ONCE UPON A TIME: Lana Parrilla and Jennifer Morrison Tease Emma and Regina’s Tension in ‘Breaking Glass’

ONCE UPON A TIME’s Emma and Regina team up to search for the Snow Queen in tonight’s brand new episode, and the (one-sided) tension between the duo makes things a bit difficult.

“Regina’s the one who’s mad at her,” Jennifer Morrison (Emma) pointed out to reporters on the show’s Vancouver set. “Regina is the one who is frustrated [Emma] brought Marian back. Emma is determined for them to be friends and allies; they’ve gone through too much to go back to being enemies in her mind.”

“And she understands Regina, and she understands how redemptive her story has been,” Morrison continued. “Regina — until Emma [met] Elsa — was the only one who was able to teach her anything about magic or how to control it and these powers she had…Emma is totally fine to work with Regina, it’s whether Regina can get past her frustrations that Emma accidentally brought back Marian.”

Alas, Regina isn’t quite ready to let get of her pain yet.

“It takes a bit, because she feels betrayed,” Lana Parrilla (Regina) conceded. “She’s hurt by Emma, deeply. She doesn’t know if it was intentional. I think deep down inside of her, she hopes it was a mistake or an accident, but it’s going to take her a little bit to come around, and to open her heart again. Because I do believe she cares for Emma on some level. It’s almost like a sisterly bond they have. And that mirrors the Elsa and Anna bond — you see in that first episode [of the season], that famous behind the door scene, and that mirrors the FROZEN scene. To me, they are setting up that kind of relationship between the two. I love what happens to them.”

But Parrilla admitted that while Regina is working out her issues, Emma will be getting the brunt of her misery.

“I remember reading the script going, ‘Oh my  God, Regina’s so awful to Emma! She’s saying one horrible thing after another,'” Parrilla recalled. “Playing it is one thing, because you feel like a total bitch for eight days while you’re filming the episode, but in reality it’s only 45 minutes. And it’s one day, where she’s just really upset and wants to punish her.”

“Regina is lashing out…it’s just non-stop,” Parrilla continued. “And Emma just takes it, because she knows it’s deserved. But in that episode, you also see it comes from a place of pain and that’s why she’s lashing out. But she really has no choice [but to work with Emma]. As angry as she is with Emma, there’s this other entity, this powerful [Snow] Queen. And they have to work together to defeat her. She’s too powerful to take on solo…I remember talking to [ONCE UPON A TIME co-creators] Eddy [Kitsis] and Adam [Horowitz], ‘Why is this happening? I feel like everything she says is so bitchy.’ And they said, ‘Yeah, but it’s one day.’ And I had to think about it, and yeah, you have your bad days, where you’re just a straight-up bitch to someone. It doesn’t really change their dynamic much — you can be angry with your sibling or your friend. A day passes, you sleep on it, and the next day is a new day.”

And, yes, the duo will come to a place of understanding.

“I think [Regina] just needs to get it off her chest and they’ll move forward,” Parrilla allowed. “I’m excited about their relationship because they’re very similar. They have something they were born with, which is this magic. Emma and Regina don’t have a lot of people they can relate to. So it’s nice they find comfort in one another.”

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

Related:

ONCE UPON A TIME Season 4: ABC Expands Episode 8 to Two Hours
ONCE UPON A TIME: ‘Breaking Glass’ Photos
ONCE UPON A TIME: Jennifer Morrison and Colin O’Donoghue Tease Hook and Emma’s First Real Date

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