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Hollywood and Paz

With no fewer than six movies coming out through 2009, a move to L.A. and a booming fan base, the marvelous Ms. Vega is taking Tinseltown by storm.

Paz Vega considers herself fortunate when it comes to not only finding work but also variety in tough-to-crack Hollywood. Since bursting onto the U.S. film scene in 2004 in acclaimed writer/director James Brooks’
comedic-drama Spanglish, this Spanish stunner hasn’t found herself—much to her relief—pigeonholed into the quintessential parts often relegated to Hispanic actresses.
“I’m very lucky. The directors that call me offer me very different roles. I can work with my accent,” explains Vega. “The characters that I take on, it’s not just about a beautiful picture. It’s very important to have soul, passion, hate, everything that comes from inside.”
Vega spoke to Hispanic by phone after wrapping a day of shooting in her native Spain, where she is putting her words into action. The talented beauty is starring in Bosnian filmmaker, Danis Tanovic’s
Triage, a dark drama about a war photojournalist who has returned from a perilous assignment in Kurdistan. Vega plays opposite Colin Farrell and British veteran actor Christopher Lee. Her character, Elena, a United Nations refugee program coordinator, must unravel the secrets behind what is physically and psychologically destroying her boyfriend.
“It’s very heavy, very deep,” says Vega of the feature. “It’s all about character. We play with very difficult emotions.”
Triage is sure to be a gripping tale with Tanovic directing from his own screenplay adaptation of Scott Anderson’s novel of the same name. In 2002, Tanovic won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language film for his war piece, No Man’s Land.
Vega’s repertoire does not end there. Audiences will get to see her illuminate the silver screen in at least a half-dozen films in 2008 and 2009, in which she will take on playing everything from a Mexican consular official in El Camino Del Diablo (The Devil’s Highway) to one of several wives in The Six Wives of Henry Lefay, to a murderous French nightclub dancer in the highly-anticipated The Spirit by Frank Miller of Sin City and 300 fame. The Spirit was a comic-book character created by writer-artist Will Eisner in 1940. Vega will portray Plaster of Paris.
“This is what I like, to play different faces, different women,” Vega says. “This is the most beautiful part of my profession. It’s exciting to do today a comedy, tomorrow a drama, and the day after that an action film.”
Although Vega says she is excited about the releases of all her upcoming films, she talks at length about the demanding turns required of her in the Dror Soref thriller, Not Forgotten, in which she plays a mother confronting her past to save her missing daughter, and of the relationship-drama, The Human Contract, written and directed by actress/musician Jada Pinkett Smith and which Vega calls “a pressing movie about different ways to see love.”
“A challenge is important to me,” Vega stresses. “I don’t like to feel comfortable in one thing.”
Her colleagues confirm her versatile and intrepid nature.
“I am very lucky as a first-time director to have had the opportunity to work with as giving of an artist as Paz,” says Pinkett Smith. “She took on this very complex role with fearlessness and tenacity, in a second language mind you. I know people do it all the time, but it is amazing to watch. She never stopped surprising me with the amount of range she has in that tiny body of hers. She was an absolute joy to work with.”
Indeed, it is noteworthy that less than five years ago, Vega did not speak a word of English when she made her Hollywood debut in Spanglish, requiring phonetics and the use of an interpreter on set, she says.
Perhaps that’s what made Vega a natural for the part of Flor, a Mexican single mother who heads to Los Angeles and finds work as a housekeeper for an American family so that her daughter can have a better life. Along the way, her character becomes entangled in a sticky romance. Vega was a standout among Hollywood veterans Adam Sandler, Tea Leoni and Cloris Leachman.
“It was very difficult,” Vega says of the language barrier. “I didn’t even know how to respond to ‘Hello. How are you?’ ”

HIGHWAY TO HOLLYWOOD
Paz Campos Trigo was born on January 2, 1976 in Seville, the capital city of Andalucia that in many ways is the artistic and cultural cradle of southern Spain. She was raised in Triana, a famous district considered to be the birthplace of bullfighters and folkloric singers.
“It’s a very special place,” says Vega, 32, who took her grandmother’s surname for the stage. “I grew up around poets, writers, artists. My neighborhood was very bohemian.”
Vega’s father was a bullfighter and her sister a flamenco dancer and singer who is now preparing an album stateside, she says. For Vega, having a father who fought bulls for a living was the norm.
“It’s part of my life,” she says. “Thank God I never saw him in a bad situation.”
Clearly, artistry flowed not only from Vega’s blood but her environment. So it would come as no surprise when at the age of 15, after seeing a performance of La Casa de Bernarda Alba, by famed Spanish poet and dramatist Federico García Lorca, that Vega found her true calling as an actress.
She honed her craft after she was accepted into the prestigious Centro Andaluz de Teatro. There, she studied for two years and also took up journalism for another two years. At the age of 20, Vega ventured to Madrid in search of her dream, and within a short period landed her first role on the Spanish television comedy series, Menudo es mi padre.
“I never looked back,” she says.
She worked on two other TV series before scoring a lead on the big screen in 1999 in the film, Zapping, by Juan Manuel Chumilla. That same year, she also garnered major attention in 7 Vidas, a popular sitcom inspired by the wildly triumphant U.S. television series, Friends.
The show made Vega a household darling. Her growing reputation caught the attention of director Julio Medem, who wanted her to star in his film, Lucía y el sexo or Sex and Lucia. In this complex and erotic love story, Vega played Lucía, a waitress who loses her boyfriend and travels to an island to discover the mysteries of her past relationship.
Lucía y el sexo hit theaters in 2001 and was an international success. Vega won the coveted Goya award—the Spanish equivalent of an Oscar—for Best New Actress in 2002.
“It was very exciting,” she says of the honor. “But while it was important for me, I was more happy to receive this for my family.”
Following Lucía y el sexo, Vega quit television to focus on her movie career. Shortly thereafter, Spain’s most celebrated director Pedro Almodóvar cast her in his Academy award-winning picture, Talk to Her. She later took on several other Spanish films, including starring as the eponymous gypsy in Vicente Aranda’s Carmen.
With her reputation solidified in Europe, it didn’t take long for Hollywood to take
notice. Following her critically acclaimed performance in Spanglish, Vega again brandished her acting muscle opposite Morgan Freeman in 10 Items or Less, and in the 1940s-era murder mystery Fade to Black, with Danny Huston and Christopher Walken.
While comparisons are often made between her and the other Spanish starlet,
Penélope Cruz, it is becoming more and more apparent that Vega is blazing her own trail. Vega notes that the comparisons are more of an American tendency, and that Spanish moviegoers recognize the distinctions between the two stars.
“We are very different women with different paths” she says. “But if they want to compare, I don’t mind.”

FEELING AT HOME
Now that Vega has some experience working in American cinema, she refers to Hollywood as the “perfect machine.”
“Many times I’m asked ‘What is the difference between working in Europe and Hollywood?’ And my answer is that for entertainment, Hollywood knows exactly how to do it. It’s the best industry,” she says. “I feel a lot of security working in Hollywood. I know that the movie will be good.”
But it hasn’t been all about making movies for this sultry sensation. While Vega has been making a name for herself in the film capital of the world, she also took on a role that cannot compare to any other. On May 2, 2007, Vega and her husband, Venezuelan businessman Orson Salazar, welcomed their first child, Orson, into the world. Vega met her husband while on vacation in Spain, she says.
“We met, fell in love and married,” she says of her 2002 nuptials. “It was very easy.”
Nowadays, Vega travels with her son to film locations and is with him most of the time, she says.
“Since I had my baby, I did five movies in six months,” she says. “It’s hard, but at the same time he gives me the energy. When I see him, I forget that I’m tired. I play with him. I laugh with him. I go to bed with him. It’s different but it’s beautiful.”
She says a perfect day for her is spending time at the beach with her family, something that she may get to do a little more of soon. Following Triage, which films in both Spain and Ireland, Vega says she plans to take a break to be with her son and husband.
Vega settled in Los Angeles last year, and while she says adjusting to the sprawling city was not easy, she has managed to find her place there.
“I think it’s actually a peaceful and calm city,” she says.
With a name like Paz Vega—which in English translates to peaceful, fertile plains—how could it not be? But even with her move to the U.S. and newfound successes here, Vega has not left Spain behind.
“It’s important to keep to your family and to your roots,” she says.