Director Alessandra Lacorazza and cast René Pérez Joglar AKA Residente, Sasha Calle, Lío Mehiel and Leslie Grace stop by The Hollywood Reporter's studio in Park City during the Sundance Film Festival to chat about their film 'In the Summers,' about two sisters who navigate their loving but volatile father during their yearly summer visits to his home in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Grace talks about gaining that "family" feeling again after filming her first movie 'In the Heights' and Residente dishes on acting for the first time.
00:02You know, I have a tour that I have to do this year.
00:05But you have to.
00:07You see?
00:08I have to.
00:08He's got the bug.
00:09We got him.
00:10We got him.
00:13I mean, I'm just so excited to finally get it out into the world.
00:17You know, we've been working on it for so long.
00:19I mean, I've been writing.
00:20My first draft was in 2018 and I've been slowly working on it.
00:23So it's been a long process.
00:24And for the world to see this type of Latin representation, I'm just really pumped about that.
00:29I'm excited for everyone to see Rene after.
00:31I remember that, you know, this is my first movie.
00:34I'm not an actor.
00:35Yes, you are.
00:36So far.
00:36You're absent here.
00:37I mean, I'm in the music industry, but I like to direct.
00:42And this is how I got to this film because I'm working with Alex, who is the producer of the Alex Dinellaris, who wrote Birdman.
00:50So he's writing with me and he invited me to be part of the movie.
00:54And I read the script and say, yeah.
00:56And anyways, like they told me that they were going to start like slow, like easier for me, you know, because I don't have experience.
01:05So I started with the little girls and they were amazing.
01:10And I was like, oh, shit, like they're good.
01:13It wasn't a slow start for me with them.
01:18And then later on, I started to feel more comfortable and everyone was so nice, you know.
01:24So it was so easy to feel like, I don't know, like a family, very relaxed.
01:30You know, I didn't feel the pressure of, oh, I'm here.
01:34And I've been in front of a lot of people performing, so I'm kind of used to that.
01:40Yeah.
01:40You also have such good chemistry with the little ones from the beginning.
01:43Like immediately they were calling you poppy, even like off screen and everything.
01:47And it was just, it was beautiful to see that, like love you had.
01:50Like I direct my videos.
01:52So this time I'm not directing.
01:54So I was controlling myself as the cameras, you know.
01:57But I was not understanding Alexandra from the beginning.
02:03But, you know, there's something that I felt when I was acting that I feel in the concerts,
02:13in certain songs that I feel it like here.
02:17And I was feeling that all the time while I was shooting.
02:21So that was great, you know, because it's a feeling that I want to have.
02:26When I'm performing in front of a lot of people, like I have it in, I don't know, three songs out of 20.
02:32So I have to wait for that song to come.
02:36And when I was shooting, I was feeling it every, I don't know.
02:41It's beautiful.
02:42Like more often.
02:43It's always in particular songs, but also the place, like when I perform in Argentina,
02:51you're going to cry because the crowd is crazy.
02:54It's amazing.
02:55You know, like it depends on where you perform to and the crowd.
02:58But yes, every, these particular songs give me that feeling that I felt with your script.
03:06And damn, I'm not tired of the music industry.
03:09I've been for a long time, but I felt it so relaxing.
03:12I know that this, this was a different kind of a set and we were kind of like a family.
03:18You had the family vibe, but I don't know, like I, I, I'm ready to, to start doing this more.
03:25And yeah, I've been performing for 20 years.
03:29So I'm kind of like, yeah, let's do this.
03:31Rene called me and he was like, Hey, I'm going to be a part of this movie.
03:36I was like, you're acting like I need to see this.
03:39And I just felt so honored to, to know that I, I would have the opportunity to work with this cast.
03:46We're all family now.
03:48We're all, most of us have been friends for some time.
03:51Um, and more than strategy, I think it's just rare when you get to work with one people that you, that, you know, and admire, um, you're lucky when you get to do that, that you work with people that you've admired for some time, um, from afar or up close.
04:08But then also in a, in a film where you get to be a family that looks maybe similar to your family, it's, it's a different feeling.
04:17And I've had the blessing of being a part of another film.
04:20My first film was in the Heights and I got to experience that.
04:23And I've been longing to feel that again.
04:25And so to be able to do that and, and feel that on the set, um, with your story out is, is a blessing.
04:33What was so cool was that the crew, the talent, writer, director, producers, financiers, everyone is Latin.
04:41Everyone is bilingual.
04:43So I would be on set and the sound guy would be setting me up and he's talking Spanish to the grip.
04:47And I'm just like, I've, as you know, as a white passing Puerto Rican person, like I don't get to honor that part of my identity very often.
04:55And so to be able, as you said, to be a part of this team and the fact that we were on location, I think just made it feel more like summer camp and allowed more intimacy to develop because we could, or we would have to go to dinner together after and help each other with shit that came up.
05:10And, you know, but I mean, it was really beautiful.
05:12I mean, even Lynette, one of our producers always jokes that like, I, I just dance at a Rio Grande, like, you know, every moment I get to grab Lynette, I'm like, here we go in.
05:22And it's like, that's such a special, um.
05:25To be able to work with people that understand your culture and understand what that's like.
05:29I love how bilingual it was, actually.
05:32It was, I have never had that experience.
05:33You know, I've been on other sets on smaller things, but the fact that sometimes I didn't even know what language I was speaking on.
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