Vanessa Marano is taking her final bow as Bay Kennish on Switched at Birth tonight, after five years of playing the character on Freeform’s show.

JJJ caught up with the actress about all her memories, her favorite episodes and more.

Speaking about swister Bay and Daphne’s relationship, Vanessa had the best advice for the characters going forward.

“Stand by each other. There’s nothing like having a sister to go through life with,” she shared — which is so true!


Vanessa added to her real sister, “That’s right, Laura. I’m talking about you!”

LOL!!!

Switched at Birth‘s series finale airs TONIGHT @ 9PM ET/PT on Freeform.

Click inside to see the rest of JJJ’s Interview with Vanessa Marano… More Here! »

Katie Leclerc is just like all of us — she doesn’t want to say goodbye to Switched at Birth.

“UN-Believable!!” she says about working on the show. “I hit the lotto with Switched at Birth.”

When JJJ brought up a possible reunion one day, Katie was ready to start tomorrow!

“Honestly, I love that our show was never afraid to tackle really though issues,” she adds, looking back on the five seasons she starred as Daphne Vasquez.

One storyline that she would’ve loved to expand on was Emmett’s overdose: “He OD’d because he felt horrible and he needed help. I think we could have expanded on that a bit farther and had a commentary to kids about how it’s ok to feel weird but not ok to hurt yourself.”

Click inside to read the rest of our interview with Katie Leclerc… More Here! »

Vanessa Marano‘s advice for learning ASL is to practice — which is a great tip.

Katie Leclerc just wants you to make friends — lots and lots and lots of deaf friends.

“I didn’t become really fluent until I immersed myself in the culture as well as forced myself to either sink or swim,” the Switched at Birth actress told JJJ.

If you didn’t know, Katie has a condition called Ménière’s disease, which causes intermittent hearing loss, along with vertigo.

She only discovered she had hearing issues around 2005, when she volunteered to be filmed taking a hearing test for a video about hearing loss.

“One of my first times hanging out with a deaf person I made him repeat his question 12 times,” she adds. “It was embarrassing, but he’s still my friend, and we still laugh about it today!”

So, what’s actually Katie‘s favorite sign? It’s mosquito!

“You make a drill motion near your nose,” she says of how to sign the word. “Other than that, I love a good argument. When Daphne would have ASL fights, I would get so witty!”

Switched at Birth‘s series finale airs TONIGHT @ 9PM ET/PT on Freeform.

If you’re learning ASL (American Sign Language), or have already learned it, you know it’s difficult to pick up if you’re not using it daily.

Switched at Birth star Vanessa Marano learned the language through the show, so thankfully, she was using it every day and knows it fluently now.

But, does she have any advice for those learning now?

“I know it’s cliché but practice is everything,” she says. “Practice, practice, practice, and when you’re done practice some more.”

Vanessa also shared one of her favorite signs with JJJ — “I’m a big fan of the ‘y’ hand shape because it can mean so many things.”

She adds, “If you slam it down forcefully it’s like saying, ‘Exactly! That!’ If you slowly move it up and down in a small movement it’s like say, ‘Oh, I see.’”

Switched At Birth could’ve actually been a totally different show.

With just hours before the series finale, we’re just finding out (after stalking creator Lizzy Weiss‘ Twitter) that the first draft of the Freeform show was definitely not like we know it.

Bay Kennish and Daphne Vasquez would’ve been the same, but everything else was diff!

“In my first draft, Emmett was the adopted son of two deaf dads, the Kennishes had an 11 year old son named Luke & the show was set in Austin,” Lizzy admitted.

So why was it changed? This is why:

“Changed b/c we had trouble casting Luke; the network was superstitious about anything set in Texas; & I met Marlee [Matlin] so I gave E a mom instead.”

A case of the ‘what could have been’s…

Switched At Birth airs TONIGHT @ 9PM ET/PT on Freeform.

With Switched at Birth ending in just a few days (boo), JJJ‘s been starting to wonder what would’ve happened if the show got even more episodes, or even another season.

Thankfully, creator Lizzy Weiss shared a few that we now need to see!

“Re: the Noelle/Bay shipping…We actually had a fun story planned about Noelle’s girlfriend not getting along w Bay,” Lizzy writes on Twitter.

She also shared this one, which we are totally on board for: “Also a story about Mingo’s girlfriend Amy visiting.”


“And we wanted @KekePalmer to play her, cuz we love her, and she’s a fan.”

See, we NEED more episodes!

Switched at Birth‘s series finale airs on Tuesday, April 11th on Freeform.

With only three days to go until the series finale of Switched at Birth, we’re find out even more about the last episode we’ll see of the show.

Entertainment Weekly spilled just a little spoiler to a fan asking about the ep.

“It’ll also have a few twists,” they say, “including someone getting a new job, someone being told off (and deservedly so – go, Daphne!), and at least one person leaving their current home.”

So, now’s the time to wonder who is getting a new job and one leaving home… we’re going with Bay and Travis on this one!

You can see the first finale promo and sneak peek clips now on JJJ!

Switched at Birth will end on Tuesday, April 11th @ 9PM ET/PT on Freeform.