Three female ladies leading a show is striking, but having three leading Latinas is just something you don’t see everyday. Based on Venezuelan telenovela, Juana la Virgen, comes a story that will inevitably make you fall in love with Monday nights. Jane the Virgin is realistic, satirical, dramatic, cultural, and a guaranteed good time. Entertainment Affair spent a day on set and learned directly from the cast what to expect from this highly anticipated new hit show.

“If you want God to laugh, tell him your plans,” joked Gina Rodriguez as she described her character. She plays Jane, a young virgin, who is mistakenly inseminated during a routine checkup. Gina talked about auditioning for the role and how universal this character truly is. “Jane the Virgin came up and they were like ‘oh you’re going out for Jane the Virgin tomorrow, it was like right away and I was like Jane the what?” She continues, “I got super excited because as a woman, as a Latina you seldom have opportunities to go for the lead, for one, during in huge mainstream networks that’s not very often… I said let me read the script; within ten pages I was hooked. I was like this woman’s brilliant. Because she’s writing a story about a girl that is growing up in America, that has a dual identity, dual culture but she’s not taking our story and making it different. She’s not saying, okay because you’re Latina we can only make sure these things happen to you. No there’s no limits no boundaries, there are no boxes. Jane could be any ethnicity but luckily she’s Latina.”

One of the many characteristics the Latin culture maintains are family relationships. Jane may not have the same reasons, but expecting at a young age is something her mother knows well. When Jane finds out her world has taken a different direction, she tells her mother Xiomara, who as Gina points out ‘is the only person brave enough to follow her dreams.’ “She’s very fun and vivacious and young at heart and she doesn’t want to grow up. She has big dreams to be a singer performer. She’s never given up that dream even though it derailed her a little bit getting pregnant at such a young age, at the age of sixteen,” said Andrea Navedo.

Bringing reason and life experience into the lives of Xiomara and Jane is Alba or abuela (grandmother). Ivonne Coll, who has made her mark as a Latina actor in Hollywood gave us insight on her character Alba. “My character is an immigrant from Venezuela that came here to marry her husband… Her husband was wealthy, but he left everything to marry me… And so we moved here [Miami] but apparently I did not come with permission… and that’s my characters little secret.” She also explained what makes her character so authentic. “I believe my character, I am making it very authentic, like the first generation abuela. I speak solely in Spanish when I interact with my daughter and my granddaughter. You never see me speak English… but I think it’s to maintain the Spanish at home, to maintain the culture alive, the sense of identity, and that the girls never forget where they came from or who they are. Although they are here [Miami]. Although they are North American.”

This dramedy has something for everyone, including a handsome and probable father to be. Justin Baldoni, who plays a former playboy and hotel owner, gave us some insight on his character Rafael. “He kinda went the other way growing up so he’s got some daddy issues and he was a playboy and then he got cancer and cancer changed his life. He kinda went the other direction and he got his stuff together and when he got his stuff together, he realized he wasn’t in love with his wife anymore. It was based on who he use to be and through a series of unfortunate or fortunate events, Jane gets inseminated with his sample, which is his only sperm sample. It’s the only one left. It’s his only chance of having a baby and of course it goes into a virgin who also happens to work for him, who also happens to be a little former fling… So what you have is you have Rafael and Jane, who are two innocent kind of characters in this crazy world.”

Latin America is well known for its telenovelas. To fully transmit the experience, international star Jaime Camil brings his comedic talent and skills to a soap opera incorporated into Jane the Virgin. He said, “I think it’s important for humor to be understood, to be international.” Jaime confessed that while he had other projects, this one appealed to him the most. “I believe it’s brilliantly written by Jennie Urman. All the movements, the turn of events between the characters are wonderful.” He also mentioned his character Rogelio is very likeable and expressed how lucky he feels to work with a talented and wonderful cast.

Critics have fallen in love with Jane the Virgin and soon the rest of the world will too. Getting this role for Gina has not only been a personal accomplishment, but also a tool to speak to women across the globe. “When I was nineteen years old, I got thyroid disease in college. It meant that keeping weight down wasn’t gonna be as easy… But what I ended up finding out was that I was then liberated by the idea that I didn’t have to be anything but what I was in order to be successful. I think a lot of us believe that we have to be a cookie cutout or we have to be similar to what has already been done, but it’s like the four mile minute run; it wasn’t until somebody did the four mile minute that people were like, ‘I could do that’… What was beautiful about me going through those trials and tribulations that I went through was that I can turn to girls and say don’t ever let anybody tell you that you’re weight, your skin color, your ethnic background, your anything will limit you because you only limit you.”

Jane the Virgin premieres Monday, October 13^th at 9pm on CW.