Ruby Jay spills the beans on her singing stint on 'The Unicorn' and how her character Grace steps in as 'mother figure'
'The Unicorn' is a fresh take on the widowed-dad-enters-dating-zone comedy and Ruby Jay plays the role of a teenage daughter Grace on the show. The show chronicles her struggle after she loses her mom at an early age right when she is getting out of the pre-teen mode and entering the dating world. In an exclusive interview with MEA World Wide (MEAWW), the actress revealed how her character slowly becomes the "mother-figure" and made a big confession about how she might get to sing too!
Touching upon the sensitive topic of dealing with the loss of a loved one, Ruby shared, "I actually have lost someone very close to me. She was like my grandma but I lived with her for three to four years. She became a motherly figure to me. That's how I used that experience to encapsulate Grace's thought process."
Ruby has been seen in a few episodes of 'Grey's Anatomy' and 'Modern Family' and is known for her stint in the Hulu show 'Holly Hobbie.' Talking about how 'The Unicorn' is her first big network series, she said, "It's so different. Everything on 'Holly Hobbie' was so amazing and it was my first time playing a series lead. It was quite fun with nice and welcoming people around and it was a good introduction to the industry. But when I came to 'The Unicorn' sets, it was a whole new ball game. It is so big and glorious to be shooting the episodes and counts as a true Hollywood experience."
The 15-year-old is also a musician and her YouTube singing videos are quite a rage. In a major confession, she revealed that she does get to sing on 'The Unicorn' too! "I don't know how much of it I can reveal right now, but yes, I will sing on the show," she said, and also teased the release of two more new songs for her fans.
Referring to all her "classic teen moves" in the show, she said, "What I love about the show is that it doesn't just show the grumpy teenage parts but also the happy and sad parts."
As the storyline continues, Grace steps in to be the mother-figure of the family. She is the one who has most of the talks with her dad and attempts to help her younger sister Natalie, played by Makenzie Moss. The hardest issue for her is to find her place in the world again after losing her mom in her teenage.
With actors like Rob Corddry, Michaela Watkins, Omar Benson Miller, and Maya Lynne Robinson, the critics feel that the cast is gold. Working with them was an incredible experience for the actress. "The entire cast bonded so quickly and so easily. We were an instant family right from when we started shooting the pilot episode. It was incredible to see their process and get them to feed me new information about how to grow as an actress."
Sharing an instance from a particular scene where she was in an argument with Walton Goggins, Ruby said, "I was supposed to be really mad and upset. I was getting there but it somehow wasn't clicking for me. I think Walton noticed that and pulled me aside to help me practice saying the same line again and finally got into the mindset of the character."
To help with her studies, Ruby also had a tutor on set and she called the experience both "fun" and "difficult." "It was fun because Makenzie is my classmate. All the other kids hang around and I get to bring my real sister on the sets to study. So that's fun! But it also gets stressful at times as I have to do three hours of school a day but sometimes, there are days and weeks where I only get to do one hour of school and that makes me slowly fall behind because I don't have any time to get it done." With a beam of radiance, she added, "But, I am figuring it out."
Watch out as her role takes a new dimension in 'The Unicorn' in the next few episodes. The actress will also be seen in the second season of 'Holly Hobbie' on Hulu!
