‘Once Upon A Time’: Ginnifer Goodwin Talks Adultery, Return Of The Evil Queen

Once Upon a Time recently reminded viewers that Snow White/Mary Margaret isn’t the squeaky-clean princess from the Disney fairy tale — she once had an affair with a married man.

Of course, that married man was actually her husband back in the Enchanted Forest. However, because of Regina’s memory-altering curse, she only saw Charming/David as Kathryn’s husband. In Mary Margaret’s eyes, David was cheating on his wife with her.

According to TV Line, some Once Upon a Time fans weren’t happy about Snow White referencing her “affair” with Charming to make Regina feel better about her morally questionable relationship with Robin Hood. Outlaw Queen continues to be a thing even though Regina has reminded Robin over and over again that Maid Marian is alive — she’s going to expect Robin to act like her happy husband if and when she comes out of her cold coma.

Regina feels guilty about having an affair with a married man, but Mary Margaret tried to reassure Regina that she’s not being evil or doing anything wrong by pointing out that sickeningly-sweet Snow White has also slept with a married man.

During last week’s episode, Mary Margaret said to Regina, “Look, I’ve slept with a married man too.” Some Once Upon a Time fans felt that the show was endorsing adultery when Snow White said this, and the decision to include this line wasn’t taken lightly. Ginnifer Goodwin told TV Line that there was a long discussion about the weight of these words before she uttered them on the show.

“That was something we actually talked about [while filming] because it was a complicated line for me to say… We must have talked about it for 20 minutes, my making that comment to Regina — “Look, I’ve slept with a married man too” — and we decided that it had to be just a way of my trying to bring her out of her shell, to make her feel safe. It was not to be taken it as literally as it sounded.”

Goodwin went on to point out that the relationships on Once Upon a Time are meant to be messier and more complex than those in the Disney versions of popular fairy tales.

“I’m not surprised that we got some s–t for it because good, we should, because these characters are flawed, and they’re real, and they’re, I think, relatable and fleshed out. If we were just the live-action incarnation of the Disney animated features, I wouldn’t watch us. I’d find that terribly boring. Instead, we have this really gray world in which we live.”

Unfortunately for Robin Hood, Regina just isn’t going to be that into him during this week’s episode of the show. As the Inquisitr previously reported, The Snow Queen’s Spell of Shattered Sight is going to make Regina revert to her former Evil Queen self, sexy royal regalia and all. Lana Parrilla told Entertainment Weekly that Regina will be on the warpath, and she’ll attempt to take down Emma and her parents.

“Emma escapes and Regina goes out looking for her and she ends up in the sheriff’s office where Mary Margaret and David are locked up behind bars. She’s like, ‘Oh, I came here to kill Emma and look who I find. My two favorite idiots.'”

A promo for the episode shows the Evil Queen fighting Snow White with a sword, which has some Once Upon a Time fans scratching their heads — why use mere metal when you can fling fireballs at your opponent?

Luckily, the Evil Queen isn’t going soft. Ginnifer Goodwin explained how “Dark Snow” convinces her old nemesis to fight without magic.

“Well, Mary Margaret does call her on her B.S. and say, basically, ‘Of course you’re going to use magic, because you’re afraid to get your hands dirty.’ She ribs Regina enough to put down her fireballs and go at it, man-to-man.”

Ginnifer also promised some very “meaty” dialogue, and she hinted that fans don’t have to worry about anyone getting seriously hurt when she described the fight scenes from this week’s episode of Once Upon a Time as “hilarious.” You can catch a glimpse of their battle in the promo below.

See what else happens after the Spell of Shattered Sight hits Storybrooke when Once Upon a Time airs Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

[Image credit: ABC]