Christina Milian Talks New Lifetime Thriller, ‘Dexter’ Regrets & Family Life

Christina Milian takes center stage in Lifetime’s upcoming thriller He Couldn’t Let Go. In the flick she plays hitmaking singer and actress Mariana who fights for survival after a dinner at home takes a terrifying turn. It’s then her instincts mixed with the ability to read body language could mean the difference between life and death. The movie premiering July 11 on the network also features Steven Strait, Annie Gonzalez, and Gregg Wayans. 

This film is a departure from Milian’s last project for the network, the holiday movie A Snow Globe Christmas in 2013. However, the multi-hyphenate entertainer has been building a diverse onscreen resume including the younger version of María LaGuerta on the short-lived Dexter: Original Sin, which ended after one season. She still remains busy career-wise while also balancing being a dedicated mom of three (Violet, Isaiah and Kenna) and wife to French singer-songwriter Matt Pokora. Together they made the big move with their kids to Paris in 2023. 

Here, Milian talks about her latest juicy role and family life. 

Lifetime

First off, how is living in Paris? 

Christina Milian: It’s good! Although we had a heatwave two weeks ago. That was pretty intense for everyone. Otherwise, everything is good. A lot of people are coming out right now for Fashion Week, and we have the carnival where we start getting the tourists here. It’s nice because I get to see a lot of friends texting me that they are coming up. Now we have to figure out where we’re going to go and what we’re doing. That’s really fun for me. I tell my friends of course I want to do the tourist stuff, but also let’s go to the park and have a spritz. Things that may look like stereotyped things we actually do here. 

Anything you miss about living in the United States? 

Absolutely food. I actually came back yesterday for a nine-day long business trip. I went to Louisiana, which is definitely a food thing. I went to Mississippi and Alabama too, so all three places, I immediately had a crab boil. They don’t do crab legs like that over here where it’s just drawn butter. I don’t understand why. Maybe they need to bring it here, but it’s just classic drawn butter and crab legs just does it for me. I grew up in Maryland, and we would take the bushel of crabs and do that. It’s those little things. Usually, it’s food related. I love the States. There are so many things to do. I was there for Fourth of July too, so just seeing people excited about the Fourth of July and how they dressed up for it and watching the fireworks. That reminded me of my childhood. There is a lot I do miss about the states as well. 

He Couldn’t Let Go is a bit different from your first Lifetime movie? What did you enjoy about this role? 

She is spicy! She is very intelligent, and she is intuitive. That’s what I liked about the character was her intuition and ability to piece the puzzle together. It was part of her profession, but I love there is a background about her with her father and the military. She is very aware and alert. I love that she is a strong character. The movie is kind of terrifying. There is a reality to it where this can possibly happen. It’s so twisted, but things actually do happen like this sometimes. It is very twisted. I like that it’s a little creepy. It’s a departure from what people usually see me in, so playing this role was exciting. 

Here social media is a double-edged sword where in this case it may prove helpful. 

Exactly. It works in two ways. Also, it made it a little bit easier for this guy to find his way into her home. At the same time, her ability to figure things out while it was happening. It worked for both of them. 

Frank Ockenfels 3/Paramount+ with SHOWTIME

You spend a lot of time with you and Steven. How was building that tension on set? 

Steven is an awesome actor. Working with him, wow, there is something about his eyes. I think they do dramatize them a little bit more when you see him and his eyes. He has this really sweet exterior. When he steps into the house, it feels like someone you could warm up to. That’s what happens. Though she is not immediately comfortable or happy that he is there because she is waiting for her husband to come home. It’s her husband’s friend. Then as time goes on, she realizes this is a little bit darker than I expected. The two of us spent time working together. There were a lot of rehearsals, especially the more intense scenes. That wasn’t just to get the lines in our heads, but to figure out what that character was feeling and why. Though it’s nothing how we are in person, it helped us understand what that person is dealing with. We found a lot of that on set because there are things you can’t rehearse. You really have to play it out as it’s happening. As long as you have the right mindset, it will take you there. 

We’ve watched your maturation over the last 25 plus years, whether it’s music or acting.  How would you describe your evolution going from one to the other and being seen in a different way like for this role? 

I think part of who I am has always been someone who wants to be diverse. I think the diversity of all the different roles and the types of things I’ve done in my career has been important to me. I want to always show I’m not just one tone. As far as the world getting to know me, of course, they know me as this girl. Then I was this girl in a rap song with Ja Rule on “Between Me & You”, but I really wanted to be a pop singer. So, the people got to see me as a pop singer. That was at 18 years old, and then I became a woman. Then I dipped it low, and from there I started to do movies and took starring roles that really emulated and was a reflection of who I was at the time as a teenager and telling stories for teens. Then I did romantic comedies. It’s all been different to where even if it was a romantic comedy, which I tend to be very good at, I like to tell different stories. I guess you can say for my lifetime I’ve been a really good storyteller, songwriting, or singing. That’s my job. Tell stories in different ways. 

Do you show your kids your work? 

They’ve seen some of my work before. They’ve seen my Christmas movies. My daughter who is 16 never really cared much in the past until she went to high school, until her friends started to tell her about me. It was then like, “Mom, you didn’t tell me you did this movie.” I was like, “Girl, I have shown you this movie so many times.” She just didn’t remember or it didn’t matter to her, and now it does. 

What movie are we talking about?