The prolific actress and star of Netflix’s musical crime comedy drama, Emilia Perez, shares her fears about being “too famous,” the risk/reward analysis of taking on a wildly ambitious project, and what she learned from sharing space (and the Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Award!) with Zoe Saldana, Karla Sofia Gascón and Selena Gomez.
Alicia Menendez: Adriana Paz has had a prolific acting career work, that has been recognized with three Ariel Awards, Mexican cinema's highest Honor, and Spain's Goya Award. And yet as high as her star has risen, her newest project, Emilia Perez, is about to catapult her into another galaxy. Her role in the musical-crime-comedy-drama, yes, you heard me correctly, about a Mexican lawyer who's asked by a notorious cartel boss to help them retire and transition to life as a woman, earned Adriana the Cannes Film Festival award for Best Actress. Adriana stars as Epifania, a Mexican woman who's been abused by her husband and finds herself in love with the film's protagonist after her transition. Adriana and I talk about the risk and reward analysis of taking on a genre-bending project, the realities of being a mother with great professional ambition, and the early advice that has stayed with her to this day.
Adriana, thank you so much for doing this.
Adriana Paz: Thank you so much for having me here. I'm so happy.
Alicia Menendez: You're born in Mexico City. Your artistic ability shows up very young. You go to college, they put all the majors on the board. You see drama and your heart jumps. What let you know that this was your life path?
Adriana Paz: I think I knew it since I was a little girl, but there were too many people that they were like, "Oh, that's not a real profession. You have to have a job, a real one. This is not for people like us." And I was like, "Okay, maybe I have to choose another profession, maybe an architect or something like that, something real." But when I was in high school, I saw these two professions, both in UNAM, which is a bigger university in Latin America. And I was like, "This is what I have to do."
Alicia Menendez: I've interviewed other Mexicanas, Kate del Castillo, Melissa Barrera. They make big careers in Mexico and then they come to the United States for their crossover. You, almost immediately after graduating, head to Spain. What was it about Spain that was calling you?
Adriana Paz: Well, I fell in love with a good Spanish boy.
Alicia Menendez: That'll do it.
Adriana Paz: Yeah, I mean love, it's a powerful force. And I remember this teacher, Hector Mendoza, who was one of the biggest teachers in theater in Mexico, and once I was like, "Oh, Maestro, I want to have another degree, but I would like to study in Spain or maybe Russia or maybe Canada. What do you think?" And he was like, "Stop. You have to live. You tell people that you're going to study, Canada, United States, whatever, but you have to live because your profession is about that. So you need to have experience." And I was like, "Okay, I have to leave."
So when I met this guy and I was like, "Oh, okay, I want to travel." And I went to Spain for two months and I was like, "Mama, I'm going to move to Spain." And she was like, "Oh my God, you are just 23 and you just finished your school." And I was like, "Yes, but I need to live." So that's what I did. And I learned a lot about myself, living, I mean for real, and being alone in another country. And I have a lot of friends back in Catalonia where I lived, in Barcelona, in Tarragona. And it was so important for me because that [foreign language 00:03:57]. When I came back to Mexico, I was a whole different person because difficulties can make you grow. And if you can go through that difficulties, you can be successful and keep living.
Alicia Menendez: And this film in so many ways is anchored in Mexico, and that's why I wanted to make sure that we talked about being Mexicana and being displaced and understanding all of that. As you said, this opportunity comes to you. You kind of look at it and you say, "This is incredibly ambitious, but this could be a total mess because anything that is this ambitious could be a total mess." You fly to Paris, you meet the director, he says, "Well, can you sing?" You say, "I'll sing for you right now." I love it. It's such a mythological story that you lay out. How did you weigh the possibility of a project like this, the promise of a project like this, versus the risk of taking on something this big and this bold, especially because you do have such a prolific and impressive career?
Adriana Paz: Well, I think that if we don't take risks, we can't grow. And life is about this, and it was Jacques Audiard. It's like, "Okay, I don't know how he's going to do this, but I'm pretty sure that he knows what he's doing." And my managers were also like, "You have to do this. I mean, it's Jacques Audiard. It's a very important project." And when they told me, "It's a musical," I was like, "Oh, I want to do it." I love singing. And in fact, a year before I told my husband, "I will love to make a musical. I'm going to do a musical." And I really believed it. And I started doing that, like, "I want to do this, I want to do this." Maybe not all the time happens like I wish it, but you have to dream because if you don't dream, where are you going?
So you have to dream and then let it go. And keep working. Many people don't want to dream because they don't want to be disappointed because it's frustration, it's terrible, and it's a lot of sadness, no? But that's why you can't be attached to anything, persons, thoughts, ideas. You can't do that. You have to be able to change your mind because maybe you were wrong. Evolve, it's about that. Evolving and evolution is about like maybe I was wrong in the past, so I didn't know that, and I had that experience and now I'm older and life, it taught me that.
Alicia Menendez: Your character in Emilia Perez, Epifania, is one of my favorites. So grounded, so smart. The type of woman, you're like, "Oh, I know her." What in your own life did you draw from to bring her to life on screen?
Adriana Paz: Many things. I live in Mexico and for example, when I was a teenager and I was going to school, I mean many times some guys, they were harassing me. I mean every day, almost every day. And that's something that Mexican girls, not now, things are changing because we're telling that's not normal and that's not all right. When 1998 when I was at the university and it was different. It was so normal that the men on the street were able to tell you gross things, and I don't know what they were thinking. Like, "That's gross. Why do you do that?" And of course I have met some women that have been through domestic violence. And I have to confess that myself, I was in a toxic relationship, and yes, I suffered domestic violence. Not that, I mean I wasn't beaten up, but some behaviors were violent and I didn't know it and I didn't realize until I was there. You must say like, "I'm a good girl. I'm a girl that was very well-educated by her parents, and I went to the university. That is not going to happen to me." And of course it happened.
I had like to say to myself, "Okay, this is not all right.". And so I could really understand. Of course, Epifania, it's portraying many, many, many womens that there are less privileged than me and than us. And they are living in a very difficult situation, economic situations. Maybe they are not able to go to school or maybe they had to quit school or they got pregnant too young. I can feel that because I saw that every day in Mexico, and not just in Mexico, Latin America, and out of Latin America too, in Spain as well.
So I wanted to portray that and talk about these women that are brave and courageous. Even that they have been through a lot of violence or terrible things, they can keep a smile on them. And I wanted to put that spirit in Epifania because she's innocent, despite all this. Naive or silly, but she's innocent and she just want to be loved. And for her, like meeting Emilia, it's an Epifania. But lifes gives you surprise. And maybe in the darkest moments, it's when the light is coming too.
Alicia Menendez: So often when I interview an actress who is on a film, she is the only Latina on the film. This is a powerhouse squad of women actresses. You, Zoe, Selena, Karla Sofia. What did you learn as an actor having the opportunity to work on a project with other incredible strong Latina actresses?
Adriana Paz: It's been a gift. I mean, I never imagined when I read the script that this bond and this feminine power, Latin power, could happen. It's difficult to imagine the whole thing. Since Cannes, when we first saw the movie and we saw the reaction of the people, I felt so moved. I was moved about the movie itself, but also because it also happened to the people what was around us. When I start seeing this news or this photos and the people saying, "Latin power, feminine power, feminine characters," and winning this award together, I started realizing that this is more than I ever imagined.
Alicia Menendez: I was able to see the premiere during New York Film Festival and was able to see your Q&A afterward. And Zoe said something that made me cry, which was that when she originally was presented the opportunity that she didn't feel worthy of the opportunity. And I think so often because we're not given these opportunity for these big roles or these big projects or things that seem so ambitious, it creates this cycle where then we don't imagine that we are one of the greats. We're like, "Clearly you are, Adriana. This woman has been working nonstop since the day she started working." And that in and of itself is a miracle to be a working actor, but then to be given the opportunity to do something truly special, those opportunities don't come along very often for actors period, and they truly don't come along for Latinas, because we get put in these tiny little boxes where we can only do one or two roles. I wonder what it has meant for you to get this opportunity at this point in your career.
Adriana Paz: It's so important. I think it's the most important project in my life because people out of Mexico and even in Mexico is getting to know about me and my job. And I have a long career behind me. Latinas, we are always portraying in two or three ways. And we are much more than that. And these characters are much, much more. And even in Mexico, I mean in Mexico it's also for girls like me, it's like, Okay, you have brown skin so you can't be rich," for example. It's like, "Why not?" "You can't be a professional. You have to be the cleaning lady or you have to be the [foreign language 00:12:55]." And I think one of the most important things for me is I have broken this prejudice.
I have been a lawyer in a Spanish show and I was a milliner in a Mexican show with Daniela Vega and Aracely Arámbula and Ana Serradilla. And we have to change our minds and we have to teach people that we are much more than that. And that girls like me, little girls, that when I was a little girl and I was watching the TV and I was like, "No one is like me." Or just the cleaning lady maybe or the nana. And it's like, now I'm happy that some girls are telling me, "Now I can feel related to you and you represents me."
Alicia Menendez: In order to do a project that is this ambitious it requires a level of familial sacrifice. And I know that we have to tell ourselves as working women that that sacrifice has been worth it. I wonder what that has looked like for you, what your counsel is. Our listeners, they're not all actors, but if you were a working mom, then you know the feeling that you had of wanting to be in two places at the same time.
Adriana Paz: It's the biggest sacrifice that I have done. And most when my child was little, it was tough. And we have been in therapy for too long. He was in therapy since four years old because of that. But it's like also [foreign language 00:14:30] or working with guilty. I mean, I think it's every day for every mom, not just actresses, every mom all over the world. My mother-in-law, she raised my husband by herself and with her sisters and her mom. I mean, my husband's grandmother was his mother because she had to go to work and she told me, she confessed me, "Try to be with your boy because it's so difficult and you are going to regret if you are not with him." And I'm getting emotional because this is tough for me. And I try to be with him most of the time, but sometimes it's not easy.
Sorry.
Alicia Menendez: No, I appreciate the candor and I have cried my own share of tears, so I feel you, 100%. But I also know that he has seen this film and knows-
Adriana Paz: Now he's proud.
Alicia Menendez: Where Mom has been and is proud and whatever, one doesn't make the other go away, but it can all be true at the same time. And to the point from your teacher, you're living. This is part of it.
Adriana Paz: No, and it's worth it. Now, when I put a video on Instagram, because when I was in Cannes my husband was with my child, and I think it was the first time that he really understood what was I doing. He was watching at the TV on the red carpet and he was like, "Mommy, Mommy." And he was almost crying. And when I came back to Mexico, he was watching on me all the time. He was like, "I feel so proud of you, Mommy. I feel so proud of you."
And I was like, "Oh, it's worth it." Because I'm teaching him you have to fight for your dreams. And the things that you love. It's important that you pursue it. And I want to teach him that. You have to do what you really want to do, what it's your passion. And there are sacrifices to be made, but it's worth it. And try to do it with all your love and try to communicate with the people that you love because communication is so important. When he knew that I didn't abandon him, that I was working, and we had the right help, professional help, and he understood like, "Okay, now I know that you love me and you loved me then, and it was difficult, Mom, but you are doing your best to be with me when you can't be with me."
Alicia Menendez: I do want to ask you about winning the Best Actress Award at Cannes. To me, it sort of tops off everything that we've been talking about, that level of recognition for your talent and your work. If what this film proves in part is that Latinas are capable of anything, then what is it that you want next?
Adriana Paz: I love this profession. I love this work. And I want to keep talking about important matters and that this message gets to the people. I will love to make another musical. I will love to work here in the States. I mean, I love traveling and meets different cultures and learn. I mean, there's a lot of things that we ignore it. So learning is exciting. And, well, that's it, and maybe that it helps, I mean that award and the people it's putting attention on me and my career, I feel privileged and grateful that little girls like me now can feel that inspiration and that they can believe that it's possible.
Alicia Menendez: Adriana, I loved watching you on screen. I have loved our time together. Thank you so much for your generosity. Thank you.
Adriana Paz: Thank you.
Alicia Menendez: Thank you for listening. Latina to Latina is executive produced and owned by Juleyka Lantigua and me, Alicia Menendez. Kojin Toshiro is our lead producer. Trent Lightburn mixed this episode. We love hearing from you.
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