Roswell, New Mexico has reached the second half of season 2 and is showing no signs of slowing down. Max and Liz have been happily reunited after he was brought back from the dead, but that doesn’t mean their fight is over. There are a number of complications ahead for our fan-favorite couple, including the entrance of Liz’s ex, Diego. HollywoodLife talked EXCLUSIVELY with Jeanine Mason during an edition of HollywoodLife’s TV Talk to get the scoop on Diego and more.
“I feel like there’s going to be a lot of very happy fans off the top because he’s quite the charismatic and intelligent man,” Jeanine told HollywoodLife. “He meets Liz where she leads, which is her brain. Through him, we get to know a lot about her history, which was fun for me to go back to that Liz who existed before Max Evans. It’s also just a really delicious dynamic to be standing between two stunning men… I’m really excited for people to meet him. He’s lovely. I think you guys are really going to like him. But yeah, it’s definitely a hell of a complication for her and Max.”
Liz has had to deal with a number of unexpected appearances this season — her sister, Rosa, and her mother. Mama Ortecho blew threw Roswell and did a number on Liz. Her mother’s appearance exposed the broken relationship between the mother and daughter. Even though she’s gone, Mama Ortecho will not be forgotten. “It’s going to be fun for everybody to watch the next couple episodes because so much more than we even know was set up in this first episode where we meet Mama Ortecho,” Jeanine teased. “There are a lot of things that we’ll start to pull strings at later and will unravel in a really big way.”
The May 4 episode featured an emotional moment between the Ortecho sisters. After Rosa overdosed, she told Liz that she wished she could go to rehab. Liz knew that her sister needed help, so she found a way to get Rosa to rehab. Jeanine talked about this touching scene between the sisters and what it means for Liz. “We miss her for a couple episodes, I believe, and that was so weird,” Jeanine said about Rosa going to rehab. “Amber [Midthunder] and I had such an amazing time. We’re really great friends, the two of us, and it was fun to just build their chemistry. She is Liz’s crutch. I think that’s the main thing about Liz Ortecho is that she’s so giving and she wants to take care of her people that even though the way her life has been built and surviving these last few episodes is she needs her [sister], but she’s going… You need to be okay, so I’m going to send you away. I’m going to help you and support you in going away to get better.”
The season 2 finale is set to air June 15. Jeanine couldn’t say much about the episode, but she did drop some hints. “It is stunning. Man, what can I tell you? I mean, what I will tell you is it is an event,” Jeanine revealed. “We have a really big event happening in Roswell when this all goes down, and it is the backdrop for our finale. It’s actually two episodes that happen in this one event that’s happening in town, and the way we were able to shoot in and around this spectacle was so crazy. It was all at night. Here’s a little hint: there’s a lot of lights and so many bodies. It was just insane. Generally, when we read scripts, we have such beautiful, really big ideas from our writers. It’s just the nature of TV and of having 7-8 days to shoot an episode of the show, those things have to get parred down and I’m just blown away by how big everything was. We had some pyrotechnic stuff that happened on set.”
In addition to Roswell, New Mexico, Jeanine has other projects in the works, one that was a dream come true for her. “Right before this all happened. I had just finished shooting an episode of Grace & Frankie for Netflix,” Jeanine said. “That is one of my favorites, so I was so happy to get to be a part of the seventh season because it’s their final season. I was like so full fangirl. I was just walking out of my trailer and saw Lily Tomlin... I didn’t even know what to do. It was amazing, so I’m really excited for that. I have a couple other projects coming up this year. One’s coming out towards the end of the year, which I can’t talk about just yet, but I’m so excited to share what it is because I think people are going to love it.”
Jeanine is currently in Miami with her family amid the coronavirus pandemic. She talked about how she’s trying to give back to small businesses to help support them during this difficult time. “That’s been my effort on my Instagram,” Jeanine told HollywoodLife. “I’ve been trying to share as many small businesses. A lot that are here in Miami, which is where I’m from and where I’m quarantining with my family, so restaurants, craft stores, bookstores, and creative ways we can support them. I just think that’s the fabric of our cities, and they’ve got to be there when we’re done. And then also places in New Mexico because I live half the year there and I love New Mexico.”