Jane the Virgin hasn’t been a virgin for a while now—after finally getting it on in Season 3, Jane has become “Jane the Mom Covered in Vomit,” “Jane the Person Who’s Not Going to Worry Until There’s Something to Worry About,” and “Jane the Girl in Love,” among many other monikers. That’s only fair—because as fans have come to learn during the beloved CW comedy’s four seasons on air, Jane and the family that surrounds her do contain multitudes, all loving people with deep-seated fears, petty whims, and quiet desires they’d hardly dare speak. They are, in other words, fully realized characters—a status that should be the norm, but sadly remains a rarity for Latinx performers.
With Jane the Virgin heading into its final season and Netflix’s One Day at a Time canceled, those opportunities may remain rare, but Gina Rodriguez still believes that, overall, things are looking up for Latinx performers. At least, things are far better than they were when the actress who brings Jane to life first started auditioning for roles. “But there’s always room for growth,” Rodriguez said in a recent interview. “In every respect—in every under-represented group on television, in politics, in every aspect of our life, we see that there’s always room for more growth. And there can always be room for more growth in all spaces.” Right now, though, as the actress prepares to say goodbye to the character she’s played for nearly five years, what she feels most is gratitude—for the experience, for the opportunities the show has given her, and for what’s to come with the spin-off. “Jane is the love of my life,” Rodriguez said. “This experience was.”
Vanity Fair: I feel like this is a question you get asked all the time, but to me it just feels even more important now with One Day at a Time getting canceled: how do you feel about Jane the Virgin and the state of Latinx family shows on TV?
Gina Rodriguez: The hopeful conversation—and the optimistic one, because we can go anywhere with this—is it’s gotten substantially better since I first graduated college. I’m 34; when I was 21, we did not exist, opportunities did not exist. I was not auditioning for anything besides a Maria—any kind of stereotypical role. And they were very, very limited.
It has changed substantially since then, and not only with Jane the Virgin and One Day at a Time, and Vida, Queen of the South, but just seeing incredible actresses of Latina descent in all sorts of roles all over the place. Eiza González really killing it in all kinds of roles back and forth. Rosa Salazar with Alita: Battle Angel. You’re really seeing Latinas and Latinos with Diego Luna in Narcos and Michael Peña’s been killing it for so long. You really see how our opportunities have blossomed. The doors have started to open up with the range of roles we’ve been even able to audition for.
But there’s always room for growth. In every respect—in every under-represented group on television, in politics, in every aspect of our life, we see that there’s always room for more growth. And there can always be room for more growth in all spaces.
What parts of this season are you most excited about? Is there anything that viewers haven’t seen before?
There’s a lot of dope things this season. Honestly, I feel like we’ve been so privileged to have such outstanding writers for all five seasons. They just always cared and the quality always stayed really fierce and strong, and I think because of that I’m really excited about this season. I’m really excited that we’re closing up a show with such tenacity and nobody let up.
We just had a table read for the second-to-last episode of the season and everybody was in tears. But Season 5 is incredible—it still twists and turns. It’s gonna give you that same beautiful roller coaster of a ride of emotions and experiences. And there’s such beautiful episodes outside of the spaces that we’re used to, and it just really gives us a different scope of what Jane is going through and how we’re gonna close this whole story up and lead you into the spin-off.
One thing I noticed watching the three episodes available to critics for this season of Jane, and that I’ve thought about in terms of the last couple seasons, is that I feel like there’s been more explicitly political references and moments and statements. Is that intentional?
I think this is more of a conversation for [show-runner] Jennie [Snyder Urman]. Jennie and I definitely discuss the things that are important to me and to the other cast members. She has been my extreme ally when it comes to Latinx representation—making sure that we put out positive representations of immigrants, especially during our time now where our administration just sadly puts out a lot of lies and a lot of negativity.
