Vanessa Marano Talks Switched At Birth

Last week Vanessa Marano sat down for a press call to discuss this season of the ABC Family hit Switched at Birth. Vanessa was candid, honest and full of energy. I loved talking with her! She discussed her character Bay’s family drama, learning Sign Language, her obsession with Helen Mirren and why you won’t find her on Twitter. Check it out!

Question:      What kind of moments should we be looking forward to this season on Switched at Birth?

Vanessa:        This season is summer, and so we think of summer so bright, happy and fun in the sun. It’s a very dramatic season, particularly for Bay it’s quite life changing for her.

Question:      Will the change in family dynamic continue this season or will Bay be able to repair her relationships within her family?

Vanessa:         Well, she repairs the relationship with Daphne, which is nice.  I like that those two can’t stay mad at each other as much as they used to.  They’ve also evolved more into sisters.  But this is a really big season for Toby.  He’s usually a character that’s in the background that you lean on for support, but it’s a very big season for him.  He’s talking about getting married, and whether or not that’s the right decision, and so it’s a lot about growing up and figuring out if you’re doing something for love, if that’s the right decision or not.

Question:        Can you tell us about the upcoming “What-If” episode and how it affects the families?

Vanessa:   The “What-If” episode is probably my favorite episode this season.  I think it’s going to be a very satisfying episode for fans and it’s a whole “what if the families found out that the girls were switched at age 3 rather than at age 16?”  “What if Regina had told the Kennishes what she had found out about the girls being switched?”  And so I think it’s going to be very satisfying for fans because they get to see that, it’s in this whole push-and-pull of “did Regina do the right thing?”, and they get to see whether or not she did.  A lot of it has to do with John’s justification of what Regina did, and he’s still so angry about it and how everything would have turned out for each character.

It’s really fun, because you get to play a character that you’ve been playing for so long but you also have completely different circumstances than what your character had grown up with.  And Switched has always been about nature versus nurture, so this is what if the nurture wasn’t what it was because everything changed when the girls were three.

Question:    Could you talk about how Bay is feeling right now about both of the moms?

Vanessa:   Well, Bay right now is bonding more with Regina, and that’s not, even though I don’t think Kathryn sees it that way, anything against Kathryn.  It’s just she’s never had an opportunity to bond with Regina and it always felt like Daphne and Kathryn got all of this mother-daughter time and Daphne still got to be a mother-daughter with Regina, and Bay got nothing.  So this season is really about them finding their mother-daughter connection, Regina and Bay.

Question:    What have you learned from working on the show?

Vanessa:     Sign language.  I didn’t know sign language before the show, but I kind of know sign language now.

Question:      Do you find yourself subconsciously using ASL in your normal everyday conversations?

Vanessa:      I wouldn’t say I use it in my normal everyday conversation.  But, yes, I definitely get into a mode when I’m whispering to somebody, because usually when I’m not using it on set for a scene, Katie (Leclerc) and I, when you’re not allowed to talk, we’ll sign a little bit back and forth just to talk in the middle of shooting.  We’re mature like that.  So usually if I’m in a situation where I’m whispering and I have to be quiet, sometimes I’ll just end up doing it because I’m kind of  used to mouthing the words while I’m using my hands.  And it happens a lot with my sister and my one friend, Megan, and they always go, “Dude, I don’t know sign language.  I don’t know how many times I have to tell you that.  You’re not helping yourself.”

Question:    Has it been hard for you to learn it?

Vanessa:      Yes, it has been.  It’s throwing yourself into a completely different element.  It’s nice, though.  It’s nice to be able to challenge yourself in that way, because Switched is a story that we all know.  It’s a story about searching for identity and it’s a story about searching for a family, but it’s done in this different way involving the deaf community and involving deaf characters, and involving sign language.  So you can’t really get bored because you’re seeing a story that you’re familiar with told in a different light.

Nice Girl Lisa:      What was it like filming the all ASL episode that aired in March? Do you think there will be another one?

Vanessa:   Well, it was the first time it was ever done on television and it was the first time a whole episode had been done in sign language.  So it was kind of nerve-wracking actually, because you were doing something that had never been done before, so all of a sudden you have this huge responsibility to do it right.  It was actually pretty difficult, but the result was amazing.  I hope we’ll do another one.  There are no words for doing one right now.  But it turned out great and it was really cool, because Switched in general is something that’s never been done before, there’s never been a show with a lead character that is deaf and so many deaf actors. So to be doing something that I’d never even done before on top of that, with an entire episode that was done in sign language was pretty cool to be a part of something groundbreaking, really.

Nice Girl Lisa:     Yes! It was amazing and my favorite episode so far. Switching gears – If Toby and Nikki do get married, who do you think will be Bay’s date to the wedding?

Vanessa:    Oh, that’s a good question.  Let’s see, episode three just aired, I don’t know if I can give away who Bay’s date is going to be to the wedding right now considering where we’re at.  I hope everyone likes Bay’s date.

Question:     Will Emmett and Bay be able to be just friends?

Vanessa:    We will see.  It’s funny, part of the “What-If” episode is a what-if for Emmett and Bay, so we get to see the circumstances changed and what they would have been.

Question:     Do you feel like your daytime experience helped prepare you for this role?

Vanessa:     You know what, I’ve said this so many times in interviews, I was so against doing a daytime show when I first got offered The Young and the Restless.   I was like, “Oh, I don’t know.  That doesn’t feel like it’s me.  I don’t know if I want to do it.”  My mother was like, “You need to do it.”  And it was truly one of the best experiences I had personally and acting wise.  I think I learned so much from that show that I really do apply to every role that I had afterwards.  As far as memorization goes, I learned so much, as far as trusting your instincts you learn so much, and my hat is off to any daytime actor, because what they do is way harder than what anybody else in television does.

Question:   If they would have any celebrity guest star, who would you like to see guest on the show?

Vanessa:     Well, I’m obsessed with Helen Mirren, so if we could get her that would be awesome.

Question:   Are there any other struggles that Bay will be dealing with this season?

Vanessa:       Definitely Ty and Bay is a struggle.  Bay and Emmett is a struggle this season.  And Regina and Angelo and Bay all living under the same roof turns into a struggle as well, because it’s just not exactly what everybody expects it to be.  But you know what, what family is?

Question:   How similar or different are you from Bay?

Vanessa:   It’s funny, I think I’m actually very different from Bay.  Obviously I’m playing her, so it doesn’t appear that there’s much of a difference, like the cadence of the way we speak is very similar, our humor is very similar, because the way that I inflect some certain words reflects on that.  But there are so many times when I read a script and I’m like, “What are you doing, Bay?”  Because Bay, believe it or not is, and she gets this from being raised by Kathryn Kennish, she almost is an optimist.  She goes into every situation making a crazy decision and thinking that it’s going to turn out totally fine.

She decided to go to deaf school and she’s like, “What’s the worst thing that could happen?”  Well, Bay, the worst thing that could happen is that this group of kids who have been neglected from society because of the fact that they can’t hear are going to be judgmental towards you because you’re parading on to their campus thinking that you own it.  Come on, Bay, think things through.

And just the main one, I’m going to move my biological mom and my “switchster” into the guest house across from where my parents live.  There won’t be any fighting even though they’re complete opposites.  She just doesn’t think things through and thinks everything’s going to turn out just fine, which is something that she gets from being raised the way she was.  And I constantly find myself saying, “Oh my God, think things through, Bay.”  But she wouldn’t be the Bay that we all know and love if she did.

Question:     Who has influenced you professionally and who you would love to work with if you could pick anybody?

Vanessa:    Well, I would say Helen Mirren is the answer to all of those questions.  But there are so many people, like I would love to work with Christopher Durang on a play.  He’s one of my favorite playwrights.  I think he’s fantastic.  There are so many directors, and so many writers, and so many actors that I’ve learned so much from, from watching, but I would say influence wise so much of what I got influenced by was my mother directing theater.  That was my perspective on acting, was because my mom was a theater director.  So I would say the way that I learned things and the way that I thought of acting really came from that.

Question:    Do you have a Twitter handle?

Vanessa:   I do not use Twitter.  Well, at this point it just makes me super unique, doesn’t it?  I made a decision a very long time ago that I didn’t really want to be involved with social media.  I don’t think I’d be very good at it.  Judging by me answering all of your questions, do you really think I could keep it to 150 characters?  I don’t think so.  It is a great way to promote the show, it’s a great way to get to know your fans, but to me the more important, all-knowing thing of making eye contact with somebody and connecting with somebody that way and having a conversation with somebody face-to-face, I value so much more than hiding behind a computer screen and doing it that way. So I get it, I understand it, I do not naysay on anybody who does Twitter, it’s just not for me personally.

Switched at Birth airs Mondays at 8/7c on ABC Family.