The 33-year-old created and stars in the show, and opened up about facing criticism.
Josh, who recently revealed he is autistic, and his co-star Kayla Cromer is autistic in real life and on the show, and he was asked, “Being one of the only shows representing that community, you open yourself up to criticism about getting it right. How cautious are you in how you tell those stories?”
“We don’t want to tell safe stories, right? If you’re telling a new story, you don’t know how people are going to react,” he told THR. “It’s a constant state of not really knowing. So what I do is … I don’t give a f–k. People are going to react how they’re going to react.”
If he does get criticism, he said, “You cannot live your life worrying about what people are going to think.”
Josh also talked about the sex on the show and whether Freeform has asked that it be toned down or altered.
“They like it being gay, and they’re pretty sex positive. Look, I don’t get a lot of notes about the gay stuff,” he shared. “You don’t want to be on the other end of a Zoom call with me noting intimacy scenes. No one wants to ruin their day like that. I don’t have kids. I have nowhere to be. So I’ll stay on the phone. I’ll send emails. I’ll call around the network. If you want to change a gay sex scene, you’re going to have a bad weekend.”
Everything’s Gonna Be Okay premieres it’s second season TONIGHT (April 8) on Freeform!
In addition to the Motherland renewal, Lyne Renee, who plays General Alder, has been upped to series regular!
“I could not be more grateful for the chance to keep exploring the world of ‘Motherland: Fort Salem,’” Writer/Creator Eliot Laurence said in a statment. “Freeform has been such a fabulous home for us through the development process, production, post and marketing. I’m also blown away by the love we’ve gotten from our fans, whose excitement and passion played a massive part in this renewal. Thank you, witches!”
“This is great news, not just because it means I have a group of writers that have to hang out on my screen with me all day and I don’t have to be alone anymore getting weird,” Creator, Executive Producer and star Josh Thomas said of EGBO, “but because I love this show and I love these characters and I love our cast and crew and making another season is just going to be so nice.”
This year’s holiday programming “31 Nights of Halloween,” “Kickoff to Christmas” and “25 Days of Christmas,” will be back and bigger than ever. “31 Nights of Halloween” will once again feature the classics Hocus Pocus and Ghostbusters, while “25 Days of Christmas” will bring you The Santa Clause trilogy and be the cable home of Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
This year’s Valentine’s Day themed event “Love However the FF You Want” will be back in 2021, and Freeform will kick off the new “Summer Singalong,” with movies, music and the network premiere of the live action Aladdin!
The cast of Everything’s Gonna Be Okay pose for a cast photo at the 2020 Winter TCA Press Tour held at The Langham Huntington on Friday (January 17) in Pasadena, Calif.
Kayla Cromer looks lovely in a pink velvet dress during her appearance on Build Series with her Everything’s Gonna Be Okay cast in New York City on Wednesday afternoon (January 15).
“Matilda is learning to navigate life in a neurotypical world. She is inexperienced in dating and relationships. She is more open with her autism, where I was still learning to advocate for myself,” Kayla spoke to The Hill about her character on the series. “She gets overwhelmed in situations with crowds and noises, or confusing moments.” By contrast, “I wasn’t coddled, I was put into situations and learned to adapt.”
Despite their differences, Kayla says, they’re both “quirky and hilarious, without knowing it.”
Kayla also shared that her different way of thinking has helped her give the best performance possible.
“Being on the spectrum and having other learning differences, I am used to working harder and have a great drive to succeed. I interpret things differently, which helps with analyzing scripts, engulfing myself into roles, to achieve realism,” she shared. “[It] also drives me to make strong choices.”
Everything’s Gonna Be Okay premieres TONIGHT on Freeform. Stay tuned for a sneak peek!
The series centers on Nicholas (Josh Thomas), a neurotic twenty-something-year-old visiting his dad and teenage half-sisters (Kayla Cromer and Maeve Press), one of whom is on the autism spectrum.
When Nicholas’ trip is extended due to his father’s untimely death, the siblings are left to cope with not only a devastating loss, but also the realization that Nicholas is the one who will have to rise to the occasion, move in and hold it all together.
Navigating autism, budding sexuality, consent, parenthood, adolescence, family and grief, the heartfelt comedy will follow this imperfect family as they discover the importance of finding happiness in the middle of really difficult moments, one awkward conversation at a time.
Everything’s Gonna Be Okay is set to premiere on January 16th on Freeform.