Juno Rinaldi – Workin’ Moms

By: Lisa Steinberg

Q) We’ve enjoyed the character’s development over the seasons. How is she able to pull through the dark moments and come out the other side?

A) Like a lot of the women in the first season, she’s really struggling to figure out (as Kate says) how we have it all. How do we do this? I don’t feel like I’m very equipped to figure it out. I feel like Frankie did struggle with postpartum, which is a very prevalent piece in our society with women who are new mothers. It can be a very isolating experience going from your life with friends and family being sort of in charge of you to all of a sudden having this little being you need to protect and take care of. Your life really does take a hard left, but it can also be a chemical thing that happens, too. The wonderful thing that Catherine [Reitman] has done with this is giving a voice to the postpartum piece because I believe so many women struggle with that. It’s being talked about more now, but it’s still a very full feeling to think, “Why am I struggling? Why am I the only person that doesn’t feel love or a connection towards my baby? Something must be desperately wrong with me.” Immediately we turn it inwards and take it out on ourselves that we’re a bad parent or mother, but it’s a very common experience. What I appreciate too about how Frankie is portrayed with that is postpartum is you are sort of walking this line of this deep joy and love and this well of feeling like connected and the world. It’s a sensory overload in a very beautiful way and on the other side is darkness. And I love how Frankie walks that line, especially in the first season. She’s right on that line of hilarity and depression, I guess you could say. It was sort of a tight rope that I was playing that season. But, at the end, when she sort of admits to Giselle (Olunike Adeliyi) that she can see that things aren’t going well and something is wrong so I need to address it. So, she does and I think there is great power and strength in that knowing when there isn’t something right. I had postpartum with my second son (I have two). Often it happens on your first time, but you don’t know. So, I got it the second time around and I remember calling a really good friend of mine and just talking to her. I said, “I don’t know what’s going on. I feel this and this.” She just sort of talked me through it asking, “Is this a normal Juno feeling or is it something else?” She just knew how to ask the questions. I was like, “No. This is not a normal Juno feeling.” That’s when I decided to get help, too. I feel like it takes a village. Then, I ended up going to a really great place in Vancouver called The Postpartum Support Society. It’s sort of like the only organization like it in our country. They helped immensely with the isolation piece and the group piece coming in to talk to other women who have experienced the same thing and giving us tools. Then, the funny thing is I ended up going to this organization and a few months later I ended up coming back to the organization to volunteer and the run the groups for these other women who were still struggling. So, it was kind of this full-circle thing. Then, you’ll see in Season 2 that kind of happens to Frankie as well, which is wild to me. We were life imitating art in many ways. She gains her footing and she starts to figure out what is important to her, what does Frankie really value in her life now that she’s had this baby and her world has kind of been turned upside down. What are the things most important to her and what does she want to try hold on to or create for herself? What kind of family environment would that look like to her?

Q) Now we’re in Season 3, how do we see co-parenting and the footing between Giselle and Frankie?

A) I think with any sort of family where you sort of figure out that there is a dynamic that is not working and you need to figure out how to make it work for the child and the parents involved. I feel like Frankie and Giselle are really great team. We see that grow over the first season and second season and now moving into the third. They have figured out how to grow and they are family. They do become family and can love the pieces of each other they were probably drawn to in the beginning and also understand the pieces that drive each other crazy, but no longer need to sort of deal with that on a daily basis and have this co-parenting peace. That’s such a huge dynamic in our world now of how the parents get along if they are not living together and not romantically involved anymore. They share the bond of this child and it always comes back to the kid and how do we raise this baby the best we can despite our differences. I feel like Frankie and Giselle really work hard at that. Again, it keeps getting tested so that’s what is so interesting about it. That bond they have won’t ever go away because they have this baby together so it’s interesting to see them go through these different stages of their lives together and a part and how that bond still continues to be tested even after they are no longer romantically involved. I’ve worked with Olunike now for three years and it’s been a wonderful evolution for us, too, as actors to sort of grow from not knowing each other at the beginning to our characters going through these different journeys together. This season I felt like the two of them became really settled in their world and it’s really neat to see that they love each other, but they understand they are not the right fit for one another yet have deep love for one another. I really liked that a lot. That’s a real kudos to Catherine because she had and has a very strong vision for the show and has gone beyond to do that. People are recognizing it and I’m so happy for her because everybody is basically saying, “Thank you for saying what we’ve all been thinking and doing and trying to figure it out.” They are all real moments that we have faced and it just keeps coming into my life. I love that and I think that’s why people are so eating it up and bingeing it. You’re talking back to the TV going, “Uh huh! Yes! Exactly! Thank you for saying that!” How many times have we wanted to say to a little kid on the playground, “You’re a little shit!” So many times we want to say that, but we don’t because it’s not okay. [laughs] It’s borderline, but we love seeing someone what we’re thinking and feeling. It’s a very cathartic experience. Her filter is not there and just says what she thinks. Again, it’s so nice to see the response and people connecting specifically to the different characters like, “Oh my gosh! I am such an Anne! That is me!” Or, “I see myself in Jenny or Kate.” It’s cool.

Q) We definitely see Frankie on a steady path this season. What red flags might pop up and test that steadiness in Season 3?

A) Oh man! I want to tell you, but it would be a spoiler! Like any good TV writing, for me just being a TV viewer when I watch shows that I really love, I loved seeing these characters struggle and fall. How are they going to figure this out? When they are put in situations that test them it’s so interesting. How are they going to do this? That’s great writing and great TV. So, of course, our characters all go through something and all are challenged and tested. What I love about it is Frankie has grown so much over the past three years from where she began to where she is know that her challenges in the third season are very different than they were in the first, but in the way she handles it is still with that incredible Frankie-isms and Frankie energy that she does. It’s how she approaches her life all the time. I think viewers will be really, really excited and keen to see how she navigates the third season and the obstacles put in her way, but how she does it in her way. She’s a love. She’s a whole package of stuff, but she definitely handles her life on her terms and in her way.

Q) They have this unconditional bond that they’ve developed. What makes that dynamics so special?

A) I think what makes that dynamic special is that it is on screen and off screen. I feel like we connect as actors and as people. We’re all parents, except for Jessalyn [Wanlim] who lives in LA. So, that’s trickier, but the three of us (Dani [Kind], Catherine and I) are based in Toronto so just by coincidence we see each other a lot more. On screen and off screen is a lot of support. So, we’re always together at events. We’ve had that bond since my first audition with Catherine, way back when. I remember walking into that room with Catherine and Philip [Sternberg] and having this deep support and “yes and just go for it,” which is a very unique experience at an audition setting. That hasn’t wavered since we started. Then, I met Dani when we were in LA testing for the show and immediately, I was like, “I don’t like this girl. She’s annoying.” [laughs] But we became very, very close friends and have continued to be. The three of us each have two boys each and it’s this sort of bond we have on screen and off screen. We have our little roles as actors, too. Frankie is kind of the third wheel a little bit, but they adore her and love her. They see her and appreciate her. I think Frankie does the same to them as well. They are kind of this duo that is very special and she adores that about them as well. It’s on and off screen as well. The whole cast is really tight, connected and really love to work with – really special to work with.

Q) Season 3 we see Frankie expand outside of that circle as well.

A) Yes! Definitely. Because she’s kind of on her own. We meet a character in Season 2 (I don’t want to spoil it for anybody) who becomes another part of Frankie’s tribe, which is really cool. She’s awesome. She’s in Season 3 as well and in the season Frankie is sort of finding a bit more people and more of a tribe. She does expand that, but she’s got this touch stone to always come back to, which is Val (Sarah McVie) and Kate and Anne. They are the constants as she searches and keeps searching of who she wants in her life with Rhoda.

Q) What is the most rewarding part or favorite part of Frankie’s character development over the past there seasons?

A) Whoa…Honestly, the whole experience has been the most rewarding. I’ve been acting since I was a kid, really, and when this audition came on my radar I was shining shoes in this big mall in downtown Toronto. It’s a good gig (I’ll put a side note there). I had two kids and husband and we were struggling, as we had for many, many years as actors. We’re both creatives. So, when this came into my world and I got to read the script and go, “Oh my God! This character is me. I love the writing. I love everything about it.” I actually have been able to play this character for the past three years…None of this would have been on anybody’s radar three years ago, so that has been an unbelievable gift for me as a performer. I ain’t no Spring chicken rolling into auditions in LA. That ship sailed. The fact that I can have this opportunity to play this incredible character with these amazing women and have this kind of recognition…I can’t explain it. I feel really f’n lucky. That’s it. There are so many talented people in this world that deserve this gift that I’ve been given. The stars aligned for me and I just hope to play the character for as long as I can. I create my own work now where other voices can be heard and other stories can be told. I can take this opportunity that I had on this show and bring other women up with me. Bring other women’s stories out. I think that’s the job of being given a piece like this. Okay, how do you now turn this into changing someone else’s life? I’m very grateful to Catherine Reitman. She took a chance on a thirty-eight-year-old.

 Workin’ Moms Season 3 airs Thursdays at 9pm (9:30NT) on CBC and CBC Gem.

All three seasons are available to stream on-demand on CBC Gem, within Canada.