Chasing Life - Italia Ricci Previews Second Half of Season

“Chasing Life” is about to begin the second half of the season – and SpoilerTV has the scoop on what you can expect. Italian Ricci, who plays April Carver, took time to fill us on in where her character and the season are headed.

April may be done with chemotherapy, but she is still managing the effects of the cancer and treatment. Ricci tells us, “We see how she deals with everything now after having been through what she’s been through. You see how she deals with the things that happen to you physically after you finish chemo. Mentally, she becomes forgetful and deals with trying to get back to where she was, even before she was diagnosed. She just wants to be normal again.”

That means returning to work and trying to carry out her daily duties with the newspaper. But she’s been gone four months and a lot has changed while she was away. She soon finds out she has an ambitious new boss who wants to shake things up. And she is not on top of her game. Work and life have both changed. “You see her battle with not being able to do certain things and trying to figure out ways to make them happen,” Ricci says. “She makes mistakes and just wants to be a girl in her twenties again, and have fun and live her life. You’ll see her trying to do that but having some of those obstacles stopping her. You’ll experience everything with her – it’s so much fun, and very entertaining.”

Ricci says there is light at the end of the tunnel for April and if she could give some advice to her character, she’d tell her to stay strong. “It definitely gets hard and her family is there for her and sometimes that still doesn’t feel like enough. I would tell her to not give up. I would tell her to keep holding on and keep believing that you’ll be okay, because if you don’t have that, then what are you holding on to?”

One person April is definitely holding onto is Leo. After flat-lining on the surgical table at the end of the Christmas episode, we will see how he comes through his surgery. Through it all, he and April remain connected. “I think that April is proud and impressed and very grateful that Leo decided to fight because that’s been the driving force of the whole first half of the first season,” Ricci explains. “To get him to do that feels selfless – and that opens up a whole new connectivity between the two. That decision solidifies a stronger bond between them, at least from April’s perspective.”

Another thing fans can expect from the show: expanded storylines from the supporting characters. Ricci previews, “It’s going to center less specifically on April and you’re going to learn more about Brenna and what she’s going through. You’ll learn more about Sara, more about Grandma. I love where Grandma’s storyline goes – it’s pretty great. It becomes more of an ensemble. Everyone’s storyline widens a little more by going into more detail about Beth, and Dominic, and everybody else on the show. I think that’s going to be exciting for fans.”

Yes, don’t expect Dominic to disappear now that he and April have broken up. They still work at the same paper and have some unresolved feelings and issues. A December ABC Family “Chasing Life” promo highlights April’s relationship with each man. So does Ricci have a preference? When asked if she is team Leo or team Dominic, she first hedges a bit and then laughs, “I’ve never actually admitted this publicly before. I don’t know if I’m ready to. But I’m team Leo.”

That leads us to believe Leo is going to be okay – at least for now. And Ricci has another teaser for her character. She tells us we can expect a humiliating karaoke scene at some point this season. Fun scenes like that are just one of many reasons Ricci is thrilled to be a part of the series. “Everybody is so happy to be making this show,” she says. “Everybody knows it’s an important and relevant story to be telling and wants to be doing the best job they can. I am so glad that I could be a part of telling this story and I’m so grateful that the audience feels like it’s not only a story worth watching, but it’s a story that they can relate to and they feel represented by it. That means so much to me.”

“Chasing Life” makes its winter premiere on its new night, Monday, January 19 at 9/8c.

What are you most looking forward to seeing when "Chasing Life" returns? What would you like to see happen this season? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

About the Author - Tonya Papanikolas

Tonya Papanikolas is an online, print and broadcast journalist who loves covering entertainment and television. She spent more than 10 years as a broadcast news anchor and reporter. Now she does everything from hosting to writing. She especially loves writing TV articles and reviews for SpoilerTV.