An accidental artificial insemination. A sinister, faceless drug dealer. A woman running away from a dark past. This is all just in a day's episode of The CW's new hit dramedy Jane the Virgin.
Amidst all of this daily dose of crazy is Nadine, a no-nonsense police detective working with Jane's ex-fiance Michael to find Sin Rostro, "The Man Without a Face" and an infamous drug dealer responsible for a series of murders at the Marabella hotel. Though Jane the Virgin is filled with its emotional and over-the-top moments, which it is extremely self-aware of, Nadine, played by Azie Tesfai, provides a calm, cool and focused contrast to all of the drama. Well, when she's not trying to figure out where her partners-with-benefits relationship with Michael stands, that is.
In the past couple of episodes of Jane the Virgin, a lot has happened between Nadine and Michael as they get closer and closer to cracking the Sin Rostro case. (Warning: There are lots of spoilers ahead, in case you didn't figure that out yet). And with Michael's lingering feelings for Jane, it's unclear where his relationship with Nadine will go.
Tesfai spoke with T-Lounge over the phone about the shocking Sin Rostro unveiling, the show's strong, feminine point-of-view and what we can expect from Nadine and Michael in the future.
Nadine has gone through a lot of interesting developments in the last few episodes of Jane the Virgin. Where do you think your character stands? I feel like we can't get a good grasp on her, like she's a little ambiguous in her intentions. You're not sure if she's good or bad.
I think that's how they want her to look. It's funny, because a lot of fans thought I was connected to Sin Rostro in some way, maybe not Sin Rostro, but employed by the person or something. But yeah, you know, I think the one thing about Nadine that is true and is solid is that she is a strong, smart, capable woman who is really good at her job and doesn't really take any crap from anybody. I think that as her relationship has changed with Michael, she's changed a lot, and she's not used to caring about people she works with. She's very professional. So I think she is changing as she's trying to figure out what's going on with him and his intentions while also, you know, not putting her job in jeopardy because this guy may be in love with this other girl.
Oh, you did?
I did, because she's such a strong character, and I knew it was going to be a woman, too. Our show is very woman-run. We have a woman showrunner. Most of our writers are women. Probably 98 percent of our directors have been women, which is unheard of. Our show is really a women-heavy-run show. So I thought, "Oh, it's too good for the villain to be a man. It'd have to be a strong woman," which of course it was, and it made me really happy.
Jane the Virgin is based on the Venezuelan telenovela Juana la Virgen. Were you familiar at all with telenovelas before joining the show? Did you ever watch any?
No, I'd never seen a telenovela. I came in Episode 2. I hadn't even seen the pilot for the first couple of episodes that I shot. When I got cast, I was told the storyline's going to be really crazy, but the acting has to be really, really grounded and real. That's the only way this is going to work. So for me, I didn't focus too much on it, because I knew especially for the case, they wanted that to be very real. I know even the way it's shot is different. It's a little darker. They wanted that to be a different world than Jane's world, which is more of a fantasy. It's light and bright and colorful. I eventually did see the pilot four or five episodes in just to know what I was doing. I really just focused on trying to keep the acting really real and grounded. And the fact that it was a telenovela was like in the back of my mind because it was portrayed that, the crazy stories unfold, but you know, keeping the acting real was what made it so different from telenovelas.
In addition to the show having a strong female influence, it also has a diverse cast and there are a lot of different voices represented. You're American, but your family is from East Africa and you've spent a lot of time in that part of the world, so what does it mean to you to be a part of a show that has so much diversity?
I feel really, really lucky. I feel shows like this don't come around very often, and roles for women never come around. I think every single role on this show that an actress portrays is so smart and strong and complicated in its own way. All of us girls on the show feel so very lucky. Culturally, my family is from Eritrea, and my mom grew up in Ethiopia. I've spent a lot of time there. [...] And a lot of our cast is from Puerto Rico and Yael Grobglas [who playes Petra] is from Israel, so we have not just diversity but culturally a lot of different people. And you know, Justin Baldoni's [who plays Rafael] family is Italian.
So for me, acting and writing and directing or being creative was not considered a career, and I think that tends to be the case for a lot of children of immigrants. They come to this country, and [your parents] want you to be a doctor or lawyer or something safe. So when I decided I wanted to be an actress, I really made a commitment to picking roles responsibly. And I know Gina [Rodriguez] has talked about this with her choices before Jane. It's funny, because I felt the same way where I don't ever want to do anything that compromises, not just who I am, but I also want to lead as an example. If you do something tasteless, they're going to say, "Oh, see that's why we don't want you to make that career choice." So you know, you want to make your culture proud. Me being from Eritrea, I want to make my culture proud.
And as a woman, you want to feel respected and that your talent's being valued. And that's a hard combination to come across. I think having a woman showrunner is everything in making sure that's protected. You know, on every other job I've had I felt like I had to be aware to defend my honor and talent as a woman and not be compromised. [...] Culturally and as a woman, it's everything you could hope for in a role. My little cousins watch the show, and my mom watches the show, and it's something to be proud of. And that's rare that you can have that dichotomy where everyone can watch it. And also, you know, critics enjoy it, and people, they can relate to it. It's real people but told in a respectable light.
Yeah, I feel like everyone can relate to the show, no matter what their background.
Yeah. My culture is funny, because East African culture, it's pretty similar to Latin culture in its morals and family being first and so a lot of my friends that are Eritrean have called me and said that the abuela reminds them of their grandmother, so crossing cultural lines is very awesome.
What would you like to see happen for Nadine on the show in the future?
I would love for them to catch Sin Rostro.
That would be nice.
That would be so nice. I would love to be able to get tough on her and close up that case. Like I said, there's going to be more reveals. The murders aren't as fickle as it seems now that we've figured out who Sin Rostro is. They're very complicated. So I just hope that she continues to be strong and capable and smart and on top of her case. And I love the dynamic between Nadine and Michael. And I hope that that fun banter that has started to develop will continue no matter what their relationship is romantically.
I would also just personally love to see Nadine in the same room as Rogelio, because I feel like they're such polar opposites that it would be interesting to see that interaction.
I will say that, this is probably a spoiler, but that is actually going to happen. It will happen. And the storyline in which Nadine and Rogelio end up together is one of the funniest things I've ever read. And Jaime [Camil, who plays Rogelio] is so funny. When we were doing our scenes together, I couldn't look him in the eye. I had to do all my lines over his shoulder. I couldn't play Nadine. I was laughing and smiling so much, and Nadine's not a smiler. Like, he's the funniest actor. I think he encompasses Rogelio so well. The three of us will come together in a really funny way with Michael.
This interview has been condensed and lightly edited for grammar and clarity.
