This story was originally published in September 2018.
Were republishing it today for the premiere ofJane the Virgins final season.
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Extras wander the grounds in elaborate Day of the Dead makeup.
How long should a young actress pause before turning her head?
But Urman still has to get through this script, which she absolutely cannot do while sitting still.
She sits on a rolling costume rack outside the studio to listen to a development call.
She perches on a tiny kids chair inside the set of Janes sons bedroom.
When she reads and writes at home, often at night, she walks loops around her neighborhood.
(If its too dark to see, she does it while wearing a headlamp.)
The premise ofJanesounds (and is) absurd.
Janes OB/GYN accidentally inseminates her during a checkup.
And theyre going to getreallyupset a lot.
Gina Rodriguez describes them to me as hourlong events.
[Urmans] performing the whole fucking thing, she says.
Shes seated, but its a table of 25 to 30 people that are just staring at her.
And then Jennie will be like, And then,bang!They die!
And Im like,Nooo!
She has at least six other projects in development.
Today, her production partner is on set to talk through some mechanics for a sitcom idea.
ButJaneis her show, and this is its fifth and final season.
OnJane,Urman says, I care abouteverything.
On a show this fast-moving and multilayered, everything is a huge task.
When Urman came acrossthe idea forJane the Virgin,she had doubts.
She knew shed need to hire a writers room that could fill in the gaps in her own experience.
Not to mention, listen, Rodriguez continues, you cant deny talent!
You cant argue it.
They decided to move to L.A. after the specs got them a few meetings with managers and agents.
It was a difficult transition.
For that first half-year, I was a shell of a person, she says.
She wanted something she knew she could sell.
Shes immensely proud of her parents.
For one, she refused to learn how to cook.
Urmans now married, and has an 8-year-old son and a 7-year-old daughter.
I think about my kids watching, a lot.
In the DNA ofJane the Virgin, there is room for all of it.
The two shows share a central grandmother-mother-daughter triad, and they walk the line between absurdism and sincerity.
And likeGilmore,the worldJaneinhabits is simultaneously a semi-surreal fantasy and a more grounded reality than TV often depicts.
Jane and her family are working-class.
HerabuelaAlbas home is small and unassuming.
Her family struggles with the ongoing stress of Albas uncertain immigration status.
Urmans former boss onGilmore Girls, David Rosenthal, is now a member of theJanewriters room.
That was just destiny.
Rosenthals not surprised thatJaneis the show that it is.
But Im fucking impressed, you know?
One of the drivingquestions ofJaneis also one that immediately distinguishes it from the majority of serious TV.
Can their life be complicated if theyre not doing all these terrible things and forced into these extreme situations?
Balancing the shows silliness with its serious side is one of the trickiest things Urman does.
I wanted to turn around and go, Lady, are younuts?
Theres a ratio, Featherman tells me.
Theres whats in Jennies head versus whats on the screen.
I ask him if that gets at least a little infuriating.
It has rarely infuriated me, I have to be honest with you, he says.
I dont know how to explain it, except, more than usual, Im at Jennies service.
Im here to take a stab at get what she wants to see.
For some people, theyd hate this job, but I love working with her.
Shes delighted by good ideas, regardless of where they come from.
Rodriguez is directing the season-five premiere while also starring in it.
Urman pauses often to watch Rodriguez work.
Its crazy that she can do that, she whispers.
Their partnership forms the foundation ofJane, but its also extended beyond their work on the show.
In the years sinceJanebegan, Rodriguez has begun to develop a more high-profile movie career.
And she has sought Urmans help in choosing which outside projects to take on.
She has watched cuts of those movies and given notes.
With me, so that I could give my personal notes as though they were my own voice.
She is like blood.
Brett Dier is more blunt: Jennie did a good job at hiring non-assholes.
Its 8:15 p.m., and Urmanhas been on set since before 9 a.m.
It will be another hour until shooting wraps, and she has to return first thing the next morning.
But she has a lot to do.
Also, her bag just broke.
I asked her about the bag the day before because its hard not to notice it.
Urman holds up the bag, realizing the strap has frayed almost completely apart.
Rodriguez shouts when she realizes were talking about it.
We should get it tszujd.
Urman says, without sounding excited about it.
The bag could easily be a key prop on an episode ofJane the Virgin.
Itd be a throwaway moment to tie into a bigger arc about Janes emotional journey.
Sending the bag off to get fixed would be a kind of ending.
Stories should have ends, Urman believes,and she is nothing if not a passionate storyteller.
She loves telling stories so much, she actually let me read her pitch document forJanes final season.
Urman knows what the ending ofJanewill be in thorough, meticulous detail.
When it ends, Im going to be a wreck for sure, she says.
Im really not able to let go onJane.
On other projects I am.
Viewer feedback, she says, affects everything.
You cant take the good and then discount the bad.
Shes even gotten some pushback from the writers room about a detail of how the story will end.
But shes firm that its the right direction for her characters.
I just want them to understand the journey.
