By Julio Martinez
Actress Jessica Camacho, who enjoyed her recurring in the CBS legal drama All Rise as public defender Emily Lopez, felt a bit let down when the series was canceled after only two seasons last May. But then her spirits rose considerably when CBS execs offered her a lead in the holiday television movie A Christmas Proposal. The film will premiere Dec. 12.
“I play Maria Winters, a struggling chef, who dreams of starting her own line of food trucks,” says Camacho, who stars opposite Adam Rodriguez in the TV film. “She agrees to pose as the girlfriend of a hotshot Seattle attorney (Rodriguez), visiting his family for Christmas, in order to help him prove he’s the ideal candidate to take over the family firm. It gets complicated but due to the magic of the season, real sparks begin to fly.”
A Christmas Proposal was not originally written for a Latino cast but CBS had the foresight to convert the focus to a prosperous Latino family of attorneys. The cast includes Andrés Soto (Bennett Diaz), Bianca Caroca (Daphne Diaz), Juan Chioran (Charles Diaz), Claudia Ferri (Helena Diaz). For Rodriguez, who plays Rodriguez attorney Julian Diaz and is also a producer on the movie, the network’s decision offered an opportunity to do something different. “We wanted this to be about the people and not about characters whom we’ve seen so many times before,” recalls the actor of the Magic Mike franchise. “I think we accomplished that.”
Camacho admits that this role is a different type of character from others she’s been playing lately. “I recently recurred on two DC Comics superhero series, CW’s The Flash, portraying Gypsy (10 episodes) and HBO’s Watchmen as Pirate Jenny (four episodes).”
What originally surprised the actress was learning they were going to shoot the snow-laden film in the summer. “The first thing I learned is all these Christmas movies are shot in the summer,” adding, “So, under all those winter clothes, we were sweating.”
The next thing that immediately impressed Camacho was the inherent beauty of the location, shot in Burnaby, British Columbia, near Vancouver. “It was gorgeous,” she exclaims. “My first day on the set, I was just awed by the beauty around me. Luckily, I got to see some of the mountainous area outside the city. I drove to Whistler, whose Olympic Park was a venue for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.”
A Christmas Proposal was more than just work for the Chicago-born actress. “Acting in this film has been a total blast for me,” Camacho says. “It was fun because I knew I was joining the ranks of all of those people who do these movies every year. I was totally stoked and it goes back to why I became an actor … my passion for trying new things.”
The Puerto Rican-American actress enjoyed American-style yuletide traditions while growing up in the Windy City. Her father is Puerto Rican, born and raised in Santurce, one of the most populated areas and home to the Puerto Rico Museum of Art. “I never lived on the island,” she states. “My grandparents met in New York City. I enjoyed being part of a Latino family that also took part in American Christmas traditions. My family would actually go Christmas caroling. I loved it. I even left cookies out for Santa.”
What caught Camacho’s fancy most was acting after taking a class at the suggestion of a friend. She instantly fell in love with the craft and moved to San Francisco, enrolling at the Actors Conservatory Theatre. She recalled, “When I was studying at ACT, I was very young and optimistic.
“San Francisco was an amazing city to me,” Camacho recounts, “I’d work as a waitress. After my shift, I’d learn my lines at a coffee shop, then go to class. I was full of passion and curiosity. I would walk around North Beach, bought books at City Lights, hung out at Vesuvios. It was like a dream.”
Camacho’s first theater experience was at a small theater in Antioch, California. She eventually returned to Chicago, where she worked in a play by Miguel Pinero in Humble Park. “Chicago is a beast of a theater community,” she says. “They take it very seriously.” She eventually went on to work in television in Chicago, where she was able to obtain her Screen Actors Guild member-ship card before settling full time in Los Angeles.
When A Christmas Proposal was not renewed, Camacho admits she was wondering what her next gig would be. She remembered that when All Rise was cancelled in May of this year, her character Emily was written off as leaving her job and heading to Los Angeles to find herself. “She was going off on this adventure, not knowing where it was going to lead her, and that’s kind of what happened to me,” Camacho recounts. “But that’s what I love about this career. You have to have faith that when one door closes, another one is waiting for you to discover it.”
In September of this year Camacho learned that her former series had officially been picked up by the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN). The cabler ordered a 20-episode third season of the legal drama. “They also brought back the original cast,” she states wistfully. “I am getting ready to start Season Three. We start shooting in January.”
