is as important as the news itself.

6:07And for many, many decades, removing any kind of personality out of the journalist so that you could present the facts and the information was paramount. That was what we consider journalistic integrity. And so it's fascinating now to see who these people are providing our news. From Rachel Maddow to Megan Kelly to Piers Morgan. Like, who are these people that are presenting us with the news? And what are they about? What is their take on the news? And how is that influencing how we hear the news? We have this really extraordinary character on the show played by Boyd Holbrook named Bro. He is the Joe Rogan type.

6:46He is selling testosterone as part of his podcast show. You know, he's one of those guys that sort of represents a perfect example of what American journalism and American information and news gathering really looks like. And so we're just expanding and exploring all these incredible topics and the characters who are part of it. The AI plot line was fascinating as well, because, you know, as a journalist, and I'm sure you're a journalist, you know, it's kind of scary in a way. Can AI replace our jobs? But as you're saying, you need the voice. You need to trust the journalists. So maybe you will not actually replace the jobs, if you know what I mean.

7:24Yeah, I think there are some areas where AI is not going to be able to infiltrate. But I think the ways that AI is the scariest to me or creates the most worry and concern for me is how dependent we already are on it. I'm talking about how, you know, if you can't remember the name of someone, you just pick up your phone and you type it in. Or if you're late at night feeling sick, unwell, oh, let me just go to Dr. Google or WebMD to find out what's going on. These are the ways that we are more dependent on AI and that sort of mechanism than ever before. And I think that level of seeking information, I think, is one of those areas where we're unaware that we are really dependent upon AI.

8:10And, of course, I need to ask you this because you started as a, well, you studied music, right? Yes, right. And opera as well. Yeah. And I did see something about that you guys should do a morning show episode, a musical. Yes. I'm into that. Are you into it? Yeah. Can we make this happen? You know, to be perfectly frank, my showrunners asked me, Charlotte has asked me, Karen, would you sing this season? So I don't know why or when this came up that I said, yeah, you know, we should do a musical episode. But I don't know. The short answer is I don't know. I don't know what they're planning on the morning show in the future.

8:48But we certainly have such strong opinions about whether or not we should or shouldn't do it. I'm sure they're going to turn it around and figure it out. Maybe it's a bit too much for me, Jordan, speaking Russian, playing poker. I mean, that would be a bit too much, right? You never know. You never know. What language do you speak, by the way? Out of curiosity. A little bit of Spanish, a little bit of French, a little bit of Italian. I know enough to get around, get along and not embarrass myself. I wish I knew more. I wish I was better at it. My kids have great facility with language, other languages.

9:19In that case, muchas gracias, Karen. Oh, gracias. Oh, that's very kind. What I'll say in Portuguese, muito obrigado. Muito, can I say it again? Muito obrigado. Okay, I'm going to let you say that, but yes, you're welcome. No, it's a pleasure. I love the season. Thank you so much, Karen. Thank you. People need to feel that UBN is going to have it first and they're going to have it right. A nice idea. But it's not sexy. Thank you very much, Karen. You can watch season four of The Morning Show on Apple TV+. I'm Fernando Augusto Pacheco and the show was edited by Elliot Greenfield. Thank you very much for listening.

10:04Thank you.