Francia Raisa Says Her 'grown-ish' Character Opened Her Eyes To A Lot of Things

Francia Raisa will be back on the small screen in grown-ish, premiering in just a few weeks on Freeform.

The role reunites her with the network, where she used to star on The Secret Life of the American Teenager before it ended its run in 2013.

Preparing for the part required a little extra work for Francia, who will play Ana Maria Patricia Torres, who is a Cuban-American Republican from Miami.

Speaking with US Weekly, Francia opened up about her preperation, and how she actually related to Ana: “She grew up conservative – well, Catholic. I grew up Catholic so that side I understand, having to read the Bible, having to have a rosary, and all that stuff.”

“But on her beliefs, I’m not Cuban at all so I had to learn a lot about Cuba, which is really fun to me and really interesting,” she adds. “It was different and I’m actually really tapping into a different character and really embodying who Anna is. I can try to put a little bit of myself, but she’s so different from me.”

“I think once you understand your character, which is my secret, once you understand your character, the lines just come fast,” Francia went on. “It’s basically just research, lots and lots of research, like, ‘OK, let me understand that side of the party because I’m not Republican,’ and it really opened my eyes to a lot of things.”

grown-ish premieres on Wednesday, January 3rd.