How busy has 2024 been for actress Adria Arjona? She graciously chatted with IndieWire from the airport, proper earlier than a current flight. “It’s the one time the place I can type of have a second,” she mentioned, sheepishly.
Whereas the actress grew to become a bonafide star-to-watch through a breadth of initiatives over time, from “6 Underground” to “Father of the Bride” and “Andor,” Arjona just lately achieved a brand new stage of success because the romantic lead reverse Glen Powell (one other 2024 breakout) in Richard Linklater’s “Hit Man.”
What adopted the ingenious Netflix rom-com of the summer season was a standout position in Zoe Kravitz’s directorial debut “Blink Twice,” and now the chance to star and produce indie dramedy “Los Frikis,” by which she performs nurse to a bunch of youths in 1991 Cuba, who purposefully injected themselves with HIV as a way to escape poverty by coming into a government-run remedy residence. And, sure, the movie relies on a real story.
As she has been selling all three movies all year long, Arjona has managed to maintain the momentum happening the appearing entrance, ending up the ultimate season of “Andor,” capturing “Splitsville” with the Cannes-winning filmmaking duo behind “The Climb,” starring within the highly-anticipated comedian e-book collection adaptation “Felony” coming to Prime Video, and taking over action-horror venture “Onslaught” directed by Adam Wingard.
The busy schedule has been a consolation to the actress as she beneficial properties extra consideration for her string of notable movies. “It’s so nerve-wracking while you launch a venture. It’s so exposing. You spend a lot time with these characters and telling the tales, and you actually fall in love with the venture, and then you definitely go to the following factor,” mentioned Arjona. “When one thing comes out, you’re like, ‘Are individuals liking it? Do they prefer it? Are they having enjoyable with it as a lot as I had enjoyable making it?’ So it feels good to be on one other venture the place I don’t take into consideration that as a lot.”
Although it was “Hit Man” that set her on this path, the actress mentioned “‘Los Frikis’ modified my life fully.” She truly shot the Falling Ahead Movies launch, directed by Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz, earlier than the Kravitz and Linklater motion pictures.
It additionally occurs to be the primary movie Arjona has ever produced, “as a result of Tyler and Michael requested me to affix them within the artistic course of. So by doing so, they gave me all this confidence and taught me a lot on set, and what was essential, what wasn’t essential,” she mentioned. “After which, as an actress as properly, they had been so supportive they usually simply gave me the arrogance that I wanted, that the business didn’t give me, in a approach. As a result of as a Latin American actress, I’m continuously making an attempt to show myself, ‘I may do that’ and ‘I may try this. Please simply give me a shot.’ And Tyler and Michael actually helped me get by means of that.”
What first bought her on accepting the position of Maria in “Los Frikis” was how the movie dives into part of Latin American historical past she didn’t know truly occurred. “We see so many alternative Latin American tales, however for some motive they hold feeling redundant. We hold telling the identical tales or seeing the identical characters,” she mentioned.
Moreover, Arjona was intrigued by Nilson and Schwartz’s strategy towards casting the remainder of the movie. “They had been like, ‘We wish to carry 20 actors from Cuba.’ And I used to be like, ‘That’s an not possible process,’” she mentioned. “It took us months and months, however Tyler and Michael by no means gave up. They’re like, ‘This film must be genuine, must really feel actual, must really feel uncooked. The one approach we will inform it’s by means of them, and by them.’ And we did it.”
Although the performer, being of Puerto Rican and Guatemalan descent, employed a speech coach, an appearing coach, and a motion coach, all to nail down the Cuban accent and mannerisms, the factor that served Arjona’s efficiency most was being round her costars. “The second that I met all of the Cuban actors, I fired all people,” she joked. “They actually simply helped me get this accent proper, get the habits proper.”
Throughout manufacturing within the Dominican Republic, “All of us lived collectively. We might all journey collectively. There was by no means a separation of ‘You’re the producer, you’re the actress that comes from the U.S., and these are the Cubans’ in any respect,” mentioned Arjona. “When it got here to remedy too, between the administrators and all people else, it was like, ‘Oh, this isn’t my film.’ If something, the celebs of this film are Eros [de la Puente] and Hector [Medina].”
From the start, the expertise of creating “Los Frikis” started to reflect the movie’s story, by way of the Cuban actors coming into a brand new atmosphere that supplied them assets and freedoms that they had not thought-about earlier than. “After they first obtained to Santo Domingo, that they had by no means been outdoors of their nation. A number of them are actually younger. All of us lived in a single lodge, and I took it upon myself. I used to be like, ‘They need to have an excellent expertise of their first Hollywood film,’ one,” she mentioned. “And two, ‘They’re in all probability actually scared they usually’re going by means of all types of feelings of anger, and concern, realizing how little they really have been dwelling with.’”
“So I type of grew to become their assistant. I grew to become their Maria. Something that they wanted. ‘I would like toothpaste, I would like this. Can we go to the grocery store? Can we go right here? Can we go eat?’ Every part was by means of me,” she mentioned. “It was actually stunning, as a result of these children had been discovering freedom for the primary time outdoors of their nation. And within the story, they’re discovering freedom inside their very own nation. So it was actually fascinating to see that kind.”
Arjona compares filmmaking to summer season camp: “Should you had been part of it, you had been a part of it, however when you weren’t there, then you definitely don’t type of get it.” However greater than most initiatives, “Los Frikis” gave her a brand new perspective.
“There’s one thing about freedom and expression that ‘Los Frikis’ gave me, of ‘Why can we care a lot about these tiny little issues, or what individuals suppose, and even the issues that we put on?’ A number of the materialism obtained type of knocked out,” the actress mentioned. To get into character, Arjona would usually go barefoot. “I did my very own hair and make-up. I obtained dressed like Maria daily. I simply put saltwater in my hair. There was a liberation. And I felt very myself,” she mentioned. “I’m Puerto Rican. I used to be by the seaside. I had no limitations, as a result of these administrators gave me no limitations. They’re like, ‘She’s you. Now, go for it.’ So I felt actually free, and I all the time seemed for that feeling.”
That type of skilled autonomy was one thing Arjona was in a position to carry over into “Hit Man,” which has been her greatest position thus far. “Rick requested me to jot down with him, and allowed me to have a seat on the desk, and actually take heed to my concepts, and actually picked my mind, and actually made me consider that, ‘Oh, wait, I do have this producer mind, and perhaps I can write,’” she mentioned of Linklater. “The administrators that I labored with in these previous couple of years have given me possession for the primary time of my characters. And it’s thrilling that I lastly have possession. Persons are like, ‘Oh, oh, these are enjoyable.’ In order that’s been actually an enormous reduction, and yeah, I positively owe them so much.”
Arjona’s profitable yr has made her suppose deeper about how she contributes to Latina illustration as properly. “I’m not excellent, so I can’t be like, ‘I’m going to characterize Latin American girls, and I’m the definition of Latin American girls.’ I’m not, nor do they in all probability need me to be,” mentioned the actress. “I wish to showcase totally different variations of what a Latin American girl may be. So these three stereotypes that we’re so used to seeing a Latin American girl as, are raveled by all these quirky, bizarre characters that I’m enjoying. That’s my position in it.”
And coming off of three well-regarded initiatives, Arjona has extra confidence in what she brings to the desk, and a willingness to problem herself much more in no matter she does subsequent. “I’ve this little saying that I inform myself on a regular basis. It’s like, ‘Fail, fail higher. By no means concern or by no means settle.’ So I’m like, ‘Alright, I’m going to fail.’ And when you ask for assist, and when you practice and put your ego to the aspect, and simply fucking fail, in some unspecified time in the future you’re going to get it proper,” she mentioned.
And if the query “Are you able to try this?” pops up, her response is simple: “’Yeah, I can do it. In fact I can do it’ After which I’m like, ‘How the fuck am I going to do it?,’” she mentioned with fun. “And then you definitely simply bounce.”
“Los Frikis,” a Falling Ahead Movies launch, is now in choose theaters nationwide.