‘The Good Place’ Star Manny Jacinto on How the Show Influenced His Proposal to Girlfriend Dianne Doan
Manny Jacinto and girlfriend Dianne Doan are officially engaged, and it’s all thanks to The Good Place. On Saturday, November 9, the actor announced the news of his engagement to his longtime girlfriend while speaking on a panel about the NBC comedy at Vulture Festival 2019.
When asked about the details of the proposal, Jacinto revealed that his character, Jason Mendoza, inspired the proposal to Doan. “I was toying when to pop the question for a long time,” Jacinto explained. “I looked at the Janet/Jason relationship, and there’s a sentence that Jason says to Chidi about relationships and it hit me pretty hard. I thought it was a sign that I needed to do it, and a week later I popped the question.”
Though an unlikely matchup, Jason and Janet quickly became a fan-favorite couple on The Good Place. While it was originally believed that Janet couldn’t experience emotions, her relationship with Jason turned romantic, allowing them to fall in love and eventually get married.
Jacinto went on to share how he personalized the proposal for the Descendants actress. “I took her to places that really meant a lot to us,” he said. “Where I first met her, where I first saw her, where we had our first date, and where we had our first dance class.”
He continued, “I had these canvas things written down with a message saying why the places were important to us. At every location I had her close her eyes, I’d hold up the canvas, and she would open her eyes.”
The proposal came as a shock to Doan, who didn’t catch on to the surprise immediately. “I think she thought I was going to pop the question at the first place,” he joked. “So with the first note, she was like, ‘Oh, that’s cool.’ I think she was a little disappointed there wasn’t more.”
But after a few more stops, Doan got the moment she was expecting. “I took her through five different places, and at the last place I had our families waiting and I proposed.”
This will be the first marriage for both Jacinto and Doan.
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