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As the star of ABC’s Once Upon A Time, Jennifer Morrison’s gotten used to playing the good guy (er, girl). She’s known as the savior, after all, destined to rescue the town of Storybrooke from an Evil Queen’s curse, in this mash-up of epic Disney fairytales. This past season, the tables were turned, with her character developing a sinister alter ego: Dark Swan.
After so many years playing the protagonist, I had to know: How’d she feel about the swap? And what was it like being the baddie for once?
Admittedly, I expected a one-sentence answer along the lines of “wickedly good,” as we focused on Morrison’s favorite foods for a recent feature on Delish. Instead, she offered a powerful insight — one that wasn’t a good fit for a food-centric story, but was too good not to share.
“I really enjoyed doing Dark Swan,” she says. “There’s a great quote that says ‘good writers write to explain, and great ones write to understand’ — I’m totally paraphrasing here, but that’s the gist — and that’s what this role was like. I felt drawn to the character and wanted to understand her; I wanted to experience it in my own life.”
The role required her to really explore what would make the character turn dark, and where that darkness comes from.
“Searching for understanding made the role feel new and fresh,” Morrison says. “Usually, by season 5 you’ve done the same thing over and over again. ”
With a twist like that, I had to know what the future holds for Emma Swan. What can she tell us?
“Pretty much nothing,” Morrison admits. “[In the season finale], we’re definitely going to see where we’re headed for the next season. You’ll see a couple new people around, and you’ll definitely know the world [we’ll be exploring].”
If you’ve seen Sunday’s final episode, that cryptic quote might make sense. For the rest of us, I guess only time will tell.
