Constance Marie on new rom-com ‘With Love’: ‘The warm hug we need right now’

Constance Marie said her role on “With Love” resonates on a personal note.

“I have so much pride that the Latinx community and Latinx actors and storylines finally made it to holiday rom-coms,” Marie, 56, told The Post. “That has not happened before — maybe you had one Latinx person on a project — but not the whole cast.

“It’s something I wish I had as a young kid or when I was in my 20s to feel like we’re part of the fabric of America.”

The five-episode Amazon Prime series, premiering Friday (Dec. 17), was created and written by Gloria Calderon Kellett (“One Day at a Time”). It’s set in Portland, Ore. and revolves around the grown Diaz siblings, Lily and Jorge Jr. (Emeraude Toubia, Mark Indelicato) and their family: father Jorge Sr. (Benito Martinez), mother Beatriz (Marie) and her sister, Gladys (Kellett), who’s 40-something and single.

Lily wants a meaningful relationship and is looking for love, while Jorge Jr. is dating Henry (Vincent Rodriguez III) and living with his longtime (straight) best friend, ladykiller Nick (Desmond Chiam), who’s crushing on Lily.

Mark Indelicato and Emeraude Toubia as Jorge Jr. and Lily in "With Love." They're smiling and standing in a doorway, looking straight ahead.
Mark Indelicato and Emeraude Toubia play siblings Jorge Jr. and Lily in the five-part Amazon series “With Love.”
Kevin Estrada/Amazon Prime Video

There’s also Lily and Jorge’s cousin, Sol (Isis King), a trans non-binary oncologist whose love interest is plastic surgeon Dr. Miles Murphy (Todd Grinnell, Schneider from “One Day at a Time”); and Santiago Zayas (Rome Flynn), who’s best pals with his dad, Laz (Andre Royo). He eventually enters the other characters’ orbit.

Each episode takes place during a different holiday — Christmas, New Year’s Eve, Valentine’s Day, July 4th and Dia de los Muertos (“Day of the Dead”), a Mexican holiday that reunites the living and the dead.

“I don’t care what ethnicity you are, there is a holiday awkwardness, and the fact we get to see this family on a different holiday in each episode is a genius premise,” Marie said. “You know [that] so much happens between the holidays, and to get to check in and take the family’s temperatures and see how their relationships have evolved or not evolved … this feels like it has it all.”

That includes Beatriz and Jorge Sr., who love their children and each other. From the get-go, however, the facade of their happy marriage shows some fissures — of which Beatriz is more acutely aware. “This is a multi-generational love story and I think a lot of women in America will be able to relate to Beatriz,” said Marie, best-known to TV viewers from her starring roles on “George Lopez” and “Switched at Birth.” “She got the man of her dreams, had her children and is now a working woman and she and Jorge Sr. have been together 35 years. You have your ‘happily ever after’ and then what? You’re on autopilot. What do you do when you feel more like roommates than lovers and you forget how to nurture that romantic relationship?

Constance Marie and Benito Martinez as Beatriz and Jorge Sr. in "With Love."
Beatriz (Constance Marie) and Jorge Sr. (Benito Martinez) in a scene from “With Love.”
Kevin Estrada/Amazon Prime Video

“I can’t tell you what Beatriz does [in future episodes] but she rattles the cage in their relationship,” she said. “A lot of women … we try, we send e-mails, we have sitdowns like the ‘we need to talk’ talk but sometimes … men are kinda late to the party when it comes to communication — and that’s what happens in Beatriz’s relationship with her husband, who is a lovely human being played really well by Benito.”

Marie and Martinez appeared together onscreen, sort of, in Marie’s first movie, “My Family,” in 1995. “He played my brother but we didn’t actually have a scene together,” she said. “It was one of those Steadicam scenes that went from room to room and [the camera] was tracking in front of me and I just kind of yelled at him because I was the bossy older sister, then I exited the frame.”

That’s not the case in “With Love.” Beatriz is at the epicenter of seemingly disparate plotlines that, eventually, dovetail.

“Gloria wrote a wonderful piece that’s so important right now,” she said. “It has scenes that will start funny then will deal with topics that, in lesser hands, could fall flat or be too heavy-handed — they can be touching, heartfelt and dramatic then back to being funny again.

“It’s like life. It’s not all drama and not all comedy — and it’s the warm hug we all need right now.”

Constance Marie and Gloria Calderon Kellett as Beatriz and Gladys. They're in a kitchen during a party and Beatriz is mixing a salad.
Constance Marie and Gloria Calderon Kellett, who plays Beatriz’s sister, Gladys.
Kevin Estrada/Amazon Prime Video

source: nypost.com