As the Latin lover narrator said in a recent Jane The Virgin episode, pretty soon even the recaps will need recaps. True to its telenovela soul, the show is already a tangled mass of characters, impossible situations, and absurd number of plotlines, all beginning with a twentysomething virgin getting artificially impregnated with her doctor’s brother’s sperm.
So naturally the show is introducing another character, who will be played by the legendary Rita Moreno. Moreno, one of only a dozen EGOT winners, will play the paternal grandmother of Jane (Gina Rodriguez, who just took home a Golden Globe for the role). Jane has only recently been introduced to her father, Rogelio (Jaime Camil), a narcissist with a heart of gold whose antics bring an overblown sense of pathos and cartoonish humor to a show that already has no shortage of either. The show’s charm has overcome the potential pitfall of juggling roughly a zillion plotlines per episode, and Jane has already been renewed for a second season.
Moreno already had a decade-long resume when she played Anita in West Side Story in 1961, earning an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. She won a Grammy in 1972, a Tony in 1975, and two Emmys, one in 1977 and another in 1978, for her work on The Muppet Show and The Rockford Files, respectively.