“ | Look, I do one of these shows every year. And I keep getting hired because I show up, do the work, and keep my head down—Do I love Internal Affairs Director Sassy Malone, whose primary character traits are that she hates bras and loves cold rooms? Not especially. It feels gratuitous and male-gazey. But it pays for my expensive habit of having a mortgage in Southern California. | ” |
—Gina Cazador to BoJack Horseman, The Light Bulb Scene |
Gina Cazador was a recurring, prominent character in Season 5 of BoJack Horseman. She was first introduced in the episode, The Light Bulb Scene.
She starred alongside BoJack in the WhatTimeIsItRightNow.com series, Philbert, as the eponymous character Philbert's love interest and fellow officer Sassy Malone, and also briefly dated BoJack in real life, mirroring their on-screen relationship at the time.
Physical Appearance[]
Gina Cazador is a human woman. She has tan skin, medium-length dark brown hair with caramel-colored highlights, and she wears purple lipstick.
Gina is likely of Hispanic heritage, due to her appearance and name.
According to the model sheets, she is 5 1/2 ft tall standing barefoot.
When playing Sassy Malone on Philbert, she wears a brown leather jacket, a white tank top, dark blue jeans with a belt that has a police badge clipped to it, and black boots. She also wears a chain necklace.
Her everyday attire is a magenta collared button-down shirt, black capri leggings, and sneakers with a black, grey, and white camouflage pattern and white soles.
Personality[]
Gina Cazador has a laid-back, sarcastic, and slightly cynical persona. She goes along with whatever part she gets, no matter the quality of the show and script, simply because it's her job and it continues to get her work afterward. She also enjoys being alone and is usually seen with her earbuds in.
This persona is due in part to her losing faith in her aspirations of making it big in Hollywoo, where she believes the most she'll accomplish is winning an Emmy at age sixty for playing Benjamin Bratt's mother.
Gina believes Philbert is her last chance for stardom, being her twenty-eighth attempt at it, as every other series she starred in was not successful and lasted only one season.
She secretly loves the musical A Kernel of Truth, despite it not being well received she is obsessed with the soundtrack, as it reminds her of a time when she was less jaded and more optimistic.
Her childhood dream was to be a singer on Broadway, but she never tried as, both in terms of her singing and acting, she was reluctant about her talents.
It also appears as though she is scared of committed romantic relationships with co-stars, as she tells BoJack during the wrapping up of Philbert they should break up.
BoJack, however, convinces her to believe in herself again. Although she fails her audition for having a singing part in an episode of Philbert, Gina decides to continue her relationship with him when he comes to her house and says he wants to (although he was actually just stalling her so that Hollyhock could sneak in and look for more painkillers for him). Philbert then ends up being her big break, getting large amounts of critical praise and attention for her acting.
Unfortunately, her fortune is tarnished when BoJack, after developing an opioid addiction following a painful accident, nearly strangles her to death while high on opioids.
She forces BoJack to not tell the truth, about what he did before an interview with Biscuits Braxby set up for them to clear things up, because after so many failed attempts she is finally getting recognized for her acting. Otherwise, Philbert and her entire career will forever be tarnished as she'll only be known as "the girl who got choked by BoJack Horseman."
In Season 6, following the strangling incident with BoJack, Gina’s whole demeanor has changed drastically, due to her trauma of being assaulted by BoJack. She is much more demanding on set and gets agitated easily, especially from sudden changes or surprises when it comes to script.
This is shown when she rants to director Justin Kenyon about the new scenes in her script, or when she left the set all together when her costar slightly changed the choreography during a dance scene. This is a stark contrast to how she was while working on Philbert. She also starts coming off as slightly arrogant, as she reminded people on set, at least twice, that she was number one on the call sheet. Most likely due to her trauma, Gina develops a nervous habit of touching her neck.
Background[]
History[]
Gina was stated to be thirty-nine in Head in the Clouds, which took place in early 2019, setting her birth year either in 1979 or 1980. At six years old, Gina's mother took her to see A Kernel of Truth on Broadway. Despite getting poor reviews, it held a place in her heart ever since she saw it, and she deep down wished to become a Broadway star.
She had long since given up the dream, believing she's not good enough, but still listens to it to remind her of a time she was less jaded.
Gina became an actress as an adult, and starred on multiple cop/crime-related shows, although she was always the costar—and the shows she was on were not hits and lasted only one season, and she didn't get any attention for it.
Season 5[]
Gina is BoJack's co-star, who plays his fellow officer and love interest Sassy Malone in Philbert, created by Flip McVicker. She has spent her younger years without getting a starring role and believes Philbert to be her last chance at stardom since she's now thirty-nine.
Philbert is said to be her twenty-eighth attempt at a series and the first to make it past one season. However Philbert is shown to not be written very well, rather being very pretentious, over written, and overly metaphorical to compensate for actually decent writing—which makes the show's story-line and dialogue either redundant, confusing, or just outright bad.
After their first day on set, BoJack and Gina sleep together. He asks her if she has any misgivings about the show and characters. Gina tells him that she does shows like these every year, because she does her job right, even if she doesn't particularly love her character, who's only primary character traits are that she "hates bras and lives cold rooms". She knows it’s "gratuitous and male gaze-y" but she does it for the paycheck. BoJack offers her to stay and hang out, but Gina leaves because she enjoys being alone.
The next day, BoJack goes to talk to Flip about his misgivings with the script, including a scene involving strippers, which he says might come off across at "gratuitous and male gaze-y”, parroting Gina's words. Flip assures him it's all necessary and gets the idea from BoJack to cut the stripper scene and to only draw Gina naked, as it'll be more motivated by character. He also unknowingly reveals to Gina BoJack told him what she said to him.
BoJack later tried to protest the scene to Flip, saying if he's trying to get back at him for criticizing the script he shouldn't also punish Gina in the process. Flip tells BoJack that wasn't his intention, he just wants to make a great show, and he's the only one with a problem.
Gina even denies having a problem with the scene when asked. BoJack later ends up filming his own nude scene where he screws in a lightbulb.
In Planned Obsolescence, BoJack eats at Elefante with Gina, who has continued to sleep with him. Pickles the waitress arrives, and Gina excuses herself to the bathroom. Pickles meets up with her in there and talks about how they're both dating celebrities. Gina tells Pickles she should have zero expectations when dating a celebrity.
While on set, BoJack tries to make conversation with Gina at the snack table, but she has earbuds in her ears. He pulls one out and learns that she's listening to A Kernal of Truth and he teases her about it. Gina eventually reveals to him the reason the musical is important to her, about how she dreamed of being on Broadway but assumed she wasn’t good enough, and how she still listens to the musical to remind her of a time when she felt good. BoJack apologizes but turns his apology into teasing. Gina storms off angry.
BoJack later apologizes for real to Gina, but also reveals he told Princess Carolyn and that she can sing in the nightclub scene. This angers Gina, but BoJack tells her that it's her dream and that if she doesn't try now she'll always wonder “what if." Gina agrees to do it. She hugs and kisses him before she goes to get ready.
She performs a song from A Kernel of Truth in front of Flip, Princess Carolyn, and BoJack. Unfortunately, due to both nerves and not being trained enough in singing to nail a Broadway level song, she doesn't do well in the audition - her singing is shaky and her voice ends up cracking on the high note. She awkwardly apologizes with tears in her eyes as she leaves Flip's office. She is later shown crying as she deletes the musical's soundtrack off of her phone.
She goes to BoJack's, where he tries to apologize, but she stops him, saying that he was right—if she hadn't sung she would've wondered "what if." Gina goes to bed, staying overnight with BoJack for the first time, leaving BoJack to think about everything.
In INT. SUB, as part of Dr. Indira changing the characters' identities for her story, Gina becomes "Gino," and she has short hair and a mustache. She and BoJack have nothing to do on set. Gina suggests they have sex, but BoJack declines because he'll just think about his dead mom the entire time. She offers to get him pie and he accepts.
After Diane begins to write for the show, Gina's character becomes more rounded and better written in general, along with the rest of the show.
In Mr. Peanutbutter's Boos, she is gone for most of the episode to find a costume at Rite-Aid for BoJack's annual Halloween party. By the time she gets back while wearing a very elaborate witch's costume made of random objects, the party is already over. Annoyed, she says she's going to bed.
In Ancient History, filming of Season One of Philbert has wrapped. Gina tells BoJack she doesn't want to continue their relationship of sleeping together.
Later, BoJack and Hollyhock go to her house while she is away to see if BoJack left any of his painkillers there, as Hollyhock accidentally flushed the ones he had down the sink, and despite his instance that he’s fine he has become addicted to them.
However, as Hollyhock goes to sneak in, Gina arrives home and catches BoJack. As he distracts her from seeing Hollyhock, BoJack lies and says he wants to talk about their relationship, and agrees with her that he wants to get back together.
As BoJack tries to take off and as Hollyhock finds pills in Gina's house, Gina admits she has had a lot of on-set flings on all the shows she has filmed, and no guy has ever wanted to continue their relationship after filming was done. She always internalized she didn't deserve it, but now she feels like she does. BoJack quickly agrees as he races off and promises he'll call her.
BoJack talks to himself about how and when he'll call Gina, but he assures that things will work out, they'll be happy, and he won't hurt her in a way that’ll affect her for the rest of her life.
In Head in the Clouds, BoJack—now with a sling on his arm due to deliberately crashing his car to get more painkillers—and Gina are getting ready for the Philbert premiere party. BoJack swallows a couple of painkillers. Gina shows concern for this, but BoJack claims he needs them because the reviews are out. Gina reads them and they are all surprisingly positive, especially the ones about her performance. BoJack then gives Gina a pair of earrings as a gift, as he begrudgingly admits he appreciated her visiting him in the hospital every day and he likes her.
On the car ride to the premier, Gina asks BoJack if they're going to make their relationship public at the premier, but BoJack says the world isn't ready for them yet. They are shown being photographed on the red carpet. They ask for pictures of just BoJack, which Gina is OK with, but BoJack tells them that they'll want pictures of her after they see her performance.
After the viewing of the first episode, BoJack is sitting with Gina, who says they may get picked up for a second season due to all the positive press when Gina gets pulled for an interview, which excites her as it’s never happened before.
Gina is later shown being interviewed, when BoJack—who just had a huge argument with Diane about his past shitty behavior and actions—after popping more pills and taking off his sling, makes his way through the crowd and passionately kisses her in front of all the cameras, as the imagery around him becomes disoriented with fireworks and the balloon of him floating away.
In The Showstopper, BoJack and Gina are driving through Los Angeles. BoJack (as a voice-over) says it's been two months since Philbert came out, and it's a huge hit. He explains it's good for him but even better for Gina, who is getting a lot of positive press and attention. Gina tells BoJack she can't believe this is the first show that's actually made her a star. BoJack continues to narrate that he's really happy for Gina, but he feels like something isn't right, as he is seen popping a few painkillers, showing his addiction has done anything but wane, and he very briefly flashes to the empty Philbert set before returning to his car.
Throughout the episode, BoJack's painkiller addiction becomes so bad he constantly swallows up bottles worth of doses at once, he keeps hidden stashes of them around his house, and he begins to have trouble distinguishing the current reality from his show Philbert.
He becomes paranoid about the show secretly being written about him, especially he gets a note saying "You Did A Bad Thing And I'm Going To Tell," forgetting this was actually a promo flyer for Philbert based on a scene he was too high to remember being shot. He tries to get to the bottom of it, fearing it’ll ruin the show for Gina. He begins to believe the show was created to reveal his secrets.
At one point, he has a hallucination dream that involves Gina performing a song and dance number while wearing a tuxedo jacket, fedora, stockings, and heels, called Don't Stop Dancing 'Til The Curtains Fall, taking BoJack through his past bad deeds, including the settings from his life, which are all set pieces, and telling him his grief and demons will consume him, as the song suggests.
In the grand finale, she dances on top of a glowing sign of his name while Popsicle stick dancers dance around it. The BoJack balloon that was let loose at the Philbert premier then deflates and hits BoJack, waking him up from his dream.
The next day, Gina confronts BoJack over his stashes of pills, questioning how many he takes a day. She takes the pills and he tries to chase her down for them, and shows her the note he got saying "You Did A Bad Thing And I'm Going To Tell." She tells him that was from a scene in the show and was being used for promotion, and he probably didn’t remember because he has been high on pills the whole time.
She angrily tells BoJack he’s a mess and it’s going to ruin her show. This sets BoJack off, as he sarcastically apologizes for his debilitating drug problem ruining "her show." He demands she give him his pills back.
Throughout this argument, the scenes are juxtaposed with scenes from Philbert, with Sassy confronting Philbert about killing everyone who knew his secret. Philbert slaps Sassy and begins to strangle her.
However, BoJack continues to violently strangle Gina even after Flip yells cut. He almost kills her but Mr. Peanutbutter intervenes and he and a few crew members pull BoJack off of her. Gina, whose eyes are bloodshot and has dark red bruises around her neck, says "What the fuck is wrong with you?"
In The Stopped Show, Princess Carolyn sets up a staged interview with Biscuits Braxby so that BoJack and Gina can assure that they were just acting and so the show won't get canceled, as many crew members filmed what happened and there's chance footage got out to the public. BoJack, who was so high on pills that he didn't remember anything that happened, also finds out what he did to Gina after he watches the video.
However, Gina, who is wearing makeup to cover her bruises, angrily tells BoJack to not take responsibility for strangling her—he assaulted her, and if there was any justice he'd be in jail, but her career is finally taking off, and she doesn't want to be known as "the girl that got strangled by BoJack Horseman."
She wants to be known for her talent and doesn’t want him to define her. She says she’ll be amicable to him on set, but other than that she doesn’t want anything to do with him.
The two do the interview together with Biscuits Braxby where they claim they were simply acting, and pretend to still be dating. Afterward, she storms off.
Philbert ends up getting canceled due to WhatTimeisRightNow.Com shrinking down to their original business model because of allegations against Henry Fondle.
Season 6[]
In A Quick One, While He’s Away, it is shown that after Philbert was canceled Gina started working on a new film with a director, Justin, with her as the lead. However, due to her trauma of being assaulted and strangled by BoJack, Gina hates sudden changes or surprises, particularly when it comes to being on set, as she rants to Justin about new pages in the script and makes Justin assure her they’ll go over the choreography for the new combat scene until she’s comfortable.
When Justin asks if everything is ok with her, she insists she’s fine and claims she just wants to be respected because she’s number one on the call sheet.
While filming a dance scene, her co-star dips her unexpectedly while having his hand on the back of her neck, which scares Gina and caused her co-star to drop her. Gina is furious that he changed the choreography without her consent. As Justin tries to calm her down, her costar asks “What the fuck is wrong with you?", the same thing she said to BoJack after he choked her. Gina decides to go home, despite Justin’s pleas that they’re behind schedule, to which Gina states is not her problem.
Later, Justin is seen having lunch with Kelsey Jannings, who is about to direct the superhero movie Fireflame and needs a non-problematic actress for the titular lead. When she asks about Gina, Justin says she’s talented, but difficult, despite being the opposite in the past when he worked with her. This seemingly turns Kelsey off from her. Justin then recommends Courtney Portnoy, which Kelsey likes.
In the series finale, however, it’s revealed from a billboard advertising the movie that Gina did end up getting the role of Fireflame, with Courtney Portnoy as her co-star.
Relationships[]
- BoJack Horseman (previously dated/ former co-star)
Episode Appearances[]
Season 5[]
- The Light Bulb Scene
- Planned Obsolescence
- INT. SUB
- Mr. Peanutbutter's Boos
- Ancient History
- Head in the Clouds
- The Showstopper
- The Stopped Show
Season 6[]
- A Quick One, While He's Away
- Nice While It Lasted (cameo on the billboard in the background)
Gina is seen in the Season 6 theme song, at the Philbert premiere with Princess Carolyn and Todd.
Filmography[]
Television & Movies[]
Title | Role | |
---|---|---|
Philbert | ... | Sassy Malone |
Fireflame | ... | Fireflame |
Trivia[]
- Her surname translates into Hunter.
- Gina's voice actress Stephanie Beatriz also played a cop, Rosa Diaz, in Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
- Incidentally, Woodchuck Coodchuck-Berkowitz's voice actor, Andre Braugher, also played Captain Raymond Holt in the aforementioned series.
- There is also a character named Gina in the aforementioned show.
- Gina is the fifth character to use the word "fuck," after BoJack nearly strangles her to death while high on opioids.
- The first was Herb Kazzaz in Season 1, the second was Charlotte Carson in Season 2, the third was Todd Chavez and Diane Nguyen in Season 3, and the fourth was BoJack (stating he wanted to say it towards Beatrice) in Season 4. The sixth was Gina's Co-star towards Gina in Season 6 (This is the first time the rule is not used in regards to a relationship BoJack has permanently ruined.)
- It is possible that Gina reacted this way due to trauma from being strangled, thus BoJack may have still indirectly ruined a relationship at this moment, albeit a relationship between other people and not one of BoJack's own relationships.
- The writers have a rule, which is that this word can be used only once per season, and only when a character's relationship with BoJack is permanently ruined.
- Out of the five ruined relationships, only the one between Todd and BoJack appears to have a chance of improving, as BoJack is among the first few people to whom Todd willingly discloses his asexuality.
- That rule was almost broken is when Diane shouts "motherfucker" after being told that she's pregnant, in the very first second of Brrap Brrap Pew Pew which immediately picked up at the last second of Love And/Or Marriage (where she is heard uttering "mother-" before it cuts to the end credits of the episode)
- The first was Herb Kazzaz in Season 1, the second was Charlotte Carson in Season 2, the third was Todd Chavez and Diane Nguyen in Season 3, and the fourth was BoJack (stating he wanted to say it towards Beatrice) in Season 4. The sixth was Gina's Co-star towards Gina in Season 6 (This is the first time the rule is not used in regards to a relationship BoJack has permanently ruined.)
- In the episode Ancient History, it is revealed that Gina attends a book club with a friend called Nicole, whom she finds dumb for not even reading the long Italian books she always picks. They end up rescheduling the book clubs to Thursdays only to confuse Nicole.
- The titular character likely originated from comic books before being adapted to film, similar to the many superhero movies featuring Marvel and DC characters.
- In particular, she may be based on the Marvel character Firestar, another female superhero.