Gina Rodriguez Explains Why She Had to Halt Jane the Virgin Production
Gina Rodriguez got real about how her anxiety played a part in filming Jane The Virgin’s final season.
During a discussion on mental health with NBC’s Kate Snow at The Kennedy Forum in Chicago, Gina revealed how at times her anxiety became so overwhelming, she had to stop production to give herself room to recover.
"There was a point where I couldn’t…push through every single time anymore,” Gina says. “It came to a point, this last season was the first season where I had to stop production. I had a really tumultuous season and I was unafraid for the first time to be like, ‘I can’t.’”
Gina has revealed her struggles with depression and anxiety previously, having told Cosmopolitan magazine that her relationship with her mental health came to a head two years after starting Jane The Virgin. She experienced her first panic attack while eating lunch at a sushi restaurant and went on to describe moments of extreme self-consciousness while doing photo shoots and press conferences.
“There are a lot of things in the manual of living out your dreams that you don’t know about,” Gina says. “Like you don’t have any more friends. You never go out to eat. You never see your family, your boyfriend, girlfriend, or whatever you have....”
As Gina’s star has risen over the past few years, however, the scrutiny on the Puerto Rican actress has also increased. She’s come under fire from critics because of her verbiage in interviews and roundtable discussions (most recently, during a press interview with Yara Shahidi and a discussion regarding women of color pay rates in Hollywood) revealed what some saw as anti-Blackness. The criticism became so talked about that Gina was asked to address the matter during an interview on Sway in the Morning, in which she started to cry on air, refuting the claims.
Gina described the backlash against her as “devastating” and contradictory considering, “the Black community was the only community [she] looked towards” growing up.
As Gina continues to work on managing her well being — and cultural consciousness — while under the spotlight, she says she's no longer afraid to speak out about mental health, especially for the sake of the young girls who see her as a representation of what they can one day accomplish.
“[Mental health] has to be a part of the conversations I have with these young girls,” Gina said at the event. “I can’t just tell them to go out and make their dreams come true and then to ignore everything else.”
Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue
