Gina Rodriguez Shares How New Role Shaped Her Impending Motherhood

In Lost Ollie, Gina plays a mother in the middle of Kentucky who makes a point to incorporate her own heritage and background into her son’s life. It got Gina thinking about how she’ll do the same as her own family starts to grow.

“I have mixed cultures in my family and mixed religions,” she explained. “There’s Christianity, there’s also Buddhism and there’s also Judaism, and all of the different traditions that are held in those different religions. My eldest sister, who converted to Judaism and her husband who’s Jewish, they do Shabbat. They really do it. No electronics for the weekend. All family time and all togetherness and the dinner.”

Gina said she’s looking forward to integrating all sorts of different aspects of religion and culture into her child’s life—even ones that aren’t expressly her own.

“We get to be a part of that. I didn’t necessarily grow up with those traditions, and now to see them imprinted in my nieces and nephews lives,” she continued, “and how incredibly it brings the family together. Me and my husband can really be influenced by that experience because we participate with them.”