Jeanine Mason burst onto our screens in 2009, making history as the youngest person to ever win So You Think You Can Dance? as well as the first Cuban-American winner.
Since then, she has turned her attention to acting, landing roles on ABC Family’s Bunheads, ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy, and The CW’s Roswell, New Mexico.
Most recently, she provides the voice of Eva Nine, the main protagonist on Apple TV’s animated adventure series WondLa.
Eva Nine is a young woman raised in an underground bunker by a robot caregiver known as MUTHR until her sanctuary is destroyed, forcing her into the outside world full of diverse species and environments.
Speaking with TV Fanatic through the wonder of technology, Mason shared her thoughts on WondLa’s expansive world-building and the relationships her character leans into.
The interview below has been edited for clarity.
Jeanine Mason as WondLa’s Eva Nine
Eva Nine is such a positive and inspiring character for children, especially girls, watching WondLa. Please tell me about your relationship with Eva Nine and how you became involved in this project.
When I auditioned for [Eva Nine], my agent reached out, and they were like, “They’re in a time crunch, and they need someone ASAP.” It was one of those really rare moments where you just feel like you immediately hook in.
Something about her just felt connected to Jeanine, the 16-year-old that I carry with me everywhere.
Even though it was a time crunch, they knew it was a big character and a big commitment, and leading a series, so it was a lot of pages and a lot of scenes. A lot of pivotal scenes from Season 1.
It came very easily, and those are always such gifts when they happen. I was so ecstatic when I got the call. This whole experience has just been truly a dream job.
I’m in such great company in terms of cast and creatives, but also in terms of their backgrounds and everything they’ve done. Skydance. And John Lassiter. And Apple and its commitment to quality.
It’s really that on top of it where they’ve all tasked themselves with doing something that’s out of the normal in this space. Such a level of excellence.
It’s been a gift to commit to that and try to keep upping everybody’s game, y’know? Once the ball gets thrown to you, you’re like, “I want to deliver just as hard as… Carlos just did, directing this episode.
A Whole New World
Did you have a touchstone of sorts to ground yourself in Season 1 as Eva Nine transitioned from her life in the bunker with MUTHR to an entire world unlike anything she’d ever known before?
Definitely that feeling of having no safety net, of having no real frame of reference, but just having a full spirit and your bag of tools. For me I think about transitioning from dance — which is my background and my first job in this industry — into acting.
So much of what I had learned as an athlete and as a dancer for so much of my life was my bag of tools that helped me navigate this new thing. Even though I had no idea, no context, and I always say I don’t have a cousin of a cousin who had any connections or insight.
I feel like that age is so prime for stepping into something new and big in the way that Eva did, where it was like, no safety net, but just leaning on the tools MUTHR had given her. We all can relate to that at moment in our lives.
Family Bonds
When Eva Nine meets Eva Eight in Season 2, it’s such a moment of connection and family, but the two of them are very different. Have you ever had an experience like that where there’s an instinctual bond but also foundational differences?
Certainly, I think that’s something we all feel with family, even. Whether it’s a cousin or someone that you’re like, “Man, we would’ve never found ourselves at the same dinner table for Thanksgiving if it weren’t for the fact that we were family and blood.”
But also just moving through life, especially in this day and age, there’s a lot of polarization, and I love that she’s someone who’s so committed to connecting with people and trying to find common ground, and at the very least, find love for each other, even through such differing opinions.
I really value so much that element of the show and the way that it’s offering that to its young audiences.
Eva and Rovee
When I spoke with Gary Anthony Williams recently for WondLa Season 3, he praised your performance as Eva Nine. Your characters spend so much time together, can you speak to the relationship and how it has developed and evolved?
It was the pillar for me through this experience, which immediately puts a smile on my face. It’s my favorite element of this job, and it was also, unsurprisingly, my way in to her and to this world.
I’m such a fan of his, and it just felt like the gift of this gig. Both for me and for the audience. In this odd couple, there’s so much love, and he just carries so much life. You feel Rovender’s pain, his experience.
Gary’s such a talented actor in that way, and it immediately locked me in. I was quite intimidated stepping into this.
I’ve done some voiceover work, but leading a show was very intimidating.
The amount of hours we would spend in the booth and returning to that track always felt centering to me, and I think it’s because Gary’s so talented and the writing was so rich.
It’s the kind of relationship you want to spend time with, and you want to see develop.
You want her to conquer his grumpiness.
The Search For Eva Nine
Apple’s WondLa series is based on Tony DiTerlizzi’s novel trilogy, although the final season diverges from how the books end. Did you visit the source material to gather insights for portraying Eva Nine?
I always do. I find it to be such a gift. If only every job had that much richness… You get a sense of how the color and the texture and everything that has ultimately built our world as well.
And it’s just so fun to be a part of something for the OG fans where they get to have, y’know, it feels like a fan-fic — that’s kind of at its spine — but it’s so fleshed out, and it’s so full. Even looking at the original renderings and drawings in those books gives so much to me in stepping into a record[ing session].
Apple TV+’s WondLa premieres November 26.
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