WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Umbrella Academy Season 2, streaming now on Netflix.
The Umbrella Academy recently returned to Netflix for its second season, and with it came the return of a character fans weren't expecting to see: Grace, aka the Hargreeves siblings' Mom. In Season 1, Grace was a robot who was tasked with caring for the seven superpowered children adopted by the eccentric Reginald Hargreeves. In Season 2, when the Hargreeves travel back in time to the 1960s and seek out Reginald, they encounter Grace again, but this time she's very much human and in a relationship with their future adoptive father.
Jordan Claire Robbins played both of these very different iterations of Grace, expertly maintaining a core of warmth between the two while otherwise ensuring the robot and human versions of Grace are nothing alike. In an interview with CBR over email, Robbins explained how she brought the new Season 2 version of Grace to life, how she thought about human Grace's relationship with Reginald and the intriguing Season 2 Easter egg her mother noticed.
CBR: Did you know you’d be coming back for the second season of The Umbrella Academy, and if so, how it would happen?
Jordan Claire Robbins: Around the time the first season premiered I was able to sit down with Steve Blackman, our amazing showrunner, and he broke down how Season 2 was going to go and how Grace fit into it all. I loved how all the history of that time and JFK’s assassination was going to tie into the storyline. I was really excited to come back as well as the idea of playing a completely different, but still deeply connected, version of Grace.
This season we see Grace as human. How did you conceive of this new version of the character?
I found this "Human Grace" really endearing -- a charming brainiac who’s passionate about science, a real trailblazer as a woman working amongst men, who also knows how to throw on a pair of heels and hold her own at a party. Getting to play in this world was really fun for me. Understanding her mind, that the lab was Grace’s happy place and what really mattered to her, helped me grasp who she was.
The two versions of your character seem completely different, one is progressive for her time in the '60s as a working woman, and the other is a throwback to a '50s wife and mother. Did you see commonalities there and use parts of what you’d done for robot Grace in Season 1 for human Grace in Season 2, or did you consider human Grace a completely new character?
Well, they’re definitely very different for obvious reasons, but I put thought into how to connect them because one came from the other. The throughline from human Grace to AI Grace for me was how nurturing they both are. I saw '60s Grace as an extremely loving person, someone who exuded warmth and kindness in everything she did, and she definitely brought that into her work with Pogo, while AI Grace gave love and kindness to her children.
Were you given any insight into how Grace went from human to robot?
The common denominator between these two beings is Hargreeves and his love for human Grace in the '60s really informs the AI he creates under the same name later. He obviously builds AI Grace in the same image as the woman he loved in the '60s but AI Grace is very different because, the thing is, the nuances of a human personality can’t really be replicated. He seems to have calculated the version that will fulfill the duties of Mother to the children, without many of the characteristics and interests human Grace had in her work and life.
Human Grace has a career as a scientist. What was it like tackling that aspect of her character?
I enjoyed this aspect of the character so much. A huge gift the writers and Steve gave to me was that this version of Grace was Jane Goodall-like in her interest in Pogo. I studied Jane a lot and it really helped me find that understanding of human-animal love, as well as learn a lot about chimpanzees and what working with them would be like. I have always had an interest in science myself -- at one point I wanted to be a marine biologist and I have a degree in psychology, which is what I would have pursued if I didn’t go into acting -- so it wasn’t much of a stretch for me to connect to Grace’s love of science and wanting to explore.
Human Grace encounters Diego but obviously doesn’t know who he is. Was that difficult to play after forging a relationship with that character last season?
It was an interesting challenge for sure! It just added one more layer to commit to in this other version of Grace’s world. That scene when he sees her for the first time was so cleverly written and funny, so it made it a lot easier to imagine how off-putting the whole experience would be for her, not having a clue who he is or why he is so intensely focused on her.
We also learn Grace is in a relationship with Reginald Hargreeves who’s not an easy man to like, much less love. How did you conceive of that relationship for Grace?
One thing I really loved about this season was how you see these other sides of Reginald, because he is so cold in Season 1 and this time around you see a softer, more vulnerable side to him when he is with Grace. There is definitely a mutual respect between them, and not only does he accept her exactly as she is but he loves her mind at a time when women were only just starting to push out of constricting gender roles. That’s why their first scene together is so beautiful, because you see his admiration of her and how much his care for Pogo means to her. It’s a relationship built on friendship, loving each other’s minds and having so much common ground.
After Reginald saves Pogo and he seems to develop a more human-like intelligence, Grace and Reginald become like parents to Pogo, but they don’t have human children. Did you feel that was where the origins of robot Grace could have come from, and did you rely on what you did last season to make that work?
Pogo definitely became a child figure to them and it brought them even closer. The three of them build a very happy life and I leaned into that same maternal, nurturing energy that often came through in my work as AI Grace for Season 1. In both cases, they came into being a mother figure unconventionally, and both versions care deeply about their children and have a huge capacity for love.
Grace is now one of The Umbrella Academy’s biggest mysteries. Can you tease anything about Easter eggs in the show so far that might give us some clues about what’s going on?
Yes, there are still a lot of unknowns about her! I don’t know about any Grace-related Easter eggs but it has been brought to my attention that there are a bunch of sparrows hidden throughout the season that hint to the last episode. My Mom actually caught that as she was watching, but it totally went over my head. Then again, I didn’t even notice how in the last season, the pattern I was cross stitching hinted at the moon exploding in the season finale, so I’m not the most on the ball when it comes to that stuff.
Do you know if you’ll return for a possible third season and can you tease anything about what that might entail for Grace?
Unfortunately, I know as much as you do! Just like everyone else, I am hoping for a third season because I can’t wait to see what happens with all the characters after that crazy final episode. And I would love to reprise my role as Grace since I have loved every second of being a part of the show. There are so many directions they could go, and Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá have created such a wealth of amazing material in the comics too. We’ll see what happens!
You’re a veteran of several sci-fi/fantasy shows in addition to The Umbrella Academy, including iZombie, Supernatural and 12 Monkeys. Do you like tackling roles in that genre?
I have grown to really love these types of projects and roles. The cool thing about sci-fi/fantasy is that there are way less limitations to the story since things like time travel and superpowers make anything possible. That’s a really exciting world to get to be a part of as an actor, and the characters are always just a little more out there and weird, which is so much fun. It’s such a great escape to watch onscreen too. I am looking forward to continuing to be a part of more stories like this since they are happening more and more!
Streaming now on Netflix, The Umbrella Academy Season 2 stars Ellen Page, Tom Hopper, David Castañeda, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Robert Sheehan, Aidan Gallagher and Justin H. Min, with Ritu Arya, Yusuf Gatewood, Marin Ireland, Jordan Claire Robbins, Kate Walsh and Colm Feore.