Pop Culture Planet Podcast: Isabella Gomez Talks Royal Rendezvous and Uplifting Latinas In Hollywood
We’re back!!!! We’re kicking off the fourth season of the Pop Culture Planet podcast with our host Kristen Maldonado in an in-depth conversation with actress Isabella Gomez. They talk about what she learned on One Day At A Time, her new film Royal Rendezvous (catch it on Sunday, February 26 on E!), the Latina community in Hollywood, and so much more.
Episode Quotes
Isabella Gomez on filming her first rom-com: “It was a freaking dream. I grew up on rom-coms and had always been like, ‘I want to be the girl!’ Just getting to do a rom-com was a dream but then you're in Ireland and filming in not one but several castles and they're gorgeous and have so much history and the accents are beautiful and everybody's so good. I had the time of my life!”
Gomez on her first intimate scene on screen: “This was my first time doing anything that required an intimacy coordinator. I'm mostly doing sitcoms so never had I had to get into my underwear in front of a camera and so I was nervous going into it but we had the most incredible intimacy coordinator. She held my hand through it and made it actually so much fun. It was one of my favorite days of filming.”
Gomez on taking on more mature roles: “I have a baby face. I just turned 25. I play really young. I've always played young and so I've been very lucky that I've had time to really come into my own as an adult before I had to play one on TV. I feel ready and I feel excited […] that the industry is starting to see me in that light. I'm sure I'll play 15 for a while longer. I'll be CW 15 forever, but it's nice to get to do some other stuff.”
Gomez on being a powerful Latina: “It's my favorite thing about me, I think. I love it. I grew up in Colombia, born and raised. I was there until I was 10 and I feel so connected to my roots my parents. I speak Spanish mostly with my dad. My dad won't answer me if I speak in English, which, when I was 10, I thought it was the most annoying thing in the world. Now I'm like, oh thank God, I'm fully bilingual thanks to him. In my household there's always Reggaeton going on, there's always salsa, and all that kind of stuff. I love the food. I think Latinos are rad and I feel very lucky to be Colombian.”
Gomez on her love of acting: “It's so cliche but I am one of those people that it's like this is what I meant to do and it is my one true love. I am the best version of myself on a set.”
Gomez on not letting haters get you down: “Not everybody will believe in you, not everybody will like you. Art is subjective and that is just something that we have to get comfortable with. It was one of my first times dealing with rejection in that way. […] It sure gave me some tough skin… and she can catch my movie on Sunday.”
Gomez on when she first felt represented on screen: “When I grew up in Colombia everything was dubbed into Spanish and people looked like me. I'm very light and so I didn't really understand why representation mattered until I saw Jane the Virgin. I was like, “Oh my God, these people sound and behave and have quirks like my people!”
Gomez on how One Day At A Time changed her life: “I was very, very lucky to have made the first season in a bubble because I was so ignorant to not only what Latinx representation would mean but the LGBTQ representation. It changed my world. It made me into a better person. My empathy levels have gone up so much because of Elena and my understanding of what people go through and my understanding of my own privilege. I's been a journey and now it continues to be.”
Gomez on how auditions have changed for her: “Before I was on One Day At A Time people kind of assumed that I was white and so my auditions looked very different. Now that I am very outspokenly Latina — and especially during the run of One Day At A Time where I was very politically active and very involved in that world — auditions look different. People treat me different and it is what it is. It’s unfortunate.”
Gomez on Latinos needing to support each other: “I do see our industry taking steps forward and, more than anything, I see the Latinx community learning that the first thing we have to do is support each other. I think everything starts within. We talk a lot about the Black community and the way that they have catapulted themselves into stardom because they support each other and ride hard for each other no matter what. It is so beautiful to see and Latinos have a little bit of a harder time supporting each other.”
Gomez on the struggle of the middle class actor: “I have my boundaries around what kind of Latinx characters I'm willing to play. […] I'm very fortunate right now to be able to make that choice, but we can't hold everybody accountable in that way in the sense of acting as a job. The middle class actor is a dying breed. It is really hard to support yourself from this business. So if Latinos have to take roles where they're drug addicts or bad people or abusive or whatever, sometimes we have to because that's what's being written for us.”
Gomez on taking on “unapologetically Latina” roles: “If I'm gonna play a Latinx role, I want her to be nuanced and layered. I want her to have something to say and, if she is in one of those situations that's a little bit more stereotypical, than what's different about that story? Why are we making it? Why is this what we're making and what do we have to say and how are we going to create a story that paints us in a light where we're humanized? I think about it obsessively and I do go back to producers and directors a lot and be like, ‘I won't be saying that on camera so let's talk about how we can change it.’ I'm very lucky to have been around creatives that were very receptive to that.”
Gomez on the strong Latina women who guided her in the industry: “Gloria [Calderón-Kellett] is the best and I love her. It was Gloria and Justina Machado and Rita Moreno that really taught me how to hold my own and how to handle myself on a set in a way where I am respectful and all of that, but still very much like here's where I'm at and here's what I need.”
Gomez on returning to acting with another Gloria Calderón-Kellett project in With Love: “Working with Glo again is a dream. She is truly my family. We text all the time. I see her as much as I can. I hadn’t worked in a really long time. Nine months. […] I had been a series regular since I was 18 all the way till then. Then crickets for almost a year. It kind of shook me up and and rocked my world. There was a lot of therapy and a lot of figuring out who I am. So then being able to come back to set after all of that internal work to Gloria and to the kind of sets that she creates because she creates families. Being embraced immediately and being with all these Latinos that were happy to be there and excited to do this job and so willing and able to open their arms to me was exactly the kind of gentleness I needed.”
Gomez on uplifting Latina in Hollywood: “We need to be better about involving more Latinas in the industry and getting more people in and making sure we're reaching down and bringing everybody up with us. That's the goal.”
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Hosted by TV and film critic Kristen Maldonado, Pop Culture Planet is a video podcast featuring analytical pop culture discussions and interviews with diverse voices in the entertainment space. Watch episodes on youtube.com/kaymaldo or listen on your favorite podcast platforms, from Spotify to Apple Podcasts and beyond.
