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Cover
Story
Ana enchanted
For Mexico’s screen goddess Ana de la
Reguera, the future holds magic. With new projects on the horizon,
she holds the power to reinvent her image internationally.
By Marissa Rodriguez
It’s a busy Manhattan afternoon in May and Ana
de la Reguera is taking a break from her hectic schedule. On this
day, she has just finished screen tests for a new movie scheduled
to begin shooting in a couple of weeks. The next day sees her first
session of table reads with the cast and director. Tomorrow is her
big day.
“It’s a Kevin Smith film with Bruce Willis and Tracy
Morgan in the cast,” says de la Reguera. “It’s
a comedy. Actually, it’s going to be my second big Hollywood
film, and with another great director. So it’s funny that
I have been cast in this type of film. I love comedy—it’s
one of my favorite genres—but I don’t get picked.”
That might seem surprising to anyone who knows of de la Reguera.
At a mere 32 years old, the Mexican beauty has had an enviable career
that today has made her one of her country’s most sought-after
actresses and most important cinematic exports. In Mexico, Latin
America and the Hispanic world, her striking dark features have
become common fixtures on TV, film and magazine covers, and hers
is a household name.
Her long-running fame, model good looks and much-followed relationship
with Univision anchor Jorge Ramos have made her a favorite of gossip
rags and tabloids. She’s hosted the MTV Video Music Awards
with rock band Molotov. She also is an international spokesperson
for Pantene hair care products and Cover Girl cosmetics, alongside
the likes of Queen Latifah and Drew Barrymore.
In the beginning her career began as many in the Mexican film industry
do—as a star in telenovelas. At 19, de la Reguera landed her
breakthrough role in the serial Pueblo Chico, Infierno Grande, which
in English means “Small Town, Big Hell.”
“I won a best new actress [award] and that’s when people
started knowing me,” she says of her 1997 Heraldo Award, which
would be comparable to a primetime Emmy in the U.S., a coup for
someone still in their teens.
As an actress, she recognized her love of performing at childhood
dance classes and moved to Mexico City from her native Veracruz
to attend acting school. Since her discovery, she has starred in
close to a couple dozen films, television series and projects.
After finding success in the telenovela world, she found a new niche
in unique, if smaller, films. Among them were such dramatic notables
as Por la libre and Un secreto de Esperanza, both favorites at international
film festivals, and Así del precipicio, a hard look at posh
Mexico City party people, for which she won a Diosa de Plata, a
Mexican film award, for best actress. De la Reguera has been fortunate
that, despite looks that might have kept her typecast as a romantic
lead, she often snags the roles of complicated female characters.
“I think what worked for me is that I didn’t keep doing
the same thing,” she says. “First [I was with Mexican
television giant] Televisa and then another company doing experimental
things in film and theater. So I got a chance to work with different
actors all over. Working in films from a young age, I got the chance
to be open and not get stuck in the same type of role. I got the
opportunity to see a lot and to think that I wanted to do everything.
I don’t want people to think of me as a type of actress that
just does comedies or telenovelas or serious films.”
This summer brings the U.S. premiere of another such film: Paraiso
Travel. A winner in several top film festivals, the movie is a gritty
immigration drama that follows Reina and Marlon from their hometown
in Colombia through a horrific journey crossing Central America
and Mexico into the United States, illegally landing the young couple
in New York City. After suffering at the hands of unscrupulous traffickers,
enduring an exhausting and dangerous trek and ultimately making
their final stop in an unwelcoming city, the couple accidentally
loose each other in the 8-million plus metropolis. De la Reguera,
one of two big internationally known names in the film (the other
is John Leguizamo) is Milagros, one of the film’s sympathetic
characters who gives comfort to Marlon once he becomes separated
from Reina.
“She is a wanna-be salsa singer and she has a little record
store in the streets of Queens,” says de la Reguera of her
role, for which she prepared by taking salsa dancing and singing
lessons. “I think she is a very happy, open, nice girl. She’s
like sunshine; that’s how I see her. She comes from a very
poor family, but is happy with herself and with what she wants.”
Playing Milagros, she says, was the closest she has come to playing
herself—she’s a performer, relaxed and a do-gooder.
Indeed, during her interview with Hispanic, de la Reguera seems
happy to share and contentedly answers questions.
In the film, after the torture Marlon encountered in his travels—having
waded through river rapids, being held at gunpoint by men who descend
upon weary migrants like predators to prey, and ultimately living
on the streets of Queens—the appearance of Milagros in the
film is like a much needed warm blanket. At last, with her, Marlon
has a comforting ally.
Because of Paraiso Travel’s raw take on the realities of illegal
immigration and of its perspective highlighting the immigrant’s
point of view, the film has found acclaim within Latino cinema circles,
from critics on both sides of the border and from international
audiences.
In Colombia, where the film premiered in the Spring of 2008, it
broke box office records.
But for de la Reguera, as for many others, the film was always a
love story. There have been a lot of movies about immigration, she
says, but this one is about the journey of the characters.
Another of her projects is the film El Traspatio, which means The
Backyard in English. In true de la Reguera fashion, it’s a
difficult film with complex characters woven around a ripped-from-the-headlines
back story. Directed by Carlos Carrera, who also directed El Crimen
de Padre Amaro starring Gael García Bernal, Traspatio focuses
on the killings of young women along the El Paso-Juarez border.
De la Reguera portrays Blanca Bravo, a cop who becomes consumed
with the murders and discovering the killers and the reasons behind
the hundreds of slayings. Playing Blanca, she says, was a challenge
and opportunity because the character was so distinctly different
from herself.
The film, the first fictional studio movie to address the issue,
premiered in Mexico in February of this year and opened the gates
for critical discourse. Not only did the film tackle the horrific
slayings, it did so from a feminine perspective and did not shirk
the themes of corruption and sexism among politicians and law enforcement
officials.
“I think its very well-written film with an amazing director,”
de la Reguera says. “But, it’s a topic that people want
to forget. It’s hard to sell this movie, because people don’t
want to be reminded that this happens. People think they know what’s
going on. But its still going on and men are killing women because
they are women. It was an important film to do.”
Her roles jump from law enforcer to law breaker in the HBO Latino
series Capadocia, about a women’s prison. Often described
as a feminine Mexican version of the HBO show Oz, the prison merely
serves as the backdrop for this character-driven drama. Although
graphic and sober, storylines and roles are multi-dimensional.
De la Reguera’s character, Lorena Guerra, for example, was
the picture of suburban bliss. A successful pharmacist with seemingly
perfect marriage and a young son, her life crumbles when one day
she encounters her husband in bed with her best friend. A tussle
ensues and the friend falls down the stairs to her death, and Lorena’s
life in Capadocia begins.
Her participation in the series lent her a sense of sympathy for
people who find themselves in jail, she says. “Sometimes it
[comes down to making] hard choices. They are in a very complex
moment of their life and sometimes they go to the wrong way.”
It seems her career path has now reached an interesting new fork.
Down one path are the harder stories she’s known to tackle
in the Latin American world—seedy, tough roles that require
near total abandon into the character. Down the other, is a world
of new opportunities as the comedic “It” girl in quirky
American comedies.
It’s a process that began with her 2006 role in the Jack Black
comedy Nacho Libre, about a well-intentioned Mexican monk who hopes
to earn money for to feed the monastery’s orphans by winning
wrestling competitions. De la Reguera is Sister Encarnación,
the very pious object of Nacho’s affections. The role, which
provided her a great opportunity to test her screen heft against
Black’s sometimes overwhelming presence, introduced her to
most American moviegoers.
If Nacho Libre propelled her to American comedies, will her sophomore
effort in Kevin Smith’s A Couple of Dicks cement her place
in the comedy world? Only the future knows for sure. At this time,
de la Reguera is looking forward to taking a break from the tragedy
and melodrama of her recent works and the chance to act out.
“You get tired of dramas and then you seek out comedy, or
you want to do something different,” she says.
“Maybe it’s the language, maybe I feel more free in
English. Actually a couple of months ago, I went to an audition
and they told me I was too funny for the part. But I would love
to do more comedies.”
For an actress who has played types across the board, it seems fitting
to ask the timeless theater question: which is harder drama or comedy?
Not only that, but what do you like better?
Her answer is revealing, and perhaps sheds light on her new experimental
choices.
“I like everything,” she says. “I think a comedy
is harder. You don’t know what will make you laugh, but you
know what will make you cry.”
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