Jennifer Robertson has been part of some of television’s most beloved shows. Speaking with Pop Culture Planet’s Kristen Maldonado, the actress reflected on her time playing Eli Goldsworthy’s mom on Degrassi, teased Ginny & Georgia season 4, and looked back on heartfelt moments on the set of Schitt’s Creek.
Robertson called it a “rite of passage” to appear on the iconic teen drama Degrassi. “I loved Cece. She had a real rocker style. There was a lot of acid wash and big earrings,” she said about playing the mother of fan favorite character Eli Goldsworthy. “It's a rite of passage really for a lot of Canadian actors to go on Degrassi. You're either a teacher or a student or a parent or something, so I hold that badge with pride.”
While she was playing the mother of a teenager, she was new to motherhood at the time. “I was a new mom when we were shooting that. My daughter was probably four months old and my husband was away shooting, so I had a babysitter. The Degrassi soundstage, everything's attached, so the dressing rooms and everything,” Robertson shared. “My daughter started crying while we were doing takes over in the dressing room, so they had to relegate them to a further away dressing room. I was like ‘I'm sorry. She's just adjusting. I'll get this take, I promise.’”
Interestingly, quite a few Degrassi alumni that have made their way to the Netflix hit Ginny & Georgia, including Robertson. She plays the optimistic Ellen Baker, mother to Max and Marcus and good friend to Georgia Miller. “You know I can't because I've sworn an oath over a stack of Netflix Bibles that I will not share anything. I can tell you it's going to be, as usual, a wild season full of all kinds of twists and turns and the fans will not be disappointed,” said Robertson when asked about the highly anticipated fourth season. “I love the cast dearly. We're all really tight and close. It was so great to be back in Toronto shooting with all of them.”
At the end of season 3, Ellen learned that some people were not quite who she thought they were. Robertson shares what she has taken away from playing the relatable mom next door. “For my character, she's a very cheerful woman and I think the cheerfulness gets harder and harder as things crumble a little bit around her,” she explained. “But I think she's still Ellen even though all those things are happening. I don't think the lesson for Ellen is to harden her heart. It's to just take things a little less all on herself and share the responsibilities of things that are going on around her with everybody around her and not decide that she can control everything.”
“It's a control thing for her. You know what I mean?” Robertson continued. “She thinks if she just loves everyone enough and gives them art studios, everyone will be fine. It's a good lesson in parenting to go, you have to let these things play out and you can't always out-cheerful and out-positive things. You have to really start dealing with things head on. And obviously that's what that family is doing now.”
Of all of her roles, which is the closest to herself? “Oh gosh, there's pieces of me in all of them. Maybe Ellen just because I also have a teenage daughter. She's not as wild as Max and Marcus, for the record. But maybe that,” Robertson shared. “I think all great characters, you put pieces of yourself into it and you have to keep pieces of yourself to yourself. You can't give it all away Probably the closest is Ellen, but I miss Jocelyn an awful lot.”
As Robertson brought up her unforgettable Schitt’s Creek character Jocelyn, she shared a memory of working with the late great Catherine O’Hara on the fan favorite show. “There's so many memories of Catherine. I remember one day we were shooting something with the Jazzagals and the day was going long. I said, ‘Oh, I got to step away and I got to go FaceTime with my daughter,’” she said. “Catherine went with me and FaceTimed with my daughter. I felt like it was just so meaningful. It was so meaningful for my daughter and, of course, we're all devastated still by losing Catherine. But we have lots of special memories from the show and just doing things as a cast too and going to premieres and stuff. We always managed to have a pretty good time.”
Up next, Robertson reunites with her Twitches co-star Tamera Mowry Housley in Mistletoe and Mimosas on November 15 on Hallmark Channel, while Ginny & Georgia season 4 will premiere on Netflix in 2027.
