Mark Indelicato is bringing the love…
Season 2 of Prime Video’s With Love, starring the 28-year-old part-Puerto Rican actor and Ugly Betty alum, premieres this Friday, June 2, and we may or may not see the wedding of the year.
As series creator Gloria Calderón Kellett has teased since last season’s finale, the focus of the new episodes will be a surprise engagement leading to marriage, a pivot from the holiday theme sprinkled throughout the show’s freshman season.
With various couples in contention, who will be saying “I do?” Will it be Jorge Jr. (Indelicato) and his boyfriend Henry (Vincent Rodriguez III). Could we see a proposal or maybe just a festive night for love declarations in front of the family after lots of egg nog during Christmas? Indelicato and Rodriguez weigh in.
“That was so much fun to put together. Gloria and I dug into our theatre roots talking about that moment for Henry,” Rodriguez tells Deadline. “What’s happening in this clip, is actually a continuation of where we left off in the last episode of Season 1, where we were looking at each couple wondering who was going to get engaged. Minutes after that you see Henry, helped by Nick [Desmond Chiam], with Tia Gladys [Kellett] playing backup. Henry is making a grand gesture singing to Jorge Jr. It’s very much a callback to Season 1 where Henry was learning that sometimes Jorge needed grand gestures to feel loved.”
Adds Indelicato, “When the show returns, it’s still Christmas (well, our second Christmas) that we celebrate with the Diaz family and there’s no time jump, we pick up right where we left off. The second season starts out with a really big bang, and yeah we find out who gets engaged.”
Rodriguez is excited to share that viewers will be introduced to Henry’s parents, who will be played by Amora Owens and Brent Pope, both Filipino actors like Rodriguez.
“Jorge got so worked up about the possibility that Henry’s parents wouldn’t like him, that it never occurred to him that he might not like THEM. That was a lot of fun to watch Mark deal with that on set as Jorge,” teased Rodriguez. “So that was a lot of fun to watch Mark Indelicato deal with that on set as Jorge. “We also get to see Henry deal with his more colorful fanciful past which included tequila, something Henry has purposely stayed away from until this gathering that happens where Henry is forced to share his secrets with Jorge and it results in what I refer to as Shirtless Shenanigans.”
Indelicato expanded on Jorge’s experience meeting Henry’s parents this season.
“Jorge and Henry I think are an incredible couple because while Lily [Emeraude Toubia] has her tumultuous love triangle and all of that, Henry and Jorge are consistent in their love for each other,” he said. “Henry was very well-adjusted to meet the Diaz family – but Jorge is a little more difficult than that. You’ll the difficulties with ingratiating yourself with another family, especially when it’s your partners’. I think in every relationship, when you are making big choices, you can get cold feet.”
Rodriguez is proud of all they’ve accomplished across two seasons on this sweet series, especially how the cast reflects the world as it is today.
“It’s really great when we see authentic representation of different ethnic backgrounds: on our show we have Latino, Afro-Cuban, Latinx, and I get to play a Filipino character, as a Filipino actor, who gets to have Filipino actors play his on-screen parents…I know it might not sound like a big deal but it is,” he said. “It’s one of the beautiful attributes of With Love, its diversity, inclusivity & authenticity of characters. It means so much to me to be a part of a TV series that not only tells a joyful love story that’s funny to watch but also has diverse characters that reflect the world we currently live in. To see old, young, Latino, Chinese, Filipino, Latinx, Afro-Cuban, queer, gay, straight, bi, non-binary, trans characters in one romantic-comedy story? That’s like a unicorn. It’s unique. That’s our show.”