Found star Shanola Hampton Swears The Vibe Between Gabi and Sir Is “Not Sexual”

Fans of NBC’s Found are now one and a half seasons deep into Gabi Mosely’s (Shanola Hampton) tangled maze of plot twists and wardrobe serves that just keep getting sharper and bolder. In Season 1 of the hit psychological thriller, we met Gabi, the head of Mosely & Associates (M&A), a crisis management firm devoted to finding the missing people that police overlook.

The season concluded with the bombshell reveal of Gabi’s darkest secret: she was keeping her own kidnapper, Sir (Mark-Paul Gosselaar), locked in her basement, unbeknownst to her team. The betrayal sent shockwaves through the tightly-knit crew, a trauma-sludge Gabi is still slowly moving through midway into Season 2. From saving M&A’s own Lacey Quinn (Gabrielle Walsh) from Sir’s wicked grasp after he escaped from Gabi’s make-shift dungeon, to human lie-detector Margaret (Kelli Williams) taking a professional step-back to focus on her mental health after she crashed out over Gabi’s deception, to the looming threat of imprisonment hanging over M&A’s fearless leader’s head as she continues her white-knight crusade on behalf of missing persons, Season 2 of Found has already been packed with dramatic turns, and the ride is about to get even wilder.

Unbothered caught up with Hampton, the series’ star and producer, while she was on set, just ahead of the show’s mid-season break. I can happily confirm Hampton’s facecard is just as flawless on Zoom as it is on the TV screen. The 47-year-old leading lady’s bubbly and vibrant energy is a stark departure from the brooding seriousness of her show’s character, a nod to the depth of the former Shameless star’s talent. While there are clearly a lot of differences between Hampton and her on-screen counterpart, I quickly learned the pair share one crucial similarity: their love of high-heels. 

Here, Hampton goes deep on Gabi’s perfectly curated fits, that confusing chemistry between Gabi and Sir, and what’s next for M&A after Gabi’s dirty (basement) laundry was finally aired out.

Unbothered: I am a recent convert to the Gabi Mosely fan club. I started binge-watching the show a couple of weeks ago. I just want you to know, I’ve been living in Gabi’s twisted, complicated, but relatable world. I would love to know, what do you love most about playing Gabi?

Shanola Hampton: You just said it all. It’s twisted. It’s complicated. It’s full of life. She gets to dress bomb, face stays beat, and she runs in heels. So it’s all the things that I could dream of as being a modern-day superhero but also being a human being. She is questionable in some of the things that she does. So I love it all.

And what I love about Gabi Mosley, and I think for the girls who were like Scandal fans, I would say Gabi Mosley is like Olivia Pope for the underserved marginalized folks who go missing. And that’s a real epidemic in this country right now. I’m just curious, how has the popularity of “Found” really shown light on what’s happening in real life?

SH: I think the people in the community, and my community, and the Black community, these are conversations that we’ve had throughout about the difference between the coverage of other ethnicities and when our people go missing. So it’s not a very new conversation, but it’s nothing that has really been presented in this light. So it’s brought awareness for sure. I think it’s done in a way that is palatable for people because it is also entertaining. It’s been nice to have people’s minds think about things differently when they’re watching real world stuff happen, and to then start to see Instagram posts go up for missing people that are in underserved communities, where a lot of people generally would have just scrolled on. So that’s been really nice to see.

It’s really important to have characters like Gabi Mosley, because it’s almost like she ignites the torch within us to carry that call forward, even if she’s in fiction, we can still carry that light today. So we find Gabi midway through season 2, and the fragile frame she’s built around her life is crumbling all around her. I’m curious from a character development perspective, in what ways have you seen Gabi grow since last season, and what ways do you think she’s actually regressed? 

SH: I think the growth is just in the honesty, right? I mean, that would be the most glaring thing. She doesn’t have this big secret. I think that’s freedom, but also shows that she was in a place to be open and honest and say, “here’s what I did, and now let’s deal with the fallout in a very real way.” The regression is that she still is not dealing with her own struggles and her own trauma because she’s so busy being sorry and guilty and making sure that everyone else is okay and living in this place of wanting to pay for what she’s done, that it doesn’t allow a lot of room for her to do the real work, which is to heal, because she is just too focused on finding the missing, and everyone else in her M&A family healing. And that’s not a good place, I think, for any human being to maintain; it’s not sustainable. It’s a lot on her, and you’ll get to see her struggle, you know, mentally and physically to a certain degree with anxiety attacks, and that will just pop up on her because she’s not able to deal with anything.

She’s human. Speaking of navigating her own complications, there’s this confusing chemistry between you and Mark-Paul Gosselaar, you know, your co-star, Sir. It’s hard for audiences to reckon with that. How should we be interpreting that chemistry? Like he’s a monster and we know that, but then there’s this bond….

SH: Here’s what I can tell you: it’s not sexual. And I think that’s what’s really confusing. I think that you see people that have chemistry on screen and you automatically relate it to, ‘They’re going to be a couple,’ and ‘There’s this dark romance.’ That is not what that is. [When I see] those tweets, I question what you’re thinking in your head. That is not what it is. 

What it is, is this deep obsession on his end, but not because he wants to romantically be with her, but because he honestly believes this is his family. He’s always longing or has longed for that family because he never got it as a child. And I can’t describe chemistry. I really can’t. You just go on the set with an actor, and it’s there or it’s not. Mark-Paul happens to be my on set bestie, and like, we’re each other’s safe place, and it just was there. It’s played out in a way that I think is beautiful, but also scary and confusing for the audience.

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And that’s the complication of trauma and bearing trauma as a person is that there are these complications with the relationships that ignited that trauma. So, you know, speaking of Gabi’s character development, is she going to turn herself in for kidnapping, Sir?

SH: That would be some sort of freedom. And here’s the thing: that’s her plan. That is absolutely her plan. It is about finding Sir, making sure the family is safe, and turning herself in. That’s what she wants. Sir, behind bars and caught so he can’t affect the people she loves, making sure they’re okay, and then paying the price for what she did. She is absolutely, 100 percent ready to pay for what she has done. She believes it’s the only way that she can actually heal and move forward. And wouldn’t it be nice for her to be able to take a nap?

Shoot, if anybody needs a break on television right now, it is Gabi Mosley. What about her team? You know, she’s in this moment of trying to literally empty out the dirty laundry in her basement. Can they forgive her? What does M&A look like going forward?

SH: I think what happens is everybody has to take the time that it takes for them to heal and, and because NBC has so graciously ordered 22 episodes, we have time to do that, right? And that’s the human way to do things, not to rush it and have to consolidate into this small thing:“and everybody’s better, and everybody lives happily ever after,” That’s not how life works. So everyone will gradually get there during their own times, and everybody doesn’t reach it at the same time. As you can see, it was Dawn first, and then it was Lacey. And now you see us getting more into Margaret and what that healing is going to be like. So it takes time, but they will get there. It’ll never be the same, but a version of ‘how do we move forward in truth?’ It will happen.

I love what you said about getting the order-up of 22 more episodes because reconciliation takes time in real life, and how exciting when the on-screen process of that can emulate that growth. I think it’s really cool that you all get to play that out on screen. I’m just curious about your process. We know that Gabi carries a lot of trauma, but how do you shake that off? Because, as Black women, we know that we’re not our work, whether that’s you as an actress, me as a journalist. How do you separate her trauma, her load, and shake that off to feel good?

SH: I mean, I know in our community specifically, even when there’s a funeral, it’s like jokes and celebrations. The way that we cope in general is usually through laughter. It’s very rarely a somber thing happening. We don’t have time to be somber. Okay? End of the world, we don’t have time to be crying, is kind of how we are. So for me personally, I really am very good about separating work from my personal life. So right before this, if you could honestly be on our set, what you would see is [breaks into a personal dance party].“Let’s do it! Let’s do it! Let’s do it!” And then acting, you know, so right before the take, I’m usually messing with somebody or cracking a joke. And then they say, “Action!” then I go into Gabi Mosley. I keep them very, very separate.  I think it’s important for people not to get caught up in the emotion because it’s a very heavy, heavy show. And I taught myself that younger; everybody has their own process. I taught myself that it’s not a good thing to go down that road. Because if you know your character, you know how to slip right where you need to be emotionally. 

Absolutely. And kudos to you for balancing that. So, you know, I had to get into Gabi’s style because as producer on the show, I know that you get into how we shape her look. So first, can you talk about how you and your wardrobe team came up with Gabi style, and then we gotta get into the locs.

SH:  So the one thing that I made clear from the beginning is, Gabi will always wear heels, right? I used to only wear heels before I had kids. I taught myself how to sprint in heels in case I was ever in a bind, because I’m always in heels. So that was one of the Gabi superpowers. And once you build up from a heel, it’s got to be about fashion. And yes, you think it’s just for vanity or to look good or whatever, but it’s more than that. If you think about the journey of this character, the one thing she has control of is how she presents herself.  One of the things that Sir taught her was to present herself. So he’s a core part of her upbringing. So all of that. If she can’t control anything: I control my contour, and I’m going to look good. So we really like to play with color. We want to be fashionable. It’s all about doing all of those things and making it tailored and crisp because it is a part of her control and a part of how she wants to present to the world.

Yessss! So I’ve got to talk about the locs because you are now in the loc icon girly gallery with Whoopi Goldberg to Maxine Shaw in Living Single. Now we’ve got Shanola Hampton as Gabi Mosley. Can you tell us why it’s so important to have locs represented on screen?

SH: Well, first of all, we never saw them. I remember when I was growing out my locs, and it was not this world now, where everybody is doing sister locs and stuff. It was very much like, “Oh my gosh!” And I was questioning whether I would even work, but I knew that it was who I was. And I remember the last audition I did with a wig on, and I felt so ridiculous. And I said, “You’re either going to take loc Shanola or no Shanola,” unless it’s a period piece and it’s serving the story. And that was 20 some-odd years ago at this point. And so having network television, and honestly, I have to shout out Shameless as well, because Shameless was the first to really present a beautiful, dark skin woman with dreadlocks, and who was in tune with her sexuality, and making it beautiful. It is a piece of art, but it’s also a part of our culture to express ourselves through our hair.

I’m loving the blonde highlights. I’ve got to ask, do we know anything about Season 3?

SH: We will know soon about Season 3. I know that there’s so much more of Season 2. We’ve done really, really well on Peacock. We’re in the top five. And so people are going back to watch it. Our numbers have been really good on network on our Thursday nights at 10pm. So hopefully, with all of those things combined, people who haven’t caught up over the holidays will catch up and be with us on this journey again in January, and watch it to the end, because when I tell you it is so good and nail biting, it really is.

You can catch up on all episodes of “Found” on Peacock, and the series will be back with new episodes Thursday Jan 16^th at 10PM on NBC.

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