Exclusive interview with Lana Parrilla

October 6, 2017 | This fall "Once Upon a Time" is back for season 7 which will show new faces and new stories. Lana Parrilla, who has been playing the roles of Regina Mills and the Evil Queen from the first episode of the fairytale show talks to us about her experiences. In Germany currently season 6 ist airing on RTL Passion and Lana answers some question about those episodes as well.

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You have been a part of "Once Upon a Time" for quite a while now. What is your favourite moment of Regina so far?

I would say her fight to be a better person, you know, her constant dedication to solve enhancement. I think it's quite admirable and something that has inspired many. That's something I really, really love about her.

What kind of happy ending do you wish for Regina?

I think Regina is content with her life, meaning that she's finally accepted herself and loves both sides of her, dark and light, and has learned to embrace those sides. And peace within is a beautiful happy ending. But I think she would love to share the new person that she's become with maybe a lover. A lifetime partner. Someone that she can connect with and sort of put into practise this new person that she spent so many years developing. And share that wonderful being with someone, whoever that person ends up being. But I think that season 7 gives Regina an opportunity to find a different kind of happy ending. And they're different for everyone, they are such a personal thing. There are people that never want to have kids. There are people that never want to get married. And their happy ending is maybe living their dream and flushing out a very desired career or whatever. Giving that to themselves. But I think a happy ending is different for everyone and I think for Regina it's finding peace within but then taking it a step further and sharing her life with someone.

Towards the end of season 6 Regina and the Evil Queen aren't that different anymore. So, was it a big challenge having to play them at the same time?

Yeah, it was very challenging playing the two at the same time. For many reasons. "Once Upon a Time" doesn't normally do that on the show. There have been two characters in the same scene multiple times throughout the seasons. I think we've done versions of it here, there, but I'm not sure if we've had it before. It was challenging for the show in itself because we've never done anything like that. That was a learning process for everyone. I guess, what made it challenging for me was: It was very time consuming. It is extremely time consuming! It ate up a lot of time to prep. Prepping both characters and knowing what I'm gonna do on both sides and the training my stand-ins to basically move like me. It was very time consuming, so it was very challenging in that regard.

You had to perform in the musical episode. How do you like your song "Love doesn't stand a chance"?

I loved it, I had so much fun. I thought the musical episode was awesome and it's one of the better ones I've seen on television. I thought everyone did a wonderful job. "Love doesn't stand a chance" was probably the Rock'n'Roll number of the musical and I'm really glad I got a Rock'n'Roll number 'cause I just love dancing, I love singing. It was a fast song, it moved quickly. There was a lot going on, there were a bunch of vignettes that take place. I go to visit the dwarfs, I go to visit Granny, I get to visit Geppetto and Pinocchio. And so it was really fun to be able to work with all the other actors as well and tell a story within the song. I loved it. I loved the dancing part of it. It woke up the dancer in me and got me excited to dance again. I thought it was great. I would do a musical episode again any day.

Since you started filming season 7 now, what do you miss most and why?

I miss some cast members because I've worked so closely with them over the years. Luckily, there was just an announcement the other day that Rebecca Mader is coming back. She is one of my dear friends. I'm really excited to have her come back.

Jared Gilmore has come back and made an appearance but I'd love to see more of him. He's just the sweetest boy and I've seen him grow up before my eyes and we're quite close, so I'd love for him to come back more. More Henry flashbacks, because we can have Jared up here and tell those stories.

I am more excited about what season 7 is going to bring which are new adventures and new stories. We have a new cast and I really love working with them. I think the older Henry played by Andrew West is just phenomenal. He's just such a sweet, loving guy. Dania Ramirez, who plays Cinderella, is lovely, just a gem. I've seen some of the other cast members as well, I've spent probably my most time with those two and a bit more time with Adelaide Kane, as well. And I really like them. I think that they are great fit. They bring a fresh sort of perspective to "Once upon a time" this season. It's nice to have new energy and a new sort of boost of enthusiasm and excitement. It's kind of lifted everyone's spirits and we're telling new stories with the same formula but we're telling new stories with new people. It's been a lot of fun. And our characters, mine, Bobby's and Colin's, have all shifted. We're all playing, again, different versions of these characters. So it's really fun to be able to play another colour of Regina.

Can you relate well with Roni?

Very much so. I think she's probably closer to me. She's a little more laid-back, a little more down to earth. Kind of rough around the edges. And that's pretty much who I am. I think they wanted to bring some elements of me into the character this time. Sort of a little Brooklyn edge to her. She kind of reminds me of the bandit Regina which is at the end of season 4. I really loved playing the bandit Regina. I remember I made some choices that were very specific to the character and they really loved that and they wanted me to bring those elements to Roni. But, obviously, she's a bit more mature than bandit Regina was. So there's a lot of differences. And, you know, there's some similarities because she still is Regina somewhere in there so Regina kinda creeps in there every so often.

Since myFanbase is an online magazine about TV shows we would like to know what your favorite shows are?

I would say "Stranger Things", "Ozark" and "Game of Thrones". "Ozark" is really cool. I am now watching that and I really like it.

Thank you so much for making time for us, Lana, we wish you all the best.

Swan Melloh, Marcel F. & Marie Florschütz - myFanbase

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