Karla Mosley is reflecting on how one of the bravest moments in her life prepared her for her latest role.
Mosley, 43, portrayed Maya Avant in The Bold and the Beautiful for six seasons before departing in 2019. She now stars as Dani Dupri on CBS’ new drama, Beyond the Gates, the first hour-long daytime soap opera led by a Black cast.
Although Mosley is no stranger to the soap world, she admits that she and Dani are very different, so she had to channel a distinct kind of strength to tackle the dynamic role.
“Dani doesn’t shrink, and she doesn’t hide,” Mosley tells PEOPLE in an exclusive interview. “I’m someone who, when things get exciting I want to go upstairs and curl up under a blanket. But [Dani is] not that person. So allowing myself to shine and be big and be seen in this way was kind of the inner prep that I had to do.”
She discovered a bit of her “inner prep” during a milestone moment in her life: “becoming a mom.”
“I think that life and the change that happens in a woman when she becomes a mother and realizes that power… I had both of my kids upstairs in a pool,” she says, “So it’s like once you go through that two times, you’re like, ‘Oh I have some strength I didn’t know I had.’ So I think that really prepared me.”
Mosley is mom to daughters Willa Josephine, 3, and Aurora Imani, 6.
Her character Dani Dupree is the youngest of two sisters in the esteemed and affluent Dupree family, headed by patriarch Vernon Dupree (Clifton Davis), mother Anita Dupree (Tamara Tunie) and sister Dr. Nicole Dupree Richardson (Daphnée Duplaix). They live in Fairmont Crest, a leafy Washington, D.C. suburb and one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the U.S.
Dani is also at the center of one of Beyond the Gates’ biggest scandals as her former husband Bill Hamilton (Timon Durrett) and his fiancée Hayley Lawson (Marquita Goings) revealed in the series premiere, which aired on Monday, Feb. 24, that they bought a new house in Fairmont Crest. Her reaction delivers soap opera-worthy drama, as she slaps Hayley while standing in the center of a five-star restaurant where the Duprees are dining.
“Dani is [in the middle of it],” Mosley tells PEOPLE. “And if she’s not, she’ll insert herself in some way. I’m like ‘Dani, this isn’t even your thing to talk about, why are you in the middle of this?’ She is not going to let a moment pass if someone needs to be read.”
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Mosley, who also appeared as Amanda Sinclair on The Young and the Restless, believes characters like Dani and shows like Beyond the Gates are groundbreaking yet just the beginning when it comes to more diverse representation in soap operas.
“I see it already shifting — the storytelling on other soaps who are now recognizing the beauty in telling different kinds of stories,” Mosley says, adding that concepts like “crossovers” with people of color on other shows “would really open up the world for all of us.”
She praises the writers, including head writer Michele Val Jean, for the continuous “cliffhanger” scandals.
“It’s like ‘Okay, what’s happening with this one?’ Ooo this one’s cheating on so-and-so over here, this one’s gonna go fight so-and-so over there, this one’s having a crisis of faith, whatever it is,” says Mosley. “But it’s all exciting and the characters are going to continue to surprise us as the series goes on.”
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And behind the camera, the cast is just as in sync.
“We instantly fell into those roles,” Mosley says of her costars. “Whether it’s scenes with Daphnée, scenes with Clifton and Tamara, or scenes with my daughters [Naomi and Chelsea portrayed by Arielle Prepetit and RhonniRose Mantilla, respectively], we’re able to trust each other.”
“[We] draw into a deep place so quickly that the relationships are sort of just writing themselves. Everyone is just so talented and willing to go into all of those places, willing to play. You feel like you’re on the court with someone who’s game, and that’s the most exciting thing as an actor.”
Beyond the Gates airs weekdays at 2 p.m. ET on CBS.
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