Jane the Virgin has come to an end, but Gina Rodriguez‘s individual friendships with Justin Baldoni and Brett Dier have only gotten stronger.
During an exclusive interview with Us Weekly, Rodriguez revealed which of her Jane the Virgin costars she would want to reunite with on her new game show, Lucky 13.
“I would love Brett Dier. I would love Michael from Jane the Virgin to come on the show because he is probably my favorite human being,” Rodriguez gushed about their close bond. “He is absolutely wonderful, bizarre, incredible, brilliant and fascinating.”
While Rodriguez serves as the cohost of Lucky 13 alongside Shaquille O’Neal, she would love to see Dier come on as a contestant, adding, “He would be hysterical. And then he can donate the money.”
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The actress didn’t stop there because Baldoni is also on her list of dream cameos. Despite Baldoni’s busy schedule with the release of his hit movie It Ends With Us, Rodriguez is certain she could convince him to take part in her new project.
“I would love Justin to come,” she told Us about Baldoni, who officiated her wedding to husband Joe LoCicero in 2019. “Justin would definitely come. Justin is super busy. But Justin is also one of my closest friends and we talk all the time. I could get him to come on the show.”
Rodriguez originally crossed paths with both Baldoni and Dier on the set of Jane the Virgin. The CW series, which premiered in 2014, was loosely based on a Venezuelan telenovela about a virgin who becomes pregnant after an accidental artificial insemination by her gynecologist. Jane (Rodriguez) initially kept dating her serious boyfriend Michael (Dier) but soon her feelings for the baby’s father, Rafael (Baldoni), made her question what she really wanted for her future.
After five seasons — and tons of critical acclaim — Jane the Virgin came to an end and the cast’s careers continued to flourish. Dier notably scored the lead role in ABC’s sitcom Schooled in addition to various movie roles. Baldoni, meanwhile, has kept acting but has also transitioned into directing films such as Five Feet Apart, Ezra, It Ends with Us and the upcoming Laughing at My Nightmare.
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Rodriguez, for her part, has starred in Carmen Sandiego, Diary of a Future President and Not Dead Yet before becoming the host of Lucky 13.
“I was first asked to join this project by Shaquille. I mean, who says no to Shaquille O’Neal? Not I! But I was like, ‘This is definitely very different for me.’ It was nothing I was actually ever really interested in before Shaquille O’Neal approached me,” she shared with Us. “But I had to figure out how it was going to make sense for me because I had never really hosted before.”
The motivation came from the contestants, with Rodriguez adding, “For me, I was excited to give people money. So it was coming from that perspective of how do I fit into this? Oh, I want people to walk away happy and with money.”
According to Rodriguez, it wasn’t always easy to be in front of the camera for a game show compared to a scripted TV series.
“It was vastly different from making a TV show. You are in front of a live audience,” she continued. “It’s like there are 200 strangers that don’t know the industry that are kind of getting a sneak peek into the skeletal process of making anything really artistic in front of the camera. It can be a little nerve-wracking.”
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Rodriguez was still thrilled by the unique experience.
“I am standing for 12 hours in heels and my feet are broken. When you’re doing a TV show, there’s a lot of downtime. You set up a shot, shoot it and then you can go work on lines or you can relax or decompress,” she noted. “With this, you are on from the start throughout the whole day in front of a bunch of strangers. and you do not stop. It’s like the train is out of the station and you’re holding on for dear life.”
New episodes of Lucky 13 air on ABC Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET and are available to stream the next day on Hulu.
