Noemí González Talks Latino Comunidad and Working With The Late Carmen Salinas In Hulu’s The Valet
Never judge a couple by their cover…
Hulu’s new film The Valet follows a movie star (Samara Weaving) who faces a PR disaster when a paparazzi snaps a photos of her with her married lover (Max Greenfield). A hard-working valet Antonio (Eugenio Derbez) is also captured in the photo and is enlisted as her cover up. I spoke with Selena: The Series star Noemí González about joining the stacked cast as Antonio’s sister Clara.
“I'm happy to be playing Eugenio's sister Clara and being that sister that always has his back and makes sure that he's taking good care of himself,” Gonzélez shared with me. “[She’s] the family woman and [the] sardonic, sarcastic sister while we go through this journey with Eugenio.”
While Clara is supporting Antonio, we’re also rooting for him and what he represents. “We root for the little guy and it's definitely a story about family [and] those guys that don't often get noticed that do a lot of work,” she said. “I hope people feel seen. I hope people feel that they are valued. I hope people feel that we’re rooting for them and that there are people out there that do wish to connect and look at you in the eye when they hand you keys or a coffee drink or just have a pleasant rapport.”
The Valet makes Antonio’s Latino community a safe space for Samara Weaving’s movie star Olivia. That energy came across behind the scenes too. “It was really beautiful to be on set and to see such a mix of true diversity of people,” said González. “[It was a] true connection of us getting along together through the work and being professionals. When the cameras were off, not only having those moments in character, but having them actress to actress, actor [to] actress, [from] Mr. Kim to Carmen Salinas to Samara [Weaving].”
González shared what she learned working with this cast on set. “Every experience you learn something new, but especially when there's so many legends on set, for sure,” she said. “You immediately felt this lightness while you're doing the work and knew that a legend was there making everyone laugh and making the work move on smoothly.”
One legend, in particular, being the late Carmen Salinas. “This project has such a special such a special place in my heart,” González shared with me. “It was the last film before Carmen Salinas has passed and she's such a grandma to everyone in the Latino community that grew up with her.”
She highlights how important it is to remember the power marginalized communities have to make a difference. “Continue to support Latino shows, Latino movies, [and] not just Latino, [but] people of color content so that the industry can see how much people thoroughly enjoy these films. Latinos are the number one ticket buyer in any demographic so it's important for that to be. We really want to see our stories be told and, not just our own. Here we have a Korean family joining us as well,” said González. “It's really nice to see the mix of people all tell a beautiful story. That it can be done and it can be favorable.”
Finding projects the show Latinos in a positive light is very important for González. “I definitely look for that and I definitely have a pride of being Mexicana, Mexican American, and Chicana and making sure that my projects would definitely reflect that pride. I'm thankful it does seem like there's a lot more content than before,” she opened up. “There's still work to be done, but I'm very thankful based off of the work that I've done over the years to have seen a difference between what I was auditioning for before and what I'm booking and auditioning for nowadays. It's gotten much better and it's been beautiful so I want to take a moment of gratitude that we definitely have been in a really great place based off of the evolution of representation [and] the evolution of Latinidad in Hollywood. So yeah really happy to constantly have new stories be told and that they're going to be be heartwarming like this and just get people to see us differently.”
The Valet hits Hulu on May 20.
See our Pop Culture Planet podcast conversation with Noemí González for Selena: The Series, below:
