Dawn Bonker
Twice Camille Collard ’10 has been wrong about the popular CW television sitcom Jane the Virgin. But that’s turned out to be great news.
First, when her agent sent her a brief description of the plot, she thought it was beyond absurd. Then she imagined there was no way she would land the recurring role of Jane’s pal, Frankie.
“It called for a sassy best friend, boy crazy, any ethnicity. I thought there’s no way I’m getting this. This is such a broad representation of requirements,” Collard says.
But she did get the role of Frankie, sidekick to Jane Villanueva (Gina Rodriguez). And the madcap story line about a virgin becoming pregnant via artificial insemination thanks to a distracted gynecologist?
“The show’s great,” she says. “The writers are so very clever.”
Critics agree. The Los Angeles Times called the CW show cleverly done in a farcical telenovela style “one of the best things to come out of the fall season.” New Yorker Magazine described it as a “sweet surprise of a pilot, with its shrewd narration and likable cast.”
Loosely adapted from a Venezuelan telenovela, Jane the Virgin gets zanier with every episode as plot twists and characters enter the fray. Melodramatic voice-over narration by Anthony Mendez amps up the satire.
To her role Collard says she brings every moment of training honed in the Department of Theatre. She considers professors Tom Bradac and Tamiko Washington as being the mentors who “made a difference in my life and my understanding of the development of the craft and the tools that I needed.”
Bradac, she says, “Taught me to bring myself to my work.” And Washington “really pushed me hard. The sweat and tears that went into my junior and senior year developed me as a person.”
And it added up to a foundation that has launched her to where she is today.
Says Collard: “I’m paying my bills by acting now, which is all I ever really wanted to do.”
Jane the Virgin airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on the CW Network.
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