The second season of Apple TV+’s Jane dropped on April 19th, and it continues the journey of Jane Garcia and her friend David as they go on adventures in learning and trying to save wild animals. Based on the missions of Jane Goodall, the new episodes feature lions, a pink fairy armadillo, wolves, pandas, and a coral reef.
Ava Louise Murchison portrays Jane, an aspiring environmentalist who uses her imagination to turn her regular life into a wild adventure, which also turns her stuffed animal, Greybeard, into a live chimpanzee. Mason Blomberg is David, who helps her on her journey and provides comic relief.
We had the chance to chat with the two child actors about their favorite episodes, animals, and more. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Nerd Reactor: The second season of Jane has more adventures and more of the friendship between you two, discovering and learning about animals together. What was your favorite episode?
Ava Louise Murchison: Well, for season two, my favorite episode is definitely the lion episode, just because we got to film in Kenya for that episode. And in Kenya, we got to go on safaris and see all the wild animals. We even saw a lion family. We also wrapped in Kenya, so that was super memorable. I also love Jane and her mom in that season, because Jane’s mom actually joined in on Jane’s adventures, because she doesn’t really do that. So that was really cool to see.
Mason Blomberg: All the seasons, and all the episodes are just so cool. I love them all. But one that really stood out to me was the panda one, probably, or the coral with a coral reef because each of those was so unique to the series. And they’re just super cool because in the panda one, we got to film in the snow, and I also got to learn how to climb a tree using pulleys and ropes and stuff, which was super cool. And yeah, the coral one – lots of people don’t know this, but coral is actually an animal that has like these mouths that it uses to eat plankton.
For the lion episode, being there and getting to actually see it together, was there anything surprising that you learned from lions?
Mason Blomberg: I learned that the females are the ones who mostly take care of their cubs and are the ones who hunt a lot. And I didn’t actually know that. I thought it was the boys who hunted. So that was both interesting knowledge that I learned. And yeah, the lions are just so cool. And I learned that they’re not actually as fierce as they may seem. You just need to back away slowly.
Ava Louise Murchison: Yeah, definitely what Mason said about the hunting things in the lioness. I thought that was really cool as well.
In the panda episode, both of you get to just dress up like pandas, right? So what was that like? Was that a lot of fun?
Ava Louise Murchison: Yeah, it was a lot of fun. I mean, the hair and the makeup and the outfit were just super cute. I love dressing up as a panda. I mean, I’ve never done it before, and they did a really good job with my hair and the makeup.
Mason Blomberg: Yeah, every day when we were in the makeup and hair department, it would take a while and I even did a time-lapse of us getting our makeup on. And that was super fun. Yeah, the panda episode was just super cool. And the fact that the pandas are so cute and they have six fingers is just amazing.
For the coral reef, what I really liked about that is the message of not judging a book by its cover. How do you apply that to everyday life?
Ava Louise Murchison: In that episode, Jane kind of thought that that man was going to kill those fish and he was just fishing, but actually he was trying to measure the fish and keep them safe. But I think “Yeah, maybe I do that in real life sometimes,” so I have to learn not to always judge a book by its cover.
Mason Blomberg: It’s definitely something that most humans do. They think that something is one thing, but it turns out to be something completely different. For example, just a few days ago, I thought there was this thing that was super gross, but then once I actually got a closer look at it, this animal was actually really cute and had these little fuzzies on it, and it wasn’t actually that gross at all. I think it was some kind of caterpillar or something.
Are there any animals that you want to have featured in the show that aren’t in it yet?
Mason Blomberg: That’s a hard one. For me, I recommended this to the director at one point. I asked him for an owl episode. I did tons of research and I made this whole Google Slides document on this one certain type of owl that was endangered and all its information about it.
Ava Louise Murchison: I honestly think that a lot of people want turtles on a season. I think that’s a really cool animal.
And Ava, since you mentioned turtles, are you a fan of the Ninja Turtles?
Ava Louise Murchison: Oh, definitely. my younger brother loves the Ninja Turtles. I mean, he’s always just saying, “I’m the red one! I’m the red one!” and I’ll be like, “Okay, I’m the purple one.” But yeah, my younger brother loved the Ninja Turtle. I think that’s a really cool series.
Mason Blomberg: Yes, same here.
Who’s your favorite Ninja Turtle?
Mason Blomberg: I really like the purple guy – I always get their names confused – but yeah, because he likes to invent stuff, and I like to invent stuff. Another thing that I’m gonna do as well as acting when I grow up is I want to be an engineer and inventor.
Mason, you mentioned owls. Are there any particular reasons why owls? Are you a fan of Harry Potter?
Mason Blomberg: I’m a big fan of Harry Potter. I read all the books twice. And I just love all kinds of stuff like that.
For this season, what is it that you want viewers to take out of it?
Ava Louise Murchison: Well, I really just hope that everybody realizes that every little thing that everybody does can make a difference. And we can all just work together and save animals and save the environment.
Mason Blomberg: What Ava said. The main message is that every little thing that you can do makes a difference. Like, if every person conserved water, there would be so much water, fresh water that we can use to help save different kinds of animals.
All five episodes of Jane are now available to stream on Apple TV+.