From a young age, Gina Rodriguez felt there was something wrong about who she was (or rather, who she wasn't) seeing on television. And since her breakout role on The CW's "Jane The Virgin", the 31-year-old actress has explicitly spoken about her "mission" to change the perception of minorities in the media.
Rodriguez catapulted to TV stardom with her Golden Globe-winning performance as the 23-year-old virginal Jane who accidentally gets artificially inseminated. Despite it's far-fetched premise, the series took its telenovela roots and became a runaway hit with critics and audiences alike.
But one thing that hasn't changed over time is the actress' unwavering stance on the need for more diversity in television and film. Time and time again, Rodriguez has spoken about the subject and taught Hollywood some valuable lessons on the negative impacts being underrepresented on screen can have on a young child, how stereotypes can be stopped and more.
If you need a refresher Hollywood, we have a crash course below. So take note.
Roundtable with The Hollywood Reporter
"There were times when I was like, 'Why am I pulled so strongly to be a voice, to not keep my mouth shut? Why can’t I just keep my mouth shut, take the job, take the money and walk like everyone else?', Rodriguez told The Huffington Post.
"[But] if I don’t speak up, I’m just going to what? Sit around and complain and hope that somebody else will?," she added. "No. I wasn’t raised like that. If I want change, then I've got to do it. And if I want to do it, I've got to be that change. And that takes sacrifices that sometimes don’t pay the bills, you know? And I’m OK with that."
Interview at the Television Critics Association in June 2014
“I asked [my mom], ‘When were Puerto Ricans born? When did Puerto Ricans come about?'," Rodriguez said at P&G's "Orgullosa" event. "And she’s like, ‘What are you talking about?’ And I was like, ‘Like when did it happen, was it in like the '50s?’ And she was like, ‘What are you saying?!’ And I was like, ‘Well because I don’t see us anywhere. I don’t see us on the TV, I don’t see us in the movies I love. When did it happen?!’ And she’s like, ‘We’ve always been around and you will tell those stories one day.’”
Read more of her awesome Golden Globe speech here
“It’s not only about my ethnicity; it made me feel a certain way about my beauty,” she told Glam Belleza Latina. “Not seeing a woman like me as a lead made me feel like I’d never be skinny enough, I’d never be pretty enough. I want to give young girls, like my niece, the tools to see a billboard and think, 'That [non-Latina] girl is beautiful, but that’s not the only form of beauty.' Jane’s story is about a beautiful, normal girl. We don’t talk about her weight or her looks.”
Read more of her interview with The Huffington Post
“We just have to understand our collective strength,” Rodriguez told Glam Belleza Latina. “Because if 'Jane the Virgin' does well, [Hollywood] is going to open the door for five new shows that are Latino focused. We’ve already seen this start to happen. 'Jane the Virgin' got a Golden Globe, and this pilot season everybody wants a Latino lead... The more we show them that our united front can blow something up, the more they’re going to open those doors because it’s no longer a risk. This isn’t about racism. It’s about money.”
Interview with HuffPost Live. More on her mission in this interview with The Huffington Post.
