Lana Parrilla: Fans Will See Evil Queen’s Backstory, ‘Vulnerable Side’ On ‘Once Upon A Time’

For weeks, Lana Parrilla has played the manipulative, powerful, and angry Evil Queen on ABC’s “Once Upon A Time,” but her character wasn’t always so bad. And in the coming weeks, fans will find out how she got that way.

“There’s a couple of episodes coming up where you’ll see a more vulnerable side to her and there’s one that hasn’t even been scripted yet, but there’s word that you’ll see more of her backstory – how she became evil and why,” Lana told AccessHollywood.com on Thursday morning.

Although not yet revealed to viewers, Lana said she actually knows what happened in her character’s past — and she even figured it out on her own.

“I kind of knew it from the beginning. It’s kind of interesting. I tapped into it when I was doing my own work on the Queen, and then I shared it with [creators] Adam [Horowitz] and Eddie [Kitsis] and they were like, ‘How did you know that?’ And I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ and they said, ‘That’s exactly what we were thinking, we we’re going down that road.’ I’m like ‘Oh my God! We’re in sync. This is awesome!’” Lana recounted.

“It’s just a matter of time for that story to be told… You’ll definitely, by the end of the season, learn more about her backstory and see a more [softer] side, that, I think will – the audience is just really going to understand why she hates Snow and why she’s so heartbroken,” the actress said.

And “Once Upon A Time” watchers may begin to see chinks in the armor of Lana’s other character, Storybrooke’s own mayor, Regina, when she battles in this Sunday’s episode with Mr. Gold (Robert Carlyle).

“Regina and Mr. Gold take opposite sides. It’s pretty much dirty politics,” Lana said of the run for the now-open Sheriff’s position. “Emma’s running for Sheriff now that Graham has passed on, and that becomes very threatening… Mr. Gold ends up backing Emma up in this… We learn that there’s dirty games going on here, and there’s a scene with Mr. Gold and Regina, where you can see it’s game time.”

Lana also said the death of Sheriff Graham, which occurred in the last episode of 2011, when Regina/The Evil Queen crushed his heart – quite literally – won’t be something her character gets past quickly.

“There’s an emptiness… I’ve made the choice that there’s a mourning period. I don’t know how you’re gonna see it, but… I embody that throughout the episode,” Lana said.

“Once Upon A Time” returns to ABC on Sunday at 8 PM EST/PST.

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