It was five months ago that Jane the Virgin‘s second season ended with tears of joy as Jane and Michael finally tied the knot, quickly followed by horrified cries as Michael’s life was threatened.
Tonight, Jane the Virgin is back for Season 3, and Gina Rodriguez told us a bit about what’s coming up during the CBS Studios international press junket this past summer. We’ll finally find out what happened after that insane cliffhanger, but there’s also a lot of change on the horizon. Rodriguez teased “transition”, “transformation” and “growing up” for all of the characters … oh, and that Jane is dropping the “Virgin” this year!
I know that my entire family watches the show, and my phone blew up right after that finale with everyone wanting to know if I thought Michael survived. Imagine being the star of the show! The questions started for Rodriguez — not just from her family but from people she meets on the street — and they haven’t stopped yet. “[They] still do it now: on Instagram, on Twitter, on Snapchat, my family, the people that I meet on the street,” she told me. “And for so long, I had no idea. Well, I had somewhat of an idea, but it’s difficult. You almost feel like at times like a politician; I can’t please everyone and I have an opinion, but is my opinion is going to turn other people off? How do I let them know that it’s a fantasy, it’s a fairytale. There are people that get so upset, and God forbid they’re Team Raphael and you say Team Michael or vice versa.” Not even Rodriguez’s father is immune to the Jane-sanity. “It was crazy when I had my father be like, ‘You are going tell me right?’ I am like, ‘Dad. You are ridiculous. No. I am not telling you. Blood is not thicker than water.’ It’s lovely to see how involved people are. It also excites me because then I know people care. They care and that’s why I am so excited and terrified and thrilled to go into Season 3, because I feel like it matters so much more now. You’ve been a part of these people’s lives so I just want to give them my all.”
Rodriguez had just read the first script of Season 3 earlier that week, and teased a bit of what’s in store. “We’re growing up. The characters are growing up. There are going to be huge transitions, transformations,” she shared. “Jennie [Urman] is just so brilliant. Monday I had the table read for my first episode. I sit in that table read, and the words that Jennie writes … it’s incredible. This year, she did something that she had never done before. She sat us down and gave us a little blueprint of our year. I didn’t know what was going to happen to Jane. Episode by episode, I would read the day before we started shooting. I have a blueprint [for Season 3] and it’s better than the past two seasons, hands down. Now I am terrified because I have to tackle that,and I have to make my cast proud and Jennie proud and then ultimately myself. It’s really, really good and it’s really real and it’s really adult. It’s growing up. Jane is growing up, and she has to deal with things that are going to be … oh, gosh, how do I say anything without spoiling anything? She has sex! To whom I don’t know, which terrifies me, but the care that Jennie has, I am not afraid.”
So with Jane losing her virginity in Season 3, Gina Rodriguez was asked if she’s feeling the pressure to “get it right” or to maybe find the humor in the awkwardness of that experience. “How honest do you want me to be? The first thing that came to mind is I am 32, I don’t think it’s going to be that awkward. I’m kidding! But then that’s actually completely untrue, because when you are in those circumstances on set, it’s probably the most awkward and non-intimate and non-passionate experience when filming. I don’t know who it is I am losing my virginity with. My guess is it’s going to be one of [the two gentlemen that I work with]. I can’t imagine [Jane doing it with] a random person.” She added, “But, the show is not about sex. It’s been such an incredible theme to talk about and to generate this idea of the unpopularity of saving yourself and making it popular. I think that’s been the coolest aspect about sex on the show — to talk to young girls and [say] you can still be attractive and strong and sexual, understand temptation and understand your body, feel comfortable in your body and save yourself for a time that’s going to feel great. You’re going to be able to tell your kids about it, and when you tell that story, you are going to feel strong whether you are with that person or not. That is a really awesome message to send to the world when we are in a very oversexualized society.”
Gina Rodriguez really stressed the fact, that despite the show’s title and what’s in store this season, Jane the Virgin is about so much more that Jane eventually losing her virginity. “The show is about conviction. The show is about honesty. The show is about family and love and understanding oneself and being fearless. The show is about journey and discovery … and hopefully Jane has sex. That just makes for a fun pop. It’s not her world. She is not driven by it. It’s such a beautiful message, because — if we want to be personal — it definitely makes me think about the choices I make because I should worship my temple, and the people that I bring into my life should respect me. I should respect myself. So, even at 32, to have that constant reminder is a great feeling. I’m not married, and I want what Jane talks about all the time and what Jane wants. When [Jane] has sex, it’s going to be magical.”
Jane made a choice in Season 2 and married Michael, potentially ending the love triangle that had fans declaring their allegiance to #TeamRafael and #TeamMichael. It also brought Jane back to who she was when we first met her, albeit a wiser version of that. Did Rodriguez always want it to be Michael? “Yeah, I did. The path that Jane [was] on when you first met her, she had this idea and this plan for her life. She doesn’t make rash decisions and take risky challenges. She is trying so hard not to make the same mistakes that her mother made and so she goes to the other extreme,” she explained. “When she went through the love triangle, it was her actually trying to do something outside of her comfort zone because her comfort zone wasn’t working in her favor. I think we do that in real life as human beings. It was nice to have Jane come back to like the basics and the man that loved her so through and through. The connection to Rafael is beautiful — it’s [about] risk and the stability. Stability is not going to throw [her] for a loop, but risk actually represents dreams and something that would never have happened otherwise. To see her tether that line for a year-and-a-half was fun and exciting, but to see it come back to one, I think was necessary for the trajectory that we are going on in Season 3.”
See Gina Rodriguez in the Season 3 premiere of Jane the Virgin, tonight at 9/8c on The CW.
Photo Courtesy of CBS
