times are hard for dreamers

@booksociety ’s All By Myself Event: “The Flatshare” by  Beth O’Leary

“OMG! Understatement is not characteristic of telenovelas — and Jane the Virgin’s series finale certainly lived up to the standard — but when Emmy-nominated voice-over actor Anthony Mendez revealed the identity of the show’s beloved narrator in those six simple words, it was a wonderfully nuanced answer to the show’s final mystery. Yes, it’s been grown-up Mateo narrating the telenovela inspired by his mother’s novel all along.

Mendez told Vulture that he never read Jane scripts in advance, and that he never wanted showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman to tell him the narrator’s identity, so when he reached that line toward the end of the script, he “kind of broke down.”

“Not only is it so touching, the relation of the narrator to the story and to Jane and the family, but more importantly, to me, as a father, as somebody whose life has been changed by this show, that reveal meant so much,” Mendez said. “It’s almost like I was in a TV show and I saw the entire five years flash before my eyes. It was very, very moving.”

Over five seasons on the CW, the narrator that Jane fans have to come to love became a secondary protagonist with his witty observations, hilarious OMGs, and heartfelt reactions. Directed by Urman to sound like a telenovela Latin lover, Mendez gave the narrator a Latin accent, which he now thinks Mateo would have done too. “That may have been a nod to not only his grandfather and his roots, but to an entire culture because, even at this age, he has zero accent,” he said. “I think Mateo would do what Jennie did, which is not to make the accent the joke.”

jafael appreciation week - day three ♡ favorite quote

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Photo credit: @brewbevanphoto Stylist: @dalemckie @2020mentalityproject