Francia Raisa, mean girl of ‘The Secret Life of the American Teenager’
Black and Latina teenagers getting pregnant in both TV shows and films is such a common sight that it hardly raises any eyebrows.
That is not the case with ABC Family channel’s “The Secret Life of the American Teenager,” where the pregnant teenager is — à la “Juno” — suburban and white.
“At least I’m not playing the pregnant girl,” says Mexican/Honduran actress Francia Raisa, 20, who stars as Adrian Lee, a promiscuous, bitchy Latina high school student who enjoys the company of men — a little bit too much.
“I love playing her. But some people are offended by it.”
Raisa, best known to teenage audiences for her role in last year’s “The Cutting Edge 3: Chasing the Dream,” also on ABC Family, says it’s really easy to get the wrong idea about her character.
“I’m scared people will take the message the wrong way, and see Adrian as just a promiscuous girl and not look at her back story,” says Raisa. “She doesn’t have love in her home, and her parents aren’t around, so she tries to find love through sex. A lot of girls turn to sex to deal with whatever is going on with them.”
“Secret Life,” which airs Mondays at 8 p.m., follows the travails of 15-year-old Amy Juergens (played by Shailene Woodley), who wakes up one morning to find herself pregnant.
Despite its portrayal of premarital sex and other racy issues, Raisa says parents can learn a lot from watching “Secret Life” — and maybe help their kids make better decisions when it comes to sex.
“It’s a good way for them to bring up sex with their kids, because, trust me, if you don’t bring it up, they’ll find out about it at school,” she says.
Still, the dark-haired bootylicious Raisa says she’s enjoying the chance to play a sexy character who appears regularly in just a bra and underwear.
“It’s so much fun when I’m half-dressed. It’s more uncomfortable for the men than it is for me, because they don’t want to disrespect me,” she says with a laugh. “But they all have really good intentions.”
Born Francia Raisa Almendárez in Los Angeles, she is the daughter of famed Honduran radio host Renán Almendárez Coello — aka “El Cucuy” — and Virginia Alméndarez of Mexico.
She doesn’t know the Hispanic background of her character, just that she is Latina.
“Secret Life” became a summer hit after its debut in July. And despite the buzz of shows like “Gossip Girl” and “90210,” “Secret Life” has consistently higher ratings.
“The pregnancy thing draws a lot of attention,” Raisa says. “But we also deal with situations in a more realistic way than those shows. [Source]
So it’s official! We will be doing a Q&A phone session with Francia Raisa from The Secret Life of the American Teenager. Francia plays Adrian on the show. A rep from ABC Family just contacted me with the info so I thought I would see if anyone had any questions I could ask her. Leave any comments with some questions and I will make sure to ask her. =]
