In the new Boots Riley movie I love the boostersEiza González plays a cashier who works as an expert in dialectical materialism. She dresses like a goth, constantly vapes and delves into Reddit. But for Gonzalez, the most radical thing about this role is acting alongside a group of women for the first time. “It’s always five guys and then me,” she says of her career. “I always wondered why I chose things like that.”
But Gonzalez, 36, is working on a theory. I’ve found that work tends to give women two windows: “One is: ‘We don’t really know who you are,’ and then they say: ‘This is all you are.'”
During her first window, she was a child star. González grew up in Mexico City and began her work on children’s series at the age of sixteen Lola, wipe once Before he starred in the Nickelodeon teen sitcom Together with you. She moved to Los Angeles in 2013 and toiled through auditions until she finally met acting legend Francine Maisler, who was searching for an actress to play opposite Jon Hamm in an Edgar Wright film. Child driver. “I was competing against a lot of big names. But she fought for me and said, ‘There’s a random girl from Mexico that I think you should hire.’”
Child driver It was her breakthrough – and the beginning of her second window, in which she was cast as the token woman. Not that it was all bad; I’ve thoroughly enjoyed action films alongside the likes of Jake Gyllenhaal, Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham and have scored three Guy Ritchie films – and counting. But she found ways to build more of her characters’ inner lives whenever possible, starting from then on Child driver. “I had the idea that she had a childish, free spirit, and that came with her obsession with things like lollipops and gum,” she says. “We were about to start the last wide shot, and I said, ‘Can I try it with the bubbles this time?’ Edgar was like, ‘They’re planning a robbery, but okay, sure.’ And he let me do it, and then he loved it.”
But she still wants to be challenged in new ways. A few years ago, when I heard about the Netflix adaptation of the extraterrestrial thriller 3 Body problem from game of thrones Creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, threw herself into the audition process and was shocked when she got the role of troubled nanotech expert Augie Salazar. “No one would think of me playing a physicist, but Dan and Dave saw something in me.”
When I read the script for… I love the boosters – Riley’s surreal portrait of a group of thieves targeting an evil fashion mogul – she no longer needs to prove herself. Gonzalez had a long Zoom meeting with Reilly, during which the director, known for his assertive activism, asked questions about her stance on political and social issues. “I remember hanging up and saying to myself, ‘I need to be a better citizen,’” she says with a laugh. “As a Mexican woman, if I’m driving my car or something like that, there are privileges that I don’t have, and I have to be hypervigilant — but I also have what most people don’t have, which is the ability to talk about it.”
This time, it was Riley who was outnumbered in the group. In addition to the cast (Keke Palmer, Naomi Ackie, Taylor Paige, Bobby Liu and Demi Moore). Reinforcement She was the director of photography. Gonzalez describes the Atlanta production as a “sisterhood” that revolves around discussing their shared experiences as women of color in Hollywood. “It was like looking in a mirror,” she says. “It was interesting to see how each person approached the more difficult parts of this work differently.”
Next, Gonzalez plans to keep the momentum going, as she recently wrapped the second season of the series 3 Body problemwhich delves into the theory that extraterrestrial life exists in abundance throughout the universe. “It’s heavy, but honestly, I’m more afraid of what’s actually happening,” she says. “I find AI dangerous.” She is about to star in a female bodybuilding drama Iron Janewhich she describes as I’m Tonya meet A monster meet Requiem for a Dream. Gonzalez has also been training with Grant Roberts, the coach behind Hilary Swank’s transformation Million dollar baby And Sidney Sweeney’s Christy – an experience she describes as “rewiring.”
But she says she doesn’t want to be serious all the time. “I’ve never done romance, I’m a hopeless romantic and I’ve always wanted to do it,” she says. “My girlfriends always point out that I act in these movies with actors like Jake or Henry, and I never get to kiss them.”
This story appeared in the May 20 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
