ONCE UPON A TIME: Lana Parrilla Teases Regina’s Honesty, Flashbacks and More

Things just aren’t going Regina’s way on ONCE UPON A TIME.

Not only are all the newly-aware townspeople of Storybrooke still pretty annoyed with their mayor/Evil Queen, but she just narrowly escaped a Wraith that Rumple sent to steal her soul. Unfortunately, in the process, Emma and Snow got zapped to an unknown location, leaving Regina’s adopted son, Henry, to request she do everything in her power to bring back his biological mother and grandmother.

But how far will she actually go to live up to her word to Henry?

“Very far,” Lana Parrilla (Regina/Evil Queen) teased. “It’s not easy for someone to get honest with themselves about who they are and what they’ve done. And what we see with Regina in the first handful of episodes in the second season is her taking responsibility for things. She’s on the road to redemption. She really wants to understand why she’s done certain things and the reasons behind it and the choices that she’s made. She has to look at herself in the mirror in a very different way than she did in the first season…getting honest with not just herself, but with everyone else.”

And what does that mean for her relationship with someone like Rumple, whom she has a legitimate reason to be pretty ticked off with?

“I think payback is always on her mind, but it’s not on the forefront,” Parrilla said. “On the forefront is her relationship with Henry, and that she needs to salvage. But Regina’s very good at juggling. Nothing really intimidates her, nothing really veers her, except for the loss of her son. so that’s her main focus and everything is secondary.”

It makes sense that Regina would cling to the remaining family she has left, given her fractured relationship with her own mother, Cora. And while Barbara Hershey (Cora) will return in season 2, Parrilla was hesitant to say too much about what those interactions will mean for her character.

“We flashback to fairytale land where we see young Regina with her mother,” she previewed. “I can’t give anything away, but a lot happens. It’s not an easy relationship, it’s not…it’s a sad episode. It’s very tough decisions Regina has to make. And there are consequences that come.”

On a lighter note, Parrilla did share that there was one upcoming guest star she does hope to share some scenes with in the future.

“I hope to work with Jorge Garcia [who will play The Giant], just because he and I have not done a scene together since I was 19 years old,” she laughed. “We started studying together, we’re really old friends, for 16 years now. I adore him; love him with all my heart. I’ve been bugging the producers saying, ‘Write something for us.’ And they know we’re really good friends and hopefully that’s in store for our future on the show.”

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ONCE UPON A TIME airs Sundays at 8 PM on ABC.

Related:

ONCE UPON A TIME Season 2 Premiere Post-Mortem: Adam Horowitz Talks ‘Broken’
ONCE UPON A TIME Season 2 Cast Photos
ONCE UPON A TIME: Adam Horowitz and Lana Parrilla Tease the Season Premiere

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