During last week’s episode of ABC Family’s The Secret Life of the American Teenager we watched as Ben and Adrian go to the hospital to give birth to their daughter who sadly didn’t make it. Now the couple will be dealing with the loss of their little one and struggling to make it as a married couple in high school. It is an emotional storyline for any actor to deal with and I was recently on a conference call with Ken Baumann and Francia Raisa and they talked about how they prepared for heart-wrenching story and what we can expect from their two characters in the future.
When I asked Francia, who plays Adrian who she prepared for the pregnancy and still birth, here is what she told me, “When I first found out she was pregnant, I was shocked but I was so excited. I was like, ‘Yay! I get to wear a belly!’ I could not wait to put on that stomach. I kept asking when am I going to do it, when is it finally coming. I was very excited, and then when I found out she lost it; I love kids and I was so excited to finally work with a baby and playing with the kids because I always play with Matthew and Joey who played John on the show. I’m always with him when they’re on the set. So I was a little upset and devastated when I found out that there was going to be no baby, but at the same time I was very excited to be able to play this role because it’s probably one of the toughest roles I’ve done since I started acting. So, I appreciated the challenge that the writers gave me, and I can’t believe they trust me to take on such tough material. So in that sense, I was very excited.” Then I asked how she found out about the sad way her pregnancy was going to take, she said, “I found out when I read the script. They were very good about not telling us. You know, they kept hinting it. They said, “I think she might lose it,†and I was like, ‘Really?’ She’s like, ‘I’m not sure yet.’ So she kept beating around the bush saying she wasn’t sure, she was sure, and then I read the script, and then I was, ‘Oh, my gosh.’ I just started crying when I read it because I had been carrying this, you know it’s fake, but I’ve been seeing myself with a pregnant belly for, I don’t know how many months, and then all of a sudden it’s gone, and there’s no result coming from it.”
Another person on the call asked her how she prepared for last week’s tearjerker, not that you really can, but here is how she said she did it, “I was trying to listen to some really depressing music, and the best thing that I could have done is I went on YouTube and I typed in stillbirth and there was a few videos that popped up, and there was one in particular, I think it’s the first one that comes up when you research it, and it’s about a couple who actually went through what my character goes through. You see the woman pregnant and how happy they are and the whole process of waiting for her to be born, and then you see them hold their dead child and you see her in a coffin and you see pictures of her, and you just see the whole family just crying and grieving. So, yes, that sold me, and that’s how I prepared for it, and the song that they added in the video I had on my iPod and I just listened to it over and over again. The flashbacks of that baby just sticks and came back into my head every time they called action.” I don’t suggest looking for that video because I did and watching it just broke my heart. Just like last week’s show did.
When asked what will be coming up for Adrian, here is the preview she shared with us, “Adrian was carrying the baby for nine months and she really felt emotionally attached to it. Like I said, her whole personality and her whole character changed into this welcoming person, and she felt blessed that everything was coming together in her life: her family; her friendships; educations; and then it all just came crashing down. So she becomes very angry and bitter, and she just wants to be left alone, and handle her own sorrows. Even if people try to come and try to be there for her, she just wants to be left alone. She just becomes, I guess, some sort of a loner again, and doesn’t really want to accept anyone because all she wants to do is grieve about her baby. ” But Adrian isn’t alone in her grief, her husband Ben also lost his daughter and this is what Ken said is coming up for his character, “Well, regardless at the very beginning before this event, it’s a pretty tricky situation, but I would say that it both kind of settles any disputes or conflicts they have just temporarily because everyone kind of bonds together in grief, paradoxically enough. But at the same time, once Adrian and Ben are trying to recover, it gets pretty nasty. And naturally, you’re going to have two people who are stricken by grief, and they’re going to look to make themselves feel better, and that may involve trying to reach back into the past, and go back to how it was once was, and reignite old loves and all that stuff. So, it gets even more convoluted, but temporarily, like I said, everybody comes together in this tragic event, which is very, very painful and bittersweet.”
So even though it seemed like last week was an ending, it was really a beginning for some more emotional episodes with two amazing actors portraying the storyline. Secret Life is growing up and tackling issues most shows with actors twice their age deal with and they are doing an excellent job with. So tune every Monday night at 8p to see what Ken Baumann, Francia Raisa and the cast of The Secret Life of The American Teenager do next.
