Welcome to Jennifer Morrison Central - we're one of the most up-to-date fan sites dedicated to the amazingly talented actress Jennifer Morrison! You may recognize Jennifer from the TV with 6 years on "House" or more recently as Emma Swan on the hit ABC series "Once Upon A Time". Jennifer has also starred in the films "Urban Legend: Final Cut", "Bringing Ashley Home", "Star Trek", "Five", "Warrior", and soon "Some Girl(s)". We offer the latest news and information about Jennifer and her career, a large photo gallery with thousands of images, media downloads, videos, fan interactions and more! Thanks for stopping by and please visit us at www.jennifer-morrison.com again soon!
Centers on a woman with a troubled past who is drawn into a small town in Maine where the magic and mystery of Fairy Tales just may be real. Season 2 Premieres September 30th on ABC.
Knife Fight is about sex, drugs, money and how politics is really played-a knife fight in a telephone booth, where blood is spilled, low blows are common and the best candidate is not always the best person. In Theaters TBA 2012
The story of some guy named Guy, who has just gotten a story published in the New Yorker and who now, mellow with happiness, decides to undertake a voyage of reconciliation to former girlfriends who he has, in one way or another, wronged. In Post-Production
Three soldiers get trapped in an elevator when terrorists set off a dirty bomb. But when White escapes, her world turns upside down as she realizes nothing is what it seems. In Post-Production
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It’s sunny and warm on an early May afternoon in Steveston Village, B.C., on the south arm of the Fraser River. The Once Upon a Time crew has packed up and left for another season, and historic Moncton St. has returned to its original self. The welcoming signs of a late spring are everywhere.
It could not be more different than that cold, wet morning, earlier in the year, when Jennifer Morrison ducked inside a pet-supply store during a break in filming, to take shelter from the rain. Morrison plays Once Upon a Time’s Emma Swan, a seemingly normal, well-adjusted young woman who, when surrounded by characters from a mythical fairy-tale kingdom, learns she’s anything but normal.
“I don’t think it ever occurred to me that I would ever be playing the child of Snow White and Prince Charming,” she said, with a wry smile. “I don’t think that would ever occur to anyone, to be honest. I mean, who thinks of Snow White and Prince Charming even having a child?
“That’s part of the beauty of the way Adam and Eddie think,” she added, referring to Time creators Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis.
Morrison grew up in Chicago, majored in theatre at Loyola University, studied with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company and settled in Los Angeles before landing the breakout role of Dr. Allison Cameron in the late, lamented hospital drama House.
Morrison filmed the pilot episode of House in Vancouver, in March 2004. The production relocated to Los Angeles that summer, for the rest of the series. Morrison left House after six seasons, and in 2011 found herself in Vancouver again, this time filming the pilot episode for Once Upon a Time.
The irony is not lost on her.
“There must be something in the water in Vancouver,” she said. “I’ve had major, major life moments here. My first film I ever did, when I was 13 years old, was a Richard Gere film called Intersection, and that was filmed here. I did the pilot of House, which was here. Then I did this film called Bringing Ashley Home, which is the only film I ever won an award for, and that was filmed here. And then we shoot Once Upon a Time here. Listen, Vancouver has been good to me, very, very good to me. So I think there might be some magic in the water here.”
Part of the compensation of the job, Morrison said, was being allowed to kill a dragon.
“I did kill a dragon, yes. There’s been a lot of that this year. What I love about that is it keeps me warm. We were doing a swordfight in the rain, the other day, and I was the only person still warm. Because I was sword-fighting.
“It’s a different kind of exhaustion. It’s a different strain on your body, when you’re travelling and working and doing all the things we’re all doing to do the show. And I’m learning that I have to take care of myself differently because of it.”
“It’s a different challenge, but it’s fun. It’s fun to learn new things and have the opportunity to have a character that can grow. A lot of times on TV you get stuck in a part that has to stay the same, because it has to serve some sort of purpose. Emma’s growth in the first season was pretty major. And Emma’s growth in the second season has been exponential, because of her introduction to her parents and dealing with all the emotions and vulnerability that comes with that. Part of it, too, is having a sword in my hand for the first time, or climbing something very tall at some point. As an actor, it’s fun to be able to grow like that.”
Morrison is recognized in public more these days, but it’s not like her years on House. The odd thing about playing a doctor on television, Morrison says, is that people naturally feel comfortable and at ease and inclined to share personal details of their lives, as if talking to their family physician.
“It’s nice, because you can interact without it feeling invasive,” she said. “I’ve been very lucky that way. I’m thrilled that people like the things I’ve worked on. It means a lot to me, and it’s why I continue to have a job. I’ll always be grateful for that.”
Once Upon a Time prompts a different reaction in passersby than House, though, Morrison added.
“For some reason, with this show, people want to hug me. I’ve learned, everyone wants a hug. Which has never happened with any other role I’ve done. Somebody said to me, just the other day, ‘You look like a huggable person.’ I was like, ‘You know what, this is happening, so I might as well just go straight in for the hug.’ People want to hug Emma for some reason. I think that’s awesome. If people want to hug me, that means I must be doing something right.
”I will take the hugs. And give the hugs.”
Once Upon a Time’s second season finale airs Sunday, May 12, on CTV and ABC at 8 ET/PT.
Actress Jennifer Morrison, star of the hit ABC show “Once Upon a Time,” visited The Grove and chatted with “Extra’s” Renee Bargh on what’s in store in the season finale.
Once Upon a Time’s Search for Bae Will Leave Viewers ‘In a Tumultuous Situation’
This Sunday on Once Upon a Time (ABC, 8/7c), although Mr. Gold and Emma’s jaunt to New York City is at the fore, flashbacks to Rumplestiltskin in the fairytale land that was will leave viewers of the series with a most unwelcome souvenir.
But first, there’s the matter of finding Rumple’s son Baelfire, who apparently wound up in the Big Apple after being sent to our realm — without his father — through a portal (in Season 1′s “The Dark One”).
“When I first read this script, it sort of felt like a season finale,” says Jennifer Morrison, whose onetime bail bondswoman helps suss out Bae. “So much that has been building up for so long happens all at once in this episode. It’s definitely a payoff to a lot of questions.”
Of course, attentive, forever-speculating Once fans have their theories on Bae, but as Rumplestiltskin (played by Robert Carlyle) learns this week in flashback, just because you know what’s going to happen, doesn’t mean you know what’s going to happen. “That is really true,” Morrison affirms. “[Series creators] Eddy [Kitsis] and Adam [Horowitz] did an incredible job of setting up the circumstances for everything to come out in a very particular way. I didn’t see it all coming this way at all.”
Because even if Rumplestiltskin does reunite with his boy, it won’t necessarily be “happy to see me.” At all. Instead, a rather complicated father/son talk may be on tap. Morrison, for one, is a huge fan of delving into such dysfunction. “What drew me to this show in the first place, and what I always loved the most about it, is when we go deeper into the relationships of the people that we got to know initially,” she says.
Giving the storyline added gravitas is the fact that it plays out in an environment without magic (sparkly Times Square billboards notwithstanding). So when words need to be had and as problems demand to be hashed out, Once transforms into (almost) your typical TV drama.
“That is a big difference about this particular episode,” Morrison notes. “On this show there is a lot of heightened, sort of fantastical elements, so it is an interesting relief to ‘take a breath’ in the real world, where there is no magical solution to something. It’s just real people with real problems, and they’re going to have to deal with it.”
All told, Morrison says that when father and son do come face to face, “It’s incredibly emotional” — for Rumple, at least. For Bae, however, “It’s everything he’s worked so hard to avoid for his entire life. So, there’s conflict and love going on at the same time in that moment.”
Speaking of conflict: As alluded to above, the episode’s flashbacks pack as much of a punch as the New York City story, when Rumplestiltskin’s stint in the Ogre Wars is rerouted by a run-in with a blind seer. That storyline plays out in a way that not only explains how things went sour between the gold-spinner and his wife Milah, but also drops in viewers’ laps a bombshell they never saw coming.
“It definitely puts the audience in a very tumultuous situation, in terms of being in on that piece of information and constantly sort of waiting for this thing to jump out around the corner,” Morrison teases. “It’s an incredible element of suspense that’s been built into upcoming episodes.”
On Once Upon a Time’s main street in Storybrooke, resident evil queen Regina sits in her car, peering into her side mirror with tears streaming down her face. The mirror’s reflection shows Emma breaking bad news to Henry — someone has been murdered in Storybrooke, and all signs point to Regina as the culprit. As Regina realizes she’s likely lost Henry forever and more tears fall, the director yells, “Cut!” With only a minute or two to spare before the scene resets, Lana Parrilla dries her face, peers up in the air in an attempt to stop crying before reapplying more makeup. It’s time to do the scene again, and this time, it draws even more local looky-loos. That’s because the Storybrooke set of ABC’s fairy tale drama isn’t closed to the public, but a real working street in Steveston, a town just south of Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada.
Filming in Steveston is both a blessing and a, ahem, curse. On the one hand, “All the world’s a stage” takes on new meaning as the cast is literally acting live in front of adoring fans. On the other hand, those same fans are quick to snap a spoilery photo that will surely wind up on the internet. On this late October day, cast members Jennifer Morrison, Ginnifer Goodwin and Josh Dallas are filming this Sunday’s midseason return (airing 8/7c on ABC), picking up shortly after the Charming family reunion, a major spoiler fans didn’t learn about until the Dec. 2 winter finale.
“That does bum me out because I just feel like for me, as an audience member when I’m watching other shows, I don’t want to know those things ahead of time. I enjoy the surprise of it,” Morrison laments, noting that there’s a different level of acting when in Storybrooke. “You’re always on display. It’s an interesting thing as an actor. What you aim for is to not be self-conscious and what it creates is a tremendous self-consciousness. It’s a new challenge to find a way to do the best work you possibly can under those circumstances.”
On the flip side, Goodwin says, “It’s a good problem to have,” since the attention means the fans are passionate about the series. “When we first came back in the summer, when school was out, we’d come up and literally there’d be 200 or 300 people here coming throughout the day just standing around watching.” Dallas adds. “It became street theater. It’s great and it just means, obviously, we’re onto a good thing. I’m just glad that people are interested and want to come and watch.”
No one is more sensitive about spoilers than Parrilla, who’s had several spoilery scenes on the streets of Steveston this season. “I had that moment with Daniel [Noah Bean], when he stepped out in his fairy tale land clothes for that scene when he’s on the corner,” Parrilla says. “I stepped out and I went, ‘Oh my God! What are you doing? You need to put a jacket on! We need to put a hood on him!’ I freaked the f— out. Everyone was like, ‘Lana, calm down. Maybe it’s a nightmare.’ Oh right, that makes sense. But I panicked. I really do hate spoilers and I try to protect it as much as possible. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. People aren’t going to stop watching. They’re going to tune in just as much because they’ll want to see it.”
And that’s exactly how the co-creators of the series feel when they experienced the plight of filming in Storybrooke firsthand. “It’s funny because obviously when we shot the pilot and the first part of Season 1, there’s your normal looky-loos because you’re filming, but when we came up for the finale, we were really concerned because it was the scene where Snow and Charming realize who they are when the curse broke and they run to each other,” Edward Kitsis says. “We thought it would get out. Oddly, the truth is, it always gets out. Even on Lost, everything got out. There’s not much you can do. You’re worried and yet, at the same time, you’re inspired.”
“As far as spoilers go and the fans that are watching on set and leaking stuff, we’re so appreciative of the interest,” adds Adam Horowitz. “We know those who want to find out will, and those who don’t, won’t. Even those who want to find out are going to watch anyway to see how we do it.”
Back in Storybrooke, bad news has struck as a beloved fairy tale character — whose identity you can learn in this video — has apparently died at Regina’s hands. Unfortunate on many levels, obviously, but none more so than marring the long-awaited reunion of Snow and Charming, whose time together was short-lived in the Season 2 premiere.
“This will be the first time that they’ve been together in 28 years in their new amalgamated versions of themselves,” Goodwin says. “There are new obstacles, but one of those is not that they are going to be immediately separated again. We’re going to start to reexamine their relationship and figure out who they are now that they are a mix of these characters and they are going to be focusing mostly on what it is to be parents.”
Finding out what it’s like to be a parent will also be a challenge for Emma. “I think she’s always going to be a little unsure of herself,” Morrison says from a cold street corner in Storybrooke, with Emma’s sheriff’s badge strapped back on her hip — Emma and her father will act as a lawful tag team when the show returns. “She knows that ultimately, as long as she’s there for him and she’s supportive, she’s not going to be perfect and she will make mistakes, but at least he will know that he’s loved.”
Meanwhile, her TV son, Jared Gilmore, is as inquisitive as his Once counterpart. Gilmore walks down Storybrooke’s main street, heading for the only building actually owned by the show, Mr. Gold’s Pawn Shop, which always stands “dressed” with an array of props ranging from boxing gloves and a fencer’s mask to little toy robots, musical instruments, bikes, bird cages and a canoe — possibly an indication of people, places and things we may see in the future. Unfortunately, Mr. Gold’s pawn shop — which will later be used in a sweet Belle (Emilie de Ravin) and Rumplestiltskin (Robert Carlyle) scene that’s interrupted by Emma, Snow and Charming — is currently locked. “I have an idea,” Gilmore says, jokingly prepping to kick down the front door.
“I have a lot of favorite stuff in here,” says Gilmore from inside Mr. Gold’s. (He snuck in the back door!) “I like all the robots and then I like that little cannon, the telescope and samurai swords. Then there’s this really cool rifle back there. Whenever I shoot in here, I can’t help but touch everything I see.”
Gilmore’s Henry won’t be happy for long considering his adoptive grandmother, Cora (Barbara Hershey) has come to Storybrooke alongside Captain Hook (Colin O’Donoghue). “She’s a shape shifter and therefore a bigger threat, I think, than some of our other villains have been,” Goodwin notes. “Magic is here and magic works differently than it worked anywhere else. It’s not just that we have Cora and Hook here, it’s that waiting here are Rumplestiltskin and Regina, who do have a different version of their magical powers back, but they do have something and they were willing to do anything to keep Cora and Hook from coming here.”
“We’ve clearly established that Cora is incredibly powerful,” Morrison adds. “I don’t think any of us have really dealt with the depths of her darkness. To have that suddenly enter humanity is definitely going to be interesting to watch and see what comes of all that.”
Back on the road, Storybrooke’s library is still boarded up, with newspaper on the window. Earlier, the production team went through added signs throughout the street, including Storybrooke dental, Storybrooke hardware and Storybrooke bakery, though the latter’s owner likes to keep the sign up all the time, hoping to attract fans of the show in for warm bread. Just around the corner stands The Buck & Ear, which sounds like a place Captain Hook would frequent — but it’s actually a real bar and grille not used in the series… yet!
When scenes begin shooting, a production assistant politely asks people not to cross into frame, while down the street a cop diverts traffic away from the seemingly quiet, yet bustling town as the crew waits for a helicopter to fly over before commencing. Parrilla still sits nearby in the car between takes, with fans looking in.
“I see these people watching me,” she says. “It doesn’t bother me. I have a gift. I work hard. They’ve come to watch, and I’m going to give them the gift. It is like theater. That’s what I loved about theater is you feel the energy of the people and they do feed your soul and they do change how you’re going to say the next line because the energy is ever-present. You can’t deny that. It’s funny because I looked at all of them after the first or second take and I smiled and I let them in instead of pushing them away and it made my performance richer, I think.”
Parrilla has dealt with quite a few emotional scenes recently, most notably when Emma and Snow returned. “It’s a double-edged sword,” Parrilla says of the event. “It’s like, ‘I wish I could have just f—ing left them there because it would have made things a little bit easier.’ She is thisclose to getting rid of both of them and David and Cora and just wiping them out completely. But then what is she left with? Henry, who would hate her. At the end of the day, I go, ‘What makes this boy so special?’ Look at what he’s done. She just wants to be accepted and loved by him. And she still loses him.”
Surely there will be more of those emotional moments ahead with the arrival of her mother. “I think there are going to be moments when she does kind of revert back to being that little girl,” Parrilla says of Regina eventually crossing paths with Cora. “It’s now the adult knowing how f—ed up her mother really is and how she’s f—ed her up. And then there’s going to be moments of the Evil Queen. ”
And the Evil Queen may have already reared her ugly head, possibly claiming the life of yet another fairy tale character. “I think it makes the series, ultimately, far more compelling because it just means no one’s safe,” Dallas says from across the road, jumping around in the below 50-degree weather to get warm and taking a moment to soak in the sun that filters in between the brick buildings. “That’s another great thing about our storytelling. Just because someone’s gone doesn’t mean that we can’t ever revisit them again. So he may be gone, but maybe not forever.”
Adds Dallas’ on-screen and real-life love, Goodwin: “It’s important to keep the stakes high in that way and realize that though in theory we are immortal in that we are sort of ageless, we all have Achilles heels and there are ways to off us. I think it’s really important that they keep reminding the audience that there are really dire consequences to magic.”
Sitting down with Once Upon a Time‘s Jennifer Morrison and Ginnifer Goodwin, one can’t help but feel the love in the room.
Already longtime friends, they now are putting on a daughter/mother act, as Emma Swan and Snow White/Mary Margaret, on ABC’s fantastical sophomore drama. For the occasion of the midseason finale airing Sunday at 8/7c, I asked the actresses about being split off from other castmates for Season 2, how it feels to fulfill princess dreams, and invited them to tease the twists ahead as Once heads into its five-week holiday break.
TVLINE | How different was it for you two, shooting this stretch of Season 2 versus Season 1? You’re split off from half the cast, working with new people, shooting almost exclusively outdoors versus on a cozy set…. JENNIFER MORRISON | We got really good at putting HotShots [hand warmers] inside our clothes so we didn’t freeze to death. [Laughs] I mean, it felt the same because we had each other, in my mind, and it felt almost like we were doing a new show together or something, because we were with two new people in a whole different situation. GINNIFER GOODWIN | And in a world that Emma had never been in before. MORRISON | Yeah. And even though Snow had been there, it was so different now. So everything was new for all of us, in certain ways, but I thought it was really fun. GOODWIN | I did, too. MORRISON | We had a lot of fun with Sarah [Bolger] and Jamie [Chung]. Like our little “gang.” GOODWIN | I [like] our little foursome. How often do you get four actresses together, by the way, who really want to work together every day? MORRISON |Really like each other. Yeah. GOODWIN | My wish at the end of last season, once I understood that the curse was going to be broken, was to focus on the relationship between Snow White and Emma so I got my wish as we were thrust into a world where all our characters could do is readjust to the new dynamic and learn about each other while facing external obstacles and not have to be some kind of self-indulgent family time.
TVLINE | As far as the people you didn’t get to work with during this first stretch, what did you miss most? Is there someone who sings on set, tells jokes between takes…? GOODWIN | Lee Arenberg (Leroy/Grumpy) and Meghan Ory (Ruby/Red) are… MORRISON | They’re fun. GOODWIN | They’re great fun. I actually have a lot of trouble staying in character when working with Lee because he makes me laugh so hard. I can’t not break into giggles.
TVLINE | Acting is so unpredictable a career that regardless of your efforts and talents, House‘s Dr. Cameron and Big Love‘s Margene could have been your respective calling cards. And yet, here you’ve had an opportunity to create characters that are so different and so distinct. How does that feel? MORRISON | I love acting because you don’t have to do the same thing over and over again, every day, and that’s what attracted me to wanting to do this for a living. So to be given an opportunity to create something completely different and live that out is the dream. It’s incredibly rewarding and fulfilling. GOODWIN | This role is my inner 8-year-old’s dream. On top of fulfilling the dream of always getting to change it up and to play really vastly different characters, I’ve always been sort of addicted to genre jumping. I’ve never been in the mood to do the same thing I did last time. Hence, me going from Big Love to romantic comedy, to period film…. I can’t sit still. This, I did for my inner 8-year-old and for my future actual, material 8-year-olds, because I’m a “Disneyphile” and I specifically was obsessed with Snow White growing up. One of my base dreams had always been to play a Disney princess and have it written by these guys [series creators Adam Horowitz and Eddy Kitsis included] in such an evolved, fleshed-out, adult kind of way.
TVLINE | I said this at last spring PaleyFest’s panel, that I knew the show was either going to be a hit … or it was just going to go south in a jiffy. GOODWIN | Oh, totally. MORRISON | We all knew that. GOODWIN | But I was promised that if it did go south in a jiffy, that it wouldn’t be our fault. [Laughs] MORRISON | And also, we would get credit for trying something daring and brave.
TVLINE | I recently gave props to the show’s CGI effects, because while some people like to kvetch about them, the need for them is mandatory and the budget isn’t going to suddenly… GOODWIN | We’re not going to have $30 million an episode, no. It’s not going to happen. I can’t even wrap my brain around how quickly they turn these things out. And to be honest, I wasn’t sure about the CGI, in that I’ve always been a “Don’t show the monster” kind of person, but this is so imaginative and so brave, and I’m hoping it’s moving technology in a new direction. MORRISON | Someone just needs to make smaller mic packs. That’s my request for the world. GOODWIN | Oh, my gosh, yeah. I want a microchip [inside me]. I actually had a dream about it last night, that we got microchips. And I will have that surgery. I just want something they can put under my skin and I can be in control of turning it on and off. MORRISON | I don’t know if I would go that far but I just feel like, why, when everything else has gotten so tiny, are mic packs still so clunky?
TVLINE | Speaking of CGI, talk about shooting the netherworld scene, Ginny. Was a butane flame anywhere near you? Was it just the disco floor there on the set? MORRISON | [Laughs] A disco floor! GOODWIN | I kind of wish we had had real flames, only so that I could have understood how dramatic they were going to be, because we didn’t have any concept of what was going to be there. But yes, we were just on “the disco floor” — I’m convinced the key to good effects is having a real floor – and it was one of the stranger scenes I’ve ever filmed. Oh, and by the way, the reason I wish there had been real flames or I’d seen the [effects] before is because we didn’t understand how loud or big they were going to be, and while reacting to something that you’ve never seen before sometimes works, sometimes is a bit more challenging.
TVLINE | Yeah. You’re on a quiet little stage screaming at Josh [Dallas], when he’s probably five feet away. GOODWIN | If that. But the weirdest part of that scene was, because they weren’t sure when either one of us would be transparent, we shot it in its entirety several times.
TVLINE | See, I wasn’t expecting that twist, that you wouldn’t be able to physically touch and kiss, thus trapping Charming in the sleep spell. I was like, “Oh man, he’s [screwed].” GOODWIN | I cried when I read that part. MORRISON | I cried when I read that scene, too.
TVLINE | All of which brings us to the midseason finale. So, Aurora’s now some two-way radio kind of thing? Almost like that squicky eyeball ring from Beastmaster? GOODWIN | Yes! I forgot about that movie. That’s hilarious. Yes, now the four of us are back together and we are going to Rumplestiltskin’s cell to get the squid ink. MORRISON | And Cora has Aurora’s heart, so she’s acting like her puppet.
TVLINE | Is there an extra fire in the ladies’ belly now that Charming is in stuck in the sleeping spell? There’s more reason than ever to race back to Storybrooke? MORRISON | They just keep adding more and more reasons to feel the pressure to get back, for sure. GOODWIN | Ogres and zombies and stolen hearts and Charming and… MORRISON | And that justifies Snow, literally, taking an arrow to Mulan. It’s life or death at this point.
TVLINE | Ginny, have you come out of this better at archery than Jennifer has at sword-fighting? MORRISON | I sword-fight in [the midseason finale]. GOODWIN | And that was awesome. I think I’m very cocky about my fake archery skills. It’s something that I did as a child, and when I have shot real arrows, they go where we need them to. But there are safety rules on set, so if someone’s in front of me, I can’t use a real arrow.
TVLINE | What sort of obstacles might be on the way to getting this squid ink? I can’t imagine it’s as easy as going there and grabbing it. MORRISON | The most obvious obstacle is that we have a spy amongst us, so Cora’s going to always be one step ahead. I find that to be what’s so terrifying about Cora, as a villain, is that she is so cunning. There is always that unsettling feeling of “What is she going to do next? How is she going to stop them?” She’s capable of anything, in our book. GOODWIN | And Gold himself is an obstacle, never knowing what we can trust in terms of the information he shares with us. Because though he’s selfish, things always seem to turn out in our favor in dealings with Gold and… MORRISON | We can’t figure out why. GOODWIN | We can’t figure out why, so we don’t know what to trust.
TVLINE | Jennifer, are we going to witness any new indications of the magical something going on within Emma? We haven’t seen much of that since the Season 2 premiere, when she helped Regina get the hat spinning. MORRISON | Well, we don’t really know if that was anything or if it was a coincidence. Magic is unpredictable, so it’s not clear really if Emma was the reason that that happened. There’s a lot to discover about Emma, because she’s only known herself as a real person and not as a fairytale character. I think, very, very subtly and slowly, there will be little hints of discovery, for sure.
TVLINE | Do you consider an Emma/Hook hook-up out of the question at this point? MORRISON | It’d have to take some really interesting logic to get Emma to want to be with someone who’s a villain. What I see, and what I think fans see, is they’re very kindred spirits. They both come from being thieves and finding creative ways to survive life. When we work together, I feel that, he feels like a real partner — but not right now in a way that’s romantic. Shes met her match in him in other ways, though, so there’s a connection.
TVLINE | Speaking of thieves, are we going to see Neal Cassidy (Played by Michael-Raymond James) again? After all, he was sort of “summoned” from his New York City apartment. MORRISON | Yeah. That has to pay off at some point, for sure.
TVLINE | What have the two of you learned about each other, spending this much time together? Like, would Ginny indeed make a cool mom? MORRISON | Oh, yeah. I’ve always known that though. I think that’s pretty obvious.
TVLINE | And Ginny, how must Jen be as a daughter? Do you foresee trouble with curfews, boys…? GOODWIN | No, Jen’s a good girl, which is also something unusual in this business, I find. I’m ready to adopt her. MORRISON | We’d been friends for years before this project, so it’s one of those dream situations where, going in, you know you’re working with somebody you already care about a lot and know a lot about. GOODWIN | Jen was quite literally the only person I wanted to do this with. In fact, I was misquoted in an interview with a journalist who was not taping our conversation, as you are, but just taking notes. I said that if I was being shipped off to a foreign country to be a part of a project for the next decade, Jennifer Morrison is like, absolutely, hands down, the person with whom I would want to do that. But the quote they ran was, “Jennifer Morrison is the person I want to spend the rest of my life with, in a foreign country.” MORRISON | It was really funny. It sounds like we’re in love. GOODWIN | That’s why I didn’t correct it because, I mean, that’s awesome.
TVLINE | Can you tease the final moments of the midseason finale? What kind of emotions viewers are going to go through during the closing minutes? GOODWIN | God, I cannot wait to see it. It’s so satisfying. And yet… MORRISON | It’s set up in a way where we don’t know what we’d be coming back to if we go through the portal, while in Storybrooke they don’t really know if it’d be us coming through or someone else. It really allows for the emotions to be heightened. GOODWIN | And, after all that we’ve done, something might be enacted that would… MORRISON | Would kill us. GOODWIN | Yes. It would be fatal upon our coming back.
Baddies Cora and Captain Hook clash with Snow and Emma in this weekend’s midseason finale of ABC’s fairytale-inspired drama “Once Upon A Time,” as they all fight to get to Storybrooke for very different reasons.
In recent weeks, in her quest to get back to her son Henry, Emma double crossed the raven-haired captain, swiping the all-important portal-related compass for herself, leaving him tied up in the giant’s home up the beanstalk. But Jennifer Morrison, who plays Emma, said the move was justified.
“I feel like he should understand that obviously I couldn’t trust him. I’m just saying!” Jennifer laughed, after ABC flew us up to the Vancouver “OUAT” set, and AccessHollywood.com asked how Hook is feeling when they characters meet again. “But… from my perspective, she didn’t want to leave him, she wanted to believe him, but I think that’s the beautiful thing about putting those two stories next to each other. You see why she can’t take that risk.”
Emma will finally have to answer for those actions when she sees Hook once again, but with his occasional fondness for her, things could go any which way.
“They come face to face and… I think it’s very honest,” Jennifer said, when Access asked what to expect of the confrontation. “I think it’s what it would be… Unfortunately, Emma’s put in a situation where she now needs something and he has the upper hand and so there’s a constant ping pong back and forth of the power shift with them. It’s like he needs something and uses her and she needs something and uses him and then they’re always sort of like trying to rely on their abilities to charm and manipulate to get each other to do things. “
Emma will have a lot on her hands in the episode. In addition to dealing with Hook and Regina’s even more evil mother – Cora – Emma’s still trying to comfort her mom – Snow — who was left devastated in last Sunday’s episode.
After heading into the fiery room people go to after they’ve been placed under a sleeping curse – and seeing her husband David/Prince Charming waiting in there too — she found she couldn’t break the curse he undertook to find her and give her instructions on how to defeat Cora.
“The dynamic between Emma and Snow shifts a bit because of that experience and Snow needs a bit of caretaking after coming face to face with Charming and thinking that they were going to be able to be together — even if it was in this sort of hallucinatory dream state,” Ginnifer told reporters during a brief break from filming on the “OUAT” set.
Filmed from every camera angle possible, the scene where the two star-crossed lovers couldn’t touch in the fire room brought Ginnifer to tears.
“I cried every time I read that scene in the script,” Ginnifer explained. “I had not quite realized until we were filming the scene — that is the shift in the dynamic between Emma and Snow when Emma really has to… get Snow under control and take over as leader.”
On the other side – in Storybrooke — Regina (Lana Parrilla) and Mr. Gold (Robert Carlyle) – have a heavy task on their hands too – keeping Cora out.
“She is terrified,” Lana said, when Access asked how big of a threat Cora could be. “Think about what [Regina’s] done to Cora and we know what Cora’s done to her — and we only know some of it. And you have to think — Regina has banished her mother and sent her to another land. [She] pushed her through a mirror and just got rid of her and tried to kill her.”
Robert said his character has a similar view on Cora, propelling his character to do whatever it takes to keep her from coming through that portal.
“She’s bad news to have around. She’s nasty,” Robert said during the set visit in Vancouer. “I think that Rumpel’s about himself. I don’t think he’s necessarily world domination nasty and I think that Cora probably is.”
Catch the midseason finale of “Once Upon A Time” this Sunday at 8/7c on ABC.
Jennifer Morrison foresees fans learning more about her character Emma’s past in the future of ABC’s ‘Once Upon a Time’ and teases another whale of a tale to come in the fairytale drama series.
Jennifer Morrison (Emma) answers all our big questions about Season 2 of Once Upon A Time. Including a very awkward introduction to Mulan and Aurora, Kingdoms gone awry, the Wraith and meeting Lancelot (Sinqua Walls) and learning the true identity of Henry’s father. Morrison also teases Emma having possible magic powers and discovering new parts of Emma’s backstory.
