For Quintana (pictured at top, and below left), Jax was the role of a lifetime, and she wasn’t going to rest until it was hers. “As an actor, you go on a ton of auditions, kind of just going in for whatever is out there and I was doing that,” she told MediaVillage during an exclusive interview from the show’s set in Bulgaria, where they are still in production. “But when this popped into my lap, I had an immediate visceral reaction to it. I remember telling my representatives, ‘I need this show!’ I fell in love with the character, and I loved what she was about.
“I became so annoying to my reps,” she continued with a laugh. “Like texting and e-mailing them every single day asking if they'd heard anything. Did they like me? Did they want to see me again? What's going on? I literally drove them crazy. There were over 100 e-mails alone with answers like, ‘Not yet, but we’ll let you know when we hear anything.’ I really fell in love with it. It's weird for a project to jump out at you like that, but I just knew this was ‘the one!’”
According to Quintana, the major draw to Jax was her complexity. “I loved how badass she is,” she said. “Our executive producer Mark A. Altman told me from the very beginning that we wanted to make her a badass, yet lovable. At the end of the day whoever turns the show on is inviting this character into their home and we wanted her to feel like a part of the family. To me, that was really interesting. Also, she's just so freaking cool. She's loyal, she's brave and so loving. I find her the epitome of being soft and oh-so-cool, and yes, I do have a girl crush.”
The other side of Jax that appealed to the actress was her sexuality. “I'm very big on people coming out about who they are and being comfortable in their own skin, so if anyone is encouraged by Jax and decides to come out because of her, and embark on their own journey, I'd be so happy to share that with them," she said. ">