‘Jane The Virgin’ Star Gina Rodriguez Talks Role In Sci-Fi Film ‘Annihilation’

The roles Gina Rodriguez played in “Jane the Virgin” and “Annihilation” could not be more different. In the former, Rodriguez plays a sweet and idealistic Jane Gloriana Villanueva who has strong morals and close family ties. In the latter, she plays the foul-mouthed lesbian paramedic named Anya Thorensen who has so many complex layers.

Speaking to USA Today about the two roles, Rodriguez said that it felt great to be working on something so different. While she loves Jane, she cannot help but feel excited being on Anya’s shoes.

“That’s all I want to do is play pretend and tell stories and do all kinds of crazy different things. On Jane, I get to do magical realism; I get to play in the 1920s and be a rapper and be a dominatrix and all these things that for like 30 seconds out of the episode they escape Jane, this normal girl you get to see and follow. It’s really nice to escape for longer periods of time like this,” she said.

Rodriguez added that Anya is so “super-bomb.” Because she is an addict, Rodriguez got to delve on her fear of losing control and losing her mind.

“I’ve definitely done drugs — I don’t think anybody should, I don’t suggest that, but I know that fear of departing from one’s reality, and that is not a good space to be in,” she said.

Being part of “Annihilation” is a step towards the right direction for Rodriguez. She already appeared in films such as “Deepwater Horizon” and “Ferdinand,” but she wants more Latinos and Latinas to be cast in lead movie roles since they were always stereotyped in movies.

“I mean, we do make 55 million plus in the country. No big deal. You should throw us in a movie or two. It would make sense. We do buy one in every four tickets, every single weekend, and make sure that your movies do well. So, it would do you service. Not only of service, it would be, I don’t know…intergrity,” she told E! News. “So, thank you Paramount and Sony because you two are doing it, you’re opening up the doors.”

Speaking of new doors opening, Rodriguez also dabbled in filmmaking this year since she directed an episode of “Jane the Virgin” Season 4. She seemed pretty proud of her achievement since she shared her directorial debut on Instagram with guest star Rosario Dawson and her co-star, Yael Grobglas. “Add another Latina director to that list,” she wrote.