- Hey, everyone!
Thank you for watching Meet Your Nominee.
I'm so delighted 'cause we have Marina de Tavira here today.
How are you? - Great!
I'm really happy to talk to you.
- Thank you so much for being here.
Congratulations on your nomination.
What was your first reaction
when you found out you were nominated
and that Roma received so many nominations?
- Well, it was quite a surprise.
I really was not expecting to be nominated myself.
I was hoping that Roma could get some nominations,
and I, of course, I was watching,
so, when I heard my name,
it was one of the first categories to be announced,
so I--
- So, you watched the telecast?
- Yeah. Uh-huh. - Okay. Cool.
I went wake up my son for school,
and then went back to my room to watch,
and then I started screaming.
And he came like, "What's happening, what's happening?".
And I'm like, "I got nominated".
And he's like, "What? You mean the film?".
"No, me".
So, he says like,
"Does this mean "I get to skip school?" (laughs)
And, I said, "No".
But it was really, I mean, I'm so grateful.
I never thought that they would
take the time to look at Sofia.
I think it's a character
that doesn't pop out like immediately in the film,
so this-- - It does.
She does. - Well.
Yeah, maybe. - She really does.
- Thank you (laughs)
But, I'm really grateful.
There's no words.
Now, you've said the nominations for Roma,
and specifically with you and Yalitza making history
with both of your nominations,
has been meant so much to Mexico.
Can you talk about that?
- Well, it's crazy.
My phone started to...
That's when I realized that it was true,
when my phone started like to go crazy,
and I said, "No, I'm not confusing reality.
"This really happened."
And then we were in interviews, when I was in Mexico,
and interviews from 7:00 a.m. til 10:00 p.m..
The whole country was talking about that,
all the news,
and also all my fellow actors, friends,
were like really they felt like if it were their own.
- That's so special. - Yeah.
- Now, in joining Roma,
what were your initial conversations with Alfonso like?
I know there wasn't
a script attached. - No.
- What drew you to this project,
and what did you guys talk about?
- Well, it was a long auditioning process,
and I didn't know who the director was going to be
until the end of the process,
and then I met Alfonso
for the last audition,
and then one more time with Yalitza and me together,
and we had a...
And then I had a very long conversation
with Alfonso about his mother.
He told me everything about her,
like
when the children were born,
how was the relationship with his father
when Libo, the real Cleo, entered their lives,
and what that meant to the family
that they actually went and lived with Sofia's mother.
Well, Cristina's mother.
That's the house where the story takes place.
It's the grandma's house.
He told me all the story,
and then he stopped just at the moment
where we going to start filming,
and we did this in chronological order,
so he didn't say any more.
He just stopped there,
and he told me, "You're having trouble with your husband.
"You know that he may leave.
"You know what's been happening",
and that's where it started.
So, that first scene where Sofia enters the house
just to have lunch with the kids,
she already knows what's going to happen.
- That's before they were writing the letters, right?
She had them writing to-- - Yeah.
- One thing that really like just got to me is
when she told them to write,
"Make sure you say you miss him a lot."
- Yeah.
(sighs) I know.
That scene, that scene, we did it 64 times.
- Oh my gosh. - Yeah.
It's a long take.
One take-- - Yeah.
- long.
And he kept like changing things
like making the kids do different things,
and I had to control them.
I knew what I had to say,
but I was also dealing with unexpected things
that they would do.
And, yes, and also, she has this strong, strong emotion,
but it's always pulled down.
I remember in that scene that he would tell me
when it came to the surface, the pain,
he would send me to the room,
to Sofia's room upstairs,
because it was a house, the actual house,
and he would say, "Cry it all out,
"and then come back.",
because she would never allow herself
to show her children-- - To show it.
She would go up.
- What she's going.
Yeah. Uh-huh. (chuckles)
- What, I guess, was the biggest takeaway
for you from this film?
I mean, it's impacted so many people.
It's so powerful.
What has stuck with you through this award season
and talking about it,
and what has really stuck with you?
- Well, I'm really surprised the way
that people have been relating to the film.
I can relate to it very much because it's Mexico,
because my family's story is very much like Alfonso's story,
my mom went through the same process as Sofia and Cristina,
but I never thought that people all around the world
will feel the same,
and that's been beautiful.
People come to us and say, "Oh, you remind me of my mother,"
or, "of my grandmother".
"I remember this from my childhood."
I think we all are grateful when we can relive things
that we thought they were gone forever.
- Now, you've been acting for awhile,
but your co-star Yalitza has going to been thrown into this
as her first acting role.
What advice have you given her?
- Well, none actually.
I mean, she's great.
She really embraced the character
from the very first day with great conviction,
so, for me, she was always Cleo.
We really didn't talk about acting or anything like that,
because Alfonso didn't want that kind of process.
He even worked with me a lot
not to be working with a certain technique
or actress technique.
He would just say, "This is different.
"You really have to just surrender yourself
"to the character and to what's happening
"without thinking I'm going to do this,
"or in an intellectual kind of way."
- Yeah.
I mean, when you first met her though,
what we're those conversations like with her,
about this project. - Oh, we would
just talk about life. - Life, yeah.
- Life, like the first conversation was about her nephew.
She just had...
She was there sitting for the first time in Mexico City,
she came from Oaxaca, she was a little bit like,
"I really don't know what I'm doing here, but I'm here."
We were left alone for quite awhile,
and I just asked her about her family.
How many brothers do you have?
How many sisters?
And she said, "I have a nephew, and I really miss him,
"and I want to go back and see him."
That's what we talked about.
- That's so sweet.
Now, both of you have so much to celebrate
when the Oscars airs on Sunday.
Who have you met that has really stuck out to you
during this whole process.
- Woo, the list is enormous.
- [Interviewer] We got time.
- I know. (laughs)
Wow!
I've met actresses I admire from, obviously, Glenn Close,
Cate Blanchett, I met her in Venice,
all my fellow nominees, which are fantastic.
- Did they have a reaction to your role and to Roma?
Did they say anything?
- Well, I haven't had a chance to talk to them a lot.
I got a chance to talk with Rachel
in the Oscar nominees' luncheon,
and she said she really didn't recognize me first,
because in the film we're wearing no makeup
and it's black and white,
and Sofia is all
she's going through a lot.
She said, "Oh, my god, it's you.
"I didn't recognize you.
"I mean I saw the film."
But, she's lovely.
- Another fun Oscars question for you.
Obviously, the show is going to be host-less this year.
Who, if you could pick a host,
would you have wanted to see on that stage?
- Melissa McCarthy.
- [Interviewer] Okay. (Marina laughs)
- Did you see Can You Ever Forgive Me?
- Oh, my god, we were talking about that
just on my way here.
What she did is amazing.
She really built a character
that you really can feel compassionate about her,
but sometimes you hate her,
but sometimes you...
I mean, the way she portrays her pain and her loneliness.
So beautiful.
- What are you looking forward to most about the telecast.
- What can I say, it's (signs) just a dream
I didn't even dare to dream.
- Now, speaking of your seat and sitting in the audience
and with the film of Roma.
If you could choose your seat at Oscars though,
who would you want to sit next to?
Anyone.
- Well, Alfonso, Alfonso,
because he's the one-- - Besides Alfonso.
- He's the one that brought me there.
It's his fault, that's what I told him.
"What have you done to my life?" (laughs)
Yeah.
Wow!
- Who would you want to dance with
at the after parties on the Oscars night?
- Mmm.
That's a question.
Richard E. Grant.
- Okay. (Marina laughs)
Do you think he's a good dancer?
- I think he is really charming.
- Now, upcoming for you, you have a play
through your theater production company.
Can you go ahead and talk about that
and what else we can expect from you coming up?
- Well, I have to go back to Mexico,
because I have a theater company,
and I have a play that I'm going back to that play.
It's called Skylight.
It's by David Hare, a British author.
I think it was here in New York done by Carey Mulligan.
And, I'm going to go back to do it,
and then I really maybe would like to live here.
It's a nice city to live. - Oh, really? Yeah.
- Yeah. - Make a move.
- Yeah, everybody's been so nice and welcoming with us,
so I don't know. (chuckles)
- I can't wait to watch you on Oscars night.
Thank you so much being here. - Thank you. Thank you.