“I am reminding myself that I am only a part of the process, not the outcome,” she says, adding that she’s “trying to be as present as possible.”
She then showed off her groundedness seconds later when I told her that, as a fellow Latina, I was honored to speak with her and share her story. “I'm so happy that we're doing this together,” she says.
Gonzalez’s upcoming feature, Flamin’ Hot, tells the story of Richard Montañez (played by Jesse Garcia), a Mexican-American Frito Lay janitor who ditched the rules and embraced his love for spices to create the now-famous Flamin' Hot Cheetos. In the movie, Gonzalez plays Richard’s wife and, of course, his biggest cheerleader.
As a Mexican-American who was born and raised in East L.A., she instantly connected with the story. “The second I read the script, I was like, ‘I'm the only one that can do this,’” Gonzalez remembers. “I knew in my soul, I know this woman. I know what she's been through and how she wants to craft her life and how she sees that her community is worth pouring into.”
Before the script reached her hands, however, the process had already been “beautiful” for Gonzalez. During her auditions, she saw a whole community of Latinx colleagues come together as they shared their contacts, sent opportunities, and motivated each other to try out for the part.
“Everybody wanted this project to be great whether they were involved or not because we also understand that if that's my friend right there that's me,” she explains. The same way that we get to see each other and it's like, ‘Oh snap like I'm writing this article,’ ‘Oh Snap I'm in this movie.’” Does this mean I can call myself a movie star now?
Since the movie’s release at SXSW in March, Gonzalez has received rave reviews for her role. IndieWire called her “delightful” while Mashable called her portrayal of the “endlessly supportive wife” “radiant.”
At the forefront of Flamin’ Hot is Desperate Housewives' very own Latina trailblazer Eva Longoria in her directorial debut. For Gonzalez, having Longoria as the director was, simply put, a “dream.”
“The grace and the poise and the joy that she brought to it reminded me: It doesn't matter if it's your first day on your set or your 500th — you want to love what you do,” Gonzalez says of Longoria. “And she does, you can tell. It's so palpable in her work.”
Gonzalez’s admiration for Longoria, however, goes beyond just her as a director. “She's one of the few Latina icons out there that is not only just relevant for relevance's sake, but relevant because she does so much beautiful work, and is still so grounded in the community as well,” she says.
With role models like Longoria, Gonzalez has followed her “blueprint” and dedicated herself to her community in East L.A. “I work with an organization called Farmworker Justice,” she says, adding that they work with immigration reform workers to promote higher working wages and prevent human trafficking, along with providing additional resources for workers.
The same goes for her work with Goddess Mercado, a flea market she’s a member of that promotes Latinx and queer entrepreneurship. “It's a space where we can commune and create small businesses,” she says.
Also coming up for Gonzalez is the authorized biopic of the late Mexican sensation Jenni Rivera, working title Jenni. For those unfamiliar, Rivera was an American singer who rose to the top of the Mexican charts singing regional Mexican music. After a highly scandalous life, including the arrest of her husband for sexual abuse, Rivera tragically died in a plane crash in December 2012.
In March of this year, just a little over a decade since Rivera’s passing, Deadline announced Gonzalez as the star and executive producer of the movie on the singer’s life. “[The movie] will follow Rivera’s journey from her humble beginnings in Long Beach, California, to her meteoric rise to the top of the charts, and her final days before her tragic and unexpected death,” the outlet shared. “The film will also share a look at the struggles she endured in her personal life and how she became the artist fans all know and love today, and how she persevered and found strength from within.”
Although undoubtedly a huge opportunity, Gonzalez didn’t say yes to it the first time around… nor the second. “I said no to it twice,” she says. “At the time, I don't think I understood why.”
After passing on the opportunity, Garcia, her Flamin’ Hot husband, called her to ask if she was interested in the part. And, when he realized she had said no, Garcia gave her succinct yet powerful advice: “Stop being scared.”
As it turns out, when Garcia read the script for the first time, Gonzalez said he immediately thought “This is Annie.” And, after Garcia did some convincing, Gonzalez wondered if it was too late to go back on her decision. Luckily for her, it wasn’t.
“I did my tape and after watching it back, I was like, ‘S—, I'm gonna book it,” she remembers.
Looking back, Gonzalez knows Garcia’s advice was exactly what she needed. In other words, she was scared. “There's so much work and responsibility and tender and care that goes into, first of all, crafting a character, even more embodying the life and essence of someone who lived and had such a massive presence on this Earth and went through so much turmoil and trials and errors and still knew that she was worthy of love,” she says of Rivera. “So that was what the f— I was afraid of.”
Since the beginning of our talk, Gonzalez made it clear that she was an open book. So, after talking about her exciting projects, I asked what it feels like for her to be potentially making it big as a Brown Latina actress in such a white and male-dominated industry. (In fact, according to a new study by the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, only 2.2% of leads and co-leads went to Latinx actors between 2007 and 2019.)
“I have never looked at the industry like that,” she says almost instantly. “I know that it's there,” she continues. “I'm a firm believer on speak about what you do want, not what you don't want. We know the statistics. We know they're there. Unless it's coming from an empowered place, I try not to ascribe to a lot of the dialogue around the statistics because for me personally, it doesn't make me feel good to then want to go out and do the thing that I love.”
She continues, “I'm amazing regardless of my gender, regardless of my ethnicity. I am gifted, and then you add that and those are my f—-- superpowers. I have nuance and essences, that you can't get other places, because they haven't had my lived experience of living in the f—-- hood of East LA and bussing it all the way to West L.A. to a magnet school and being the lead on every school production.”
THE 30-YEAR-OLD LATINX ACTRESS IS STARRING IN THE EVA LONGORIA-DIRECTED FEATURE FILM FLAMIN’ HOT, RELEASING JUNE 9.
by Giovana Gelhoren
photographs by matt shouse / butter la
One of Hollywood’s Biggest Rising Stars Annie Gonzalez Is About to Be a Name You Won’t Forget
feature
Getting Flamin’ Hot
Working With Eva Longoria
W
ith the release of Flamin’ Hot right around the corner on June 9, we think Annie Gonzalez, who plays Judy Montañez in the Eva Longoria-directed movie, is a star on the cusp of her big break. But, despite the excitement around the film, she’s trying her best to stay grounded.
Embodying Jenni Rivera
“I knew in my soul, I know this woman. I know what she's been through and how she wants to craft her life and how she sees that her community is worth pouring into.”
"Unless it's coming from an empowered place, I try not to ascribe to a lot of the dialogue around the statistics because for me personally, it doesn't make me feel good to then want to go out and do the thing that I love.”
Embracing Her ‘Superpower’
“I don't want someone to love me off of a false narrative I've created of something that I'm not,”
Gonzalez then went on to recall a moment right at the beginning of her career when she shaved her head. “People will look at me like, ‘Oh my god now you really got more s— against you, you’re a woman, you’re Brown, you’re short, you’re thick, and you shaved your head?’” But, despite the pushback, Gonzalez owned being fearlessly herself. “I don't want someone to love me off of a false narrative I've created of something that I'm not,” she says.
So how does Gonzalez see her identity through her work? “In acting they say ‘Set it and forget it’, you learn all your words, you get them down, and you have an idea of how you'd like for it to go, but you get there on set and you just throw it all away and be ready to play,” she says. “If I'm continuing to follow some f—-- rules that were set back then, I'm not going to have no fun.”
“At the end of the day whether the casting director says yes or no, I still gotta live with myself,” she says.
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matthew shouse / butter la
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