Iantha Richardson Reveals the One Piece of Advice Ramón Rodríguez Gave Her Before “Will Trent” Directorial Debut (Exclusive)

Sabienna BowmanWed, March 4, 2026 at 7:22 PM UTC

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Iantha Richardson (left) on 'Will Trent'; Ramón Rodríguez on 'Will Trent'Credit: Daniel Delgado Jr./Disney (2) -

Iantha Richardson says her Will Trent costar, Ramón Rodríguez, advised her to treat the start of filming like the end of the day

Richardson called directing her first network TV episode — season 4's "It Was a Meat Cute" — a "dream" and praised the cast for their support

She hopes to inspire others by telling stories and representing people who look like her behind the camera

Ramón Rodríguez had one piece of advice for costar Iantha Richardson before her Will Trent directorial debut.

In an interview with PEOPLE, Richardson, 35, shares what leading man Rodríguez, 46, told her before she stepped behind the camera for the season 4 episode, "It Was a Meat Cute," which aired on Tuesday, March 3. The episode found Will and Ava (Julia Chan) in the middle of a caper involving the alleged ashes of Meat Loaf, while Ormewood (Jake McLaughlin), Angie (Erika Christensen) and Richardson's Faith attempted to stop a wrongfully accused death-row inmate from being executed.

"I was asking how to make my days because you get a finite amount of time for a lot of work on these things. And so he was like — I don't know if this is known, but on a TV set, typically when you get to the end of the day, things get truncated and people start rushing because they need to make the hour before cut-off— and he was like, 'Treat the beginning of the day like the end of the day,' " she tells PEOPLE.

"I really valued that because my goal was not to make people stay over time, but just to make great work," she continues. "And so I would treat the beginning of the day like the end. Once you got it, you got it. I don't need to overshoot things."

Ramón Rodríguez (left) and Julia Chan on 'Will Trent'Credit: Daniel Delgado Jr./Disney

For Richardson, directing an episode of network television has been her dream for a long time. Ahead of her episode, she shared a post featuring behind-the-scenes photos on Instagram, writing, "A dream written down in 2020, now coming to life. Directing my first episode of network television has been nothing short of a God moment. So grateful for the chance to step behind the camera on @willtrentabc with a cast and crew that made this experience unforgettable."

The American Soul alum shares that directing was another step in her personal "mission statement," which she says is all about "being able to be a representative for people who look like me."

Richardson continues, "I have always tried to figure out the best mediums to tell narrative stories. And I think as an actor, you have one version of controlling your narrative, which is through your voice, your body, how you say things. But I was looking for greater ways to control the narrative ... and I think it sparked in my head when I was doing American Soul, that this could be another way to control different aspects of a narrative in a grander scale."

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Iantha Richardson (left) and Jake McLaughlin on 'Will Trent'Credit: Daniel Delgado Jr./Disney

Being surrounded by a supportive cast made her first time behind the camera for Will Trent made the experience an overwhelmingly positive one. "It was extremely collaborative and joyful to watch my castmates and counterparts on this show, do what they do from a different lens. I continuously told them, 'You guys are the prize,' " she says. "The best part was watching them work. They're extremely talented. To be able to experience it as a director was my privilege."

While Richardson says no one cast member was the easiest or hardest to direct — although she joked only her four-legged costar, Betty, "requires treats" — she did note that the episode was an emotional one for McLaughlin as he realized he arrested the wrong man years ago, setting off a chain of events that led the man to end up on death row.

Jake McLaughlin (left) and Iantha Richardson on 'Will Trent'Credit: Matt Miller/Disney

"Jake is low-key a teddy bear, although he has a tough exterior. And so I knew he would be able to execute this as long as he was down to the best of his ability," she shares. "And I think he crushed it, absolutely. But yeah, we really played with vulnerability and not just yelling or being defensive, but there being little cracks in the armor as he went along this story."

She continues, "They all were really, really lovely to work with. I think everyone supported me so much in this, they wanted to see me win, that the notes that I gave, I didn't get a ton of pushback. And maybe it's because I knew the characters well or whatever, but I also feel like I had really strong teammates ... it was a great collaborative process across the board."

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New episodes of Will Trent air Tuesdays at 8:00 p.m. EST on ABC, and stream the next day on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”