Every year or so there seems to be an actress or actor who comes out of nowhere to give an unforgettable performance. Usually, they are child actors, such as “Room’s” Jacob Tremblay or “Beast of the Southern Wild’s” Quvenzhané Wallis. And, often they are international actors who are getting global or North American exposure for the first time such as “The Artist’s” Bérénice Bejo. And sometimes they simply come out of the blue as was the case with “A Fantastic Woman’s” Daniela Vega last year. That utter surprise is also the case with “Roma’s” Yalitza Aparicio.
READ MORE: ‘Roma’ wins Best Film from the New York Film Critics Circle
The 24-year-old teacher had never acted before she was cast in Alfonso Cuarón’s “Roma,” a critically acclaimed epic inspired by the filmmaker’s own childhood. Aparicio portrays Cleo, the housekeeper to a middle-class family will live in Mexico’s Roma district. It’s 1970 and while the nation is turmoil Cleo finds herself intertwined in the family’s drama as she tries deals with her own personal problems. A majority of the film’s storyline is through her character’s eyes and what Aparicio is able to accomplish without any formal acting training (she has repeatedly said she’s “not an actor”) is a testament to her impressive ability to adapt to the medium and Cuarón’s belief in her talent.
Aparicio took some time before attending the Governors Awards earlier this month to jump on the phone and discuss making the film and reveal how a scene in the ocean made her face one of her own fears.
Please note: Aparicio’s responses were given by a translator. Additionally, there are spoilers ahead if you have not seen the film.
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The Playlist: How did this role come your way?
Yalitza Aparicio: How it happened is that there were many casting calls all across Mexico, including in Oaxaca, which is the city that I’m from and including in my small hometown of Tlaxiaco. It was my sister who took me there. The casting call was for women of any age, any shape, any color, so it was a very general call. My sister was interested in going to a casting call, so I accompanied her to the call and that’s how I got started.
Had you acted before? Have you done anything in your hometown or onstage at all?
I had never acted before and I had also never studied to be an actress. To be honest with you, I had not even thought about becoming an actress.
What made you want to go to the audition? Was it just something fun to do?
It was my sister who took me to the casting call and I didn’t really think that I was ever going to get the role. I never really felt like I was meeting the expectations that they had as they interviewing me.
How did you find out you got the part?
It was Alfonso himself who told me and that happened during the last of the casting calls, which is the casting call where all he did was sort of take pictures of me and try dresses on me. It was also the casting call where I first met Marina de Tavira, the actress who plays Sofia.
I’m sure you were excited to land the role but at any point did you ever think, “What have I gotten myself into?”
Yes. The moment where I do have some regret about having taken the role is when I actually got to talk to Alfonso about what the film was going to be about and I realized it was going to be a very personal story that was near and dear to him. At that point, all I could think about was the fact that I wasn’t really an actress. I didn’t really know what I was doing and I was afraid that I might fail. But, at the same time, I knew I couldn’t backtrack because I had already said yes.
How did the rehearsal process work? Obviously, this is a movie with very, very long shots, and even for really experienced actors, to do such long scenes can be complicated.
There wasn’t a lot of rehearsal, but it was also more all improvisational because we were given some notes about exactly how the scene was going to develop and certain positions where we needed to be and where we needed to stand. So, we had some sense of how it would progress, but we never really actually rehearsed. If there was any kind of rehearsal, it was really actually that with stand-ins whose purpose was to sort of make sure that the lighting was correct and the positions were correct. That was all done with stand-ins first before we came on the set.
When you finally got this script was there anything that you were concerned about having to perform?
Actually, I never got a script. All he really [did was tell] me a bit about the past of the character that I was playing before we started shooting. I just learned day-to-day what was going to be happening on-set so I just kind of went along with the story. But there was one particular scene where I knew two days in advance what was going to happen. It was the scene where I have to go into the ocean and save the kids. Because I didn’t really know how to swim, I was quite scared about that scene.