"Jane the Virgin" Star Makes the Diversity Discussion Personal - Ed Martin

Beverly Hills CA The upcoming series on The CW Jane the Virgin is perhaps best described as a lightly comedic serial that occasionally deals with serious social and personal issues It is in every way an ethnically diverse multigenerational modern family friendly show The star of the series is a relatively unknown actress Gina Rodriguez who instantly charmed every critic in the International Ballroom at the Beverly Hilton Hotel during the Jane session during The CW39s presentation inadvertently putting into a fresh context the dialogue about diversity that had been top of mind throughout the TCA tourIn short that dialogue had been between bloggers who are largely unaware of the great advances that have been made over the last twenty years in assembling ethnically diverse casts in primetime shows and top network executives repeating the same old comments about the work still to be done Talent and individuality almost never entered into the conversation The session with Rodriguez changed all thatRodriguez revealed that before quotJanequot and after some wellreceived independent film work she had been offered a role in Devious Maids the Lifetime series about Latino maids working for rich people in Los Angeles which she turned down quotI found it limiting that that was the one that was available to mequot she said quotI found it limiting for the stories that Latinos have for the stories that Americans have I feel like there39s a perception that people have about Latinos in America specifically amp8211 as somebody who grew up in Chicago English being my first language Spanish being my second that we are perceived a very certain way You know being a maid is fantastic I have many family members that have fed many of their families doing that job but there are other stories that need to be told And I think that the media is a venue and an avenue to educate and teach our next generationquotSadly right now the perception they have of Latinos in America is very specific to maid landscaper pregnant teenquot she added quotMind you I am playing pregnant but not a teenquotI didn39t become an artist to be a millionairequot Rodriguez continued quotI didn39t become an actor to wear Louis Vuitton I became an actor to change the way I grew up Growing up I never saw myself on screen I have two older sisters One39s an investment banker The other one is an actor I never saw us being played as investment bankers and actors I realized how limiting that was for me I would look at the screen and think well there39s no way I can do it because I39m not therequotSo the roles that I39ve chosen have been ones that I think are going to push forward the idea of my culture of women of beauty my idea of liberating young girls from feeling that they have to look at a specific beauty type I wasn39t going to let my introduction to the world be one of a story that I think has been told many times I wanted it to be a story that was going to liberate young girls and let them say 39Wow there we are and we39re the doctors we39re the teachers we39re the writers and we39re the lawyers and I can do that too And I don39t have to be a perfect size zero I can be a perfect size me So Jane I waited for her patientlyquotRodriguez later said quotYou know we face things all the time whether they be positive or negative It39s going to be really exciting to go on this journey with this girl that has a very serious thing happen to her and see the way she chooses maybe not the popular choices in life but the unpopular ones ie her virginity And I think that that39s a really awesome thing to put out into the world right now where we are bombarded by twerking and don39t get me wrong I can twerk but we39re bombarded by those images and I see what they do to my niece and nephew that are four years old I see what they do to my cousins that are 13 And I think well if I can use my art and what I love to do every day to change that perception that39s awesome That39s the blessing That39s the money for mequotRodriguez also spoke about the use of English subtitles when certain characters amp8211 especially Jane39s grandmother amp8211 speak in Spanish on the series When she saw that in the script she thought quot39Executive producer Jennie Snyder Urman is in my house Jennie knows my life39 I do not speak back in Spanish to my grandmother at all My grandmother only speaks to me in Spanish She knows what I39m saying but she refuses to speak English back and I refuse to speak SpanishquotThere39s a moment in the show where I39m describing to my grandmother how I got inseminated and I say 39I don39t even know how to say this in Spanish39 We39re talking to 50 million people in this country when we say that line It is outrageous how Jennie encompassed the culture and that first second third generation story to anybody that came over from outside that have the language in the house have the traditional food in the house and then hamburgers and hot dogs outside the house It39s pretty awesomequot

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"Jane the Virgin" Star Makes the Diversity Discussion Personal - Ed Martin

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