00:00When were you most afraid or intimidated by a role, and how did you overcome it?
00:08I think you're always kind of excited at the undertaking of a new role, a new movie,
00:13and I've done them for so long, and a lot of us have here, that you're not nervous nervous.
00:20There's like butterflies, but it's not like, I'm going to go down in flames.
00:24It's not that nervous, but this was the first time in a long time that I was actually terrified to do that opening number,
00:33which I suggested, of course, so it was my fault that I was there to begin with.
00:40It wasn't written in the script.
00:43It just says, Ramona finishes a final flourish, and then me and Destiny meet,
00:48and I was like, no, she's like the big, you know, kind of the moneymaker at the club.
00:55She was this person.
00:56I played a stripper in that, in this movie, and I was like, but she has to show why.
01:03Like, we can't say it.
01:04We have to do it, right?
01:05We have to, I have to dance on the pole.
01:08I have to show them.
01:09I have to go there, and even though that's scary, and in my mind, I was like, it's going to be scary,
01:13but then when I was there, and I have the dental floss on, and I, you know what I mean,
01:19and I'm out there, like, in a way I've never been, it was so scary.
01:26It was so terrifying.
01:27I was literally, like, for the first time in years, like, my heart beating out of my chest
01:32and going, oh, my God, I'm really nervous.
01:36I'm really scared, and I wasn't smiling like I am now, you know what I mean?
01:39I think when I first started, one of the things that I wanted to do,
01:49because I was Puerto Rican, Latina, was that I wanted to be in romantic comedies
01:56because I felt like all the women in romantic comedies were always looked the same way.
02:01They were always just, you know, they were always white, and I was like, there's never anybody.
02:05If I can do it and just show that I'm every girl, because I am the hopeless romantic.
02:13I am the single working woman.
02:16I am all, I was those things, and that's one of the things that you asked earlier,
02:22like, did you make certain choices?
02:23And I remember thinking, like, I need to be the lead in a romantic comic.
02:28I need to do that.
02:29I have to do that.
02:30And that's one of the things I went for, and that's one of the things me and my agents talked about.
02:34Like, can we find me a romantic comedy?
02:37You know, yes, I've done, you know, Selena and Mi Familia, and people are taking notice,
02:42but what can we do where I can change that, do that, be that, you know?
02:48Yeah.
02:49Because that's not what was happening.
02:51Right.
02:51This was many years ago now.
02:53Right, right.
02:53I like to think it was yesterday, but it wasn't.
02:55It was.
02:57Do you feel the culture around nudity and sex scenes has changed in the way it's discussed now
03:10and the choices you would make yourselves as actresses?
03:12I don't know.
03:13I think it's a personal choice.
03:14I've always felt like that's a personal choice for anybody.
03:16I don't judge anybody for doing it, for not doing it.
03:19You know, you take a role.
03:20You decide what you're going to do.
03:21You discuss it with your director.
03:23You see if it serves the story and the character in the best way, and then you have a choice
03:29to say yes or no.
03:30You spoke about how early on in your career you were asked to, like, take your top off.
03:34I didn't want to.
03:35And you didn't.
03:35I didn't want to.
03:36Oh, you're talking about more of a personal.
03:39Oh, that was not a...
03:40No, that was a...
03:42Yeah, no, a director at a fitting asked me to take my top off.
03:47Not for the movie.
03:48To see.
03:49To see what?
03:50Well, because I was supposed to do nudity in the movie.
03:52Oh, they wanted to see your breasts?
03:54He wanted to see my boobs.
03:56And I was like, we're not on the set.
03:56What they looked like before you.
03:58Yes.
03:58That is crazy.
04:00Well, he was crazy.
04:02And, uh...
04:03And...
04:04God, who was it?
04:06And I said no.
04:08I said no.
04:09I stood up for myself.
04:10But it was so funny because I remember, like, being so panicked in the moment.
04:14Like, oh, my God.
04:15And, by the way, there was a costume designer in the room with me.
04:17Yeah, yeah, yeah.
04:18And so there was another woman in the room with me.
04:21And he says this.
04:21And I was like, no.
04:23You know, luckily, a little bit of the Bronx came out.
04:25You know what I mean?
04:26And I was like, I don't have to show you my...
04:28No.
04:29Well, thankfully you were like that, though.
04:30Because not everybody would feel that way.
04:33That's the thing.
04:34Because you give in in that moment.
04:35And all of a sudden, that person's off and running.
04:38Right?
04:38Thinking they can do whatever they want.
04:41And because I put up a little boundary right there and said no, he laid off.
04:45And then later on apologized.
04:47But the minute he walked out of the room, the costume designer was like, I'm so sorry.
04:50I'm so sorry.
04:50That just happened.
04:51And I was like, you know, thrown for a second or whatever.
04:54But that was...
04:55It's not okay.
04:56Well, no, I'm not supposed to get naked before I get on camera.
05:00And I take it off at the last minute.
05:02Like, I know this stuff.
05:03And so, again, it's like teaching, passing it down.
05:06And what's happened now is a big lesson for all women.
05:10Right?
05:11It's like, no.
05:12This is...
05:12These things are okay.
05:13These things are not okay.
05:14And it doesn't matter what context it's in.
05:15It's never...
05:16You get to have a time.
05:16Never okay to feel uncomfortable.
05:18Right.
05:18And as you said, the light is on now.
05:20Yes.
05:21Both in what feels comfortable and how to set boundaries, but also in calling someone out.
05:26You get to have a time.
Comments