00:01Hi, I'm Maria Abuela de Faria and I play engineer in Superman by James Gunn and
00:06this is my OLA cover and I hope you enjoyed as much as I did. People are so
00:12excited in my country and I am so excited too, to bring that joy. I think
00:18it's important and it's needed and I'm so happy and so privileged that I am the
00:23one right now that gets to do it and also to show my culture. People on set
00:30didn't know arepas, pequeños. I started my career really young when I was five
00:36years old doing all of the soap operas in Venezuela. I was the daughter of all of
00:42the leads of all the soap operas and then when I was 14, 14-15 I got cast as the
00:50lead of the first Nickelodeon Latin America TV show that happened to be
00:55filmed in Caracas so I got really really lucky. You know, I didn't go through the
01:00stages of the child actor, you know, like the rebellious stage and all of that. I
01:05feel like I had a really good experience as a child actor. People do ask me, oh
01:09like how was that? Like how were those sets? Did you find something dark going on?
01:16Not at all. And I feel like part of it, if not all of it, is that my mom was
01:21with
01:22me 100% of the time. She would pick me up from school and then would stay with me
01:27on set till like 10 p.m. and I was never alone and I felt really safe and I felt
01:34like I was going to have fun with my adult friends. My family has been such a big
01:41part of my career. I did start to work as an actor by accident, like some casting
01:47director found me in a ferry going to Margarita and I was like doing my things, you know,
01:53dancing and like singing and whatever and he's like, take her to this audition next
01:58week and I did and I got it and I never stopped. But it started because I loved that first
02:04day
02:04on set and I begged my mom to please like keep taking me to auditions and stuff like that,
02:09but also as a means of surviving for my family. We were really poor. So the fact
02:16that I got a job that could pay for my school and my brother's school and like
02:20sometimes rent was amazing and I felt really proud of it as a kid. So my family
02:27life and my career are very close together in my mind and in my heart and my mom was
02:32always there with me. She was like my momager. She would be at photo shoots, you know,
02:37being like Maria, like, Hey, I don't like that picture or maybe, you know, whatever, or like,
02:42don't say this or so I always want to share those things with her and I feel like she gets
02:49it. My dad on the other hand, he's very, very proud, but he doesn't really get it. When
02:55I sent him that toy for like, I'm not kidding for like six months, he was like, but is this,
03:04is this a soap opera inspiring Superman? No, no, no, this is Superman. But you mean like Hollywood?
03:13Yes, but he didn't get it until he went to set. I took them with me for my last week
03:20of filming in
03:21Atlanta and we got to film in this huge studio. Like the technology was insane. And my, my dad was
03:29like his jaw was on the floor. He got it. So they see me cry. You know, they see me
03:36heartbroken. They
03:37see me frustrated. They've seen me when I'm like, this is it. Like I need to, I need, I clearly
03:43don't
03:43have it in me anymore. And so to share the success, I mean, it's everything for them because they also
03:51get, they worry, you know, they're, it doesn't matter how old their kid is, it's always a kid.
03:56So they worry and they want to see me happy. Um, so it was very special. My agent called me
04:02the last
04:03day that they had to tell me if it was me or not. And he's like, they can't talk to
04:09you,
04:09can't talk to them, but I'm telling you that you got the job. And I was at the gym and
04:14I knew that
04:15was the last day they had to tell me that day I was going to know. And my husband took
04:19a picture
04:19of me while I was on the phone and the treadmill with my agent. And he was terrible because he
04:25went,
04:28well, we've been here before. He said that we've been here before. And I think it's better if I just
04:34rip off the bandaid. I'm so sorry, but you got it. And I screamed at the gym. I went to
04:42look for my
04:43husband who was already looking at me, like, you know, like taking the picture. And the first thing
04:48I did was I bought Superman capes at Party City and went to surprise my agent. And I gave him
04:54a cape.
04:55And I, I also gave him, gave a cape to his dog. So we were all wearing Superman capes. And
05:01I walked
05:01around Pasadena, which is where I live, wearing the cape. And I went to a bar with my cape. And
05:08I
05:08got a beer and I was celebrating. And people asked me, why are you wearing a cape? I'm like,
05:13I just really like Superman. I'm a fan. I'm such a big fan. I read all of the comics,
05:19all of the comics from the authority, which is the, um, the superhero league that Angela belongs to.
05:25And I read all of them and I read as much as I could from Superman as well. They were
05:30really nice.
05:31And they gave us access to the vault of all of the DC comics. So during our spare time,
05:37that's what we did. I enjoyed so much reading the authority. I think it's the best superhero league
05:43in the world. Not because my character is part of it, but it truly, they are fantastic. They are,
05:49they're not good. They're not bad. They walk in this gray area and it's so fun. And it gives you
05:56so
05:56much freedom to play with them. When I got the job, you know, you get really excited for like five
06:02seconds and then you have to do it. I remember my first workout with Paolo and I remember thinking,
06:07I'm not going to survive this. He'll tell them that I'm not up for the job and they'll fire me.
06:16But I, I, I, I didn't fire me. Thank God. But I was really afraid for the longest time.
06:22I wanted to really look as close to the comics as possible. And more than that, the character
06:31is a badass and it's, she's not a badass because she's a superhero and because she has superpowers.
06:37She was a badass before she got her superpowers. So I wanted to show that. I wanted to, to look
06:44like
06:45I'm capable of doing, I know it's a movie and I know it's a superhero, but I wanted to make
06:49it
06:49realistic as well. And also going through that training would only help me do the things on set
06:57that I had to do, which were very, very challenging physically. And also prepped my mind for sets,
07:06like going through that whole experience three to four hours every day, every day for eight months
07:15before we started filming really did something to my mind. We, we traveled a lot to film this movie.
07:24We went to Svalbard, you know, an island north of Norway and we filmed in Cleveland and Atlanta and,
07:31and I don't know, I feel like James is a very easy guy to love. And I, I truly admire
07:41him. I am a fan
07:42of his work. I am a fan of his taste in music. So I said that a lot. I don't
07:48know if that helped,
07:48but I also became really, really good friends with his wife, Jennifer Holland. And we work out together.
07:54We have the same trainer. And so when I was in Atlanta filming, I would go to their house
08:01to work out at their gym. So I was there a lot. I feel like it just happened, it just
08:07happened because
08:07I was there a lot.
