A new episode of Once Upon A Time airs tonight at 8PM (ET) on ABC — hopefully you’ll all come by our forum for some live discussion — but before we see it, we’ve got another interview for you from our recent trip up to the show’s Vancouver studio.
Today’s interview is with Mary-Margaret/Snow White herself, Ginnifer Goodwin, who first would talk about the elephant in the room that her character and her on-screen daughter, Emma (Jennifer Morrison), have finally been able to discuss.
“I wanted to have the mother-daughter talk in Episode 201, after the curse broke,” she admits, referring to the revelation that Snow and Charming were indeed Emma’s parents. “I couldn’t think of anything more pressing than addressing the dynamic between a mother and daughter who are the same age and have been through what they’ve been through. But – and I say this without being sarcastic in any way – our exciting, adventurous plot last year kept interrupting those kinds of conversations. So, every time we went to address the relationship between them – Emma’s abandonment issues, Snow’s guilt – we’d be interrupted by some external obstacle,” she acknowledges.
“One of the things about this world is that you’re forced to face yourself and face your past, which makes sense in a world where everything’s based on youth. Which we all know from the story of Peter Pan. So, because we are stuck somewhere like that at the beginning of this season, we’re going to absolutely have an opportunity to finally sit down and have these talks. What I love that I have been given to play as an actress is that Snow has clearly thought, since the end of Season One, that all it would ever take to heal the relationship between Emma and Snow would be saying ‘I’m sorry.’ Like, she thinks there’s some magical number, that once she hits saying ‘I’m sorry’ that many times, that it will have made up for everything that’s happened,” she admits.
The recent trip to Neverland also gave Goodwin a chance to again work side-by-side with many members of the Once cast, including Lana Parrilla’s Regina. “I love it!” she enthuses. “I missed it, to be honest. I signed on to the pilot – that’s all you can sign on to as an actor; we have no clue what’s going to happen past the pilot – but I loved that storyline, I loved working with those actors, I loved the feel of everything in that world, so I really missed working with those particular actors on a day to day basis and really exploring the Regina dynamic with everyone.”
“In many ways, we were all sort of – not that we were separated last season, but everybody had a separate goal, and everybody had very different kinds of obstacles and reaching their goals, and now we have a common goal, and now our obstacles are also very similar,” she continues. So, we are truly sharing storylines now. I really missed it. There’s something that happens when a family is together on a road trip, and that something’s gonna happen a lot this season on Once. I think that beneath all of the layers, I am convinced – and this is something that Lana and I discuss a lot – is the fact that there must be a layer of love underneath all of these layers of hate. Because the truth is, though Regina has tried to kill Snow several times, since the last time she tried to kill her, there have been ample opportunities, including the scene last year where she rips out Snow’s heart. But something is now stopping her. I feel like there must be a sort of safety between these women at this point, that they feel like they can really go at it, and they know that they’ll stop short of death, and so they can get a lot more out. I have found it to be a lot more fun. Our characters are sassing each other a whole lot more this season, and things are going further in some ways, because we’ve at least temporarily removed the threat of murder and are now able to have it out to a certain extent. I love seeing all of these characters together. Having to come together to reach a common goal means that all egos have to be checked. Every single character has to be willing to compromise. It’s also really interesting to see what characters are willing to compromise what in order to ultimately save Henry.”
As someone who is also a fan of the show, Goodwin also has good things to say about what she is seeing on the show that doesn’t directly involve her. “I honestly teared up watching, in the premiere episode this year, Peter Pan and Henry flying through the air. That’s the Disney magic! That’s what I want to see as an audience member, is Peter Pan flying and taking our new hero Henry along,” she enthuses, adding that she hopes that, despite the dark nature of Neverland, the storyline will continue there for a time.
You can find more Once interviews at KSiteTV here. Be sure to catch the new episode tonight (October 13) on ABC!
