Question (Q): Both of you have backgrounds in soap operas in Mexico, and in independent films, and this is more mainstream. Was it difficult to work with Will, a Hollywood actor, since he is so over-the-top and crazy?
Gael Garcia Bernal (GGB): You called this mainstream comedy, and this isn’t mainstream. Films are films. It’s a lot of objectives to pigeonhole films. I think it’s a film first, and then you can add the other objectives to it. If it’s good, it doesn’t matter how much money it has, or the language it’s in.
Working with Will is no different than working with any other great actor from anywhere else in the world, in any language. He’s a great, fantastic, intelligent person.
For me, English is my second language, so I have problems improvising in English. Will had a few little problems, but he had to go for it. He had to be in the rhythm of the conversation in Spanish. So it was nice to finally see someone suffering what you go through.
Genesis Rodriguez (GR): That’s a good point, Gael. He was very sneaky, and would ask, why is this feminine, and why is this masculine? He would ask, is this a transitive verb? You would be like, wow, he really wants to learn our language, this is special, he loves us. No. It was all so he could improvise. (laughs)
Q: Did he have that stare that he gives often that gets laughs, even if he’s not saying anything?
GR: That stare, it was really hard not to laugh at him. Then he’s so frustrated with the language, so it just made it funnier. I think I got the hardest one, because they got to be funny, and I was super-serious.
Q: There are scenes where you’re crying, and there are funny things going on around you. How were you not laughing? How did you handle that?
GR: I had to talk to myself, and say, what am I going to eat later? I wonder how my grandmother’s doing. This is not funny, and I would ju say that in my head. I had to convince myself that it wasn’t funny.
Q: Due to your training, were you able to help Will with the exaggeration of the telenovela?
GR: Dramatic pauses are my thing, so he kind of caught on to what I do. I tried to teach him how to cry on the spot. He couldn’t get it, he needs to get into telenovelas.
GGB: But he’s making good efforts.
GR: I think you should watch out. He’s coming for your job.
GGB: I really don’t have those jobs anymore. He’s more into the 20-year niche that he’s got going on.
Q: What is it about telenovelas that people who aren’t familiar with them may find them interesting?
GGB: I think melodrama spans genres everywhere, in soap operas in the United States as well. Telenovleas are the branding that the high-style drama has acquired. But in this film, we do even more absurd things than what happens in telenovelas.