Eiza Gonzalez
Appearances
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
So I'm diverse enough to get into this college. Well, to me, it started happening when I became an actress in America because they're like, so are we legally able to contractually cast you because... You're not Mexican enough. I did definitely have an identity crisis when I moved here. It did throw me off for a second because I had never really asked these questions myself.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
I was just always glaringly Mexican in my eyes and it was just fine. And so when I came here, people were like, but you're not a Mexican because you don't speak Mexican.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
That's when like, to me, it's so funny when they're like, but your mom's blonde. I'm like, guys. Yeah, it's fine. What are we talking about?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
colors in the world in different countries like it's okay I have an array of friends who are blonde and fully Mexican outside of the fun part of it it definitely made me really anxious when I moved here because my value was really tied to that and I understand now why I think it is a cultural thing I don't know the chicken or the egg of where it started in this place but people feel a responsibility to justify or explain there's dissent and I find that quite interesting psychologically annoying
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
No, because I don't judge the effect of circumstances, but it made me insecure.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
Oh, my God. Exciting. I haven't talked to anyone that has watched it.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
Yeah, because we were talking about your pictures and your paintings. Celebs on sandwiches. I said, wow, who would pick a hot dog as their favorite sandwich? Is that a sandwich? That's the big question. I used to be obsessed with hot dogs.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
That's what it should be. But that's exactly how I feel with artistry. When I was in Mexico, I started in soap operas. We were all Mexican. When we were playing roles, they weren't like, oh, this person needs to be from Germany. They need a German person to hire someone slightly Mexican, slightly white. So this sort of thought of where you're from and what you can play never existed in my head.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
And I worked since I was really young. I started when I was 13, 14. When I moved here, I was 24. So when I got here, I'd be on the first few phone calls with my agents or the first few things that I read, especially when I came here, because it's a night and day since I've moved here. The industry has flipped completely. I'd be like, oh, this is so exciting.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
They're like, yeah, they're looking for more of like a Caucasian. By the way, I didn't even know the word Caucasian. I didn't even understand what that meant. That's when I come to being super self-conscious.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
Yes. My artistry now is limited based on... the piece of land that I was born. And my first play was Greece. I played Rizzo and like the thought in my mind never passed through that I have to be a migrant. So when I started transitioning to the US market, it was really challenging and made me feel really insecure because I felt like my artistry was limited to playing Latin forever.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
At the time when I was playing Latin, it was really stereotypical. It really deflated my spirit because I went into it wanting to play an astronaut or a scientist. And the first few years of my career was really impossible. Even with the blessing that I had, thanks to my parents, which was having very fluent English and speaking other languages. And I don't say it in an, oh, poor me.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
To me was life-changing the moment that Guy Ritchie let me play English. We could argue that there's a million people that could have played it better than me that were English.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
Well, I'm not American, so I would just settle for a regular whatever.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
I grew up watching actors. And I guess in hindsight, white actors, actresses that could play everything. I mean, I remember my mom were watching all the Godfathers. And then it sort of sent us to Scarface and we were watching. And I was like, the world that Al Pacino was playing, like Italian, but then Cuban. And I never thought of it in any capacity.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
And no one said anything. And then somehow I've been in places and roles that if I'm not specific type of Latina, then I'm not even being considered. It's a very complex, nuanced conversation, right? Because you do want to create opportunity. The Native Americans, they don't get enough representation.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
And so I'm always sort of torn because I do want people to get opportunities and get more chances. But I don't want Native Americans just playing Native Americans. I want them to play anyone. It's just...
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
I don't think there was. I just looked up to him with so much admiration. I was daddy's little girl. Good luck future suitors. Yeah, tell me about it. Here we are. But when you have such an amazing father, truly, I don't say that lightly. It was really, really the toughest moment in my life. I just went into complete shock and my mother was really, really suffering.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
I'll have anything from the street. Street food is like everything for me. So anyway, I was obsessed with hot dogs and I'd eat them all the time until my brother, I have a brother who's 12 years older than me and likes to ruin my life. He was like, do you know, it's proven that every single piece of hot dog has human DNA in it. Like there's human flesh. And then she just looked it up.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
I look back at it and it just feels like a, not even real time in my life because it all happened so fast. My mom took me to extracurricular classes to distract me and I went into musical theater and that's where it just clicked. I think about it all the time, being a young child and I sat my mother down and I said, I need to have a very serious conversation. I was 12. I was like, we're done.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
I don't have to continue studying. I'm an actress. She's like, what are you talking about? I'm like, I'm dropping out of school. I'm retiring from school. I'm dropping out and we're full on going into this. And I don't know what type of crack cocaine was she on that she allowed me to do it because she saw me so happy.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
Yeah, I feel so much empathy for my younger self. Not only that, my career was so jarring because I got thrown into it overnight. And I was so young and I was so not mentally, physically prepared. I was a grieving, depressed kid.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
sobbing eating compulsively child with raging anxiety and that was really challenging because you sort of get thrown into this child star perfection what age did you get the first telenovela And it was really overnight.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
Yeah, it was called, original was Floricienta and my remake was called Lola Once Upon a Time. Lola Erase Una Vez.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
Originally, we shot in Mexico, but it was the biggest show in literally history of children out there. And so I got the remake and it was a pretty big deal. It was like a national wide search and they saw thousands. And I got it and I was just so naive about it. My mom wasn't like a stage mom where she wanted me to be famous and people think that because she was a model.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
But my mother never wanted me to be in the business. She just was letting me be. But she never made me self-conscious about my looks, never made me feel pressured. So I was like a very normal 14 year old. I was like a chubby, not polished girl. I was not doing my makeup. I was quite ratty and I was quite of a tomboy because I grew up with boys because my brother is 13 years older than me.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
The shock was really aggressive because overnight they were like, wow, she's so ugly. She's fat. She's not talented. My dad had been passed for less than a year, a year and a half. I was so excited because I loved what I did. It was so earnest. I loved singing. It was the only moment that I felt happy.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
Yeah, it's a machine. And then I would get on the plane right after I would finish on Friday, straight to tour. So I tour Friday, Saturday, Sunday, get back Monday.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
I remember it like it was yesterday. So they did this presentation. They'd been waiting to see who the girl was because it was like a really big show.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
It was the equivalent. I would say like Hannah Montana.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
This major presentation where I came out on a stage and they put me in this crazy dress. I looked insane. And I came out. I didn't really know what I was getting myself into. I was just happy to be there. And the next day, my mom was watching the morning news. And these 40-year-olds were sitting there ripping into me. It's so embarrassing. 40 year old men and women being like, wow, she's so ugly.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
She's fat. Wow. She's not even talented. It was ruthless. Looking back at it, because now we've become so aware of like, you can't talk like this. Not in Mexico. You're talking about like real third world country type of shit. And it was never ending.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
Or talent or smart. And if I'd said something, I was the worst. If I didn't respond, I was conceited.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
I remember when I was 23 and I got a nose job and then they were like, look at her. Now I was insecure. And then I was uglier. And then now I had all this done to myself. And then they would doctor photos and sell them to sell papers. And we didn't have law of defamation of character in Mexico. A president removed it. So you couldn't sue. So you had to like let it go.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
You couldn't fight the magazines. So it haunted me forever. So my life was always sort of terrifying. I moved here escaping that. I didn't even want to cross over to America.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
I'm in Amores Verdaderos, which is another soap opera. It's like the bodyguard. I fall in love with the bodyguard. My mom falls in love simultaneously with the bodyguard.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
No. Oh, my God. This time of my life. This is awful. My life is really like a soap opera. Yeah. It's like life art.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
Like maybe I should make a movie like the disaster artist.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
I should have just cheated with my bodyguard. Very sim. So he was a owner of restaurants and the nightlife kind of guy. It was really funny because it's not funny for him. He's going to hate me for this. I'm so sorry. Doesn't seem like you need to apologize.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
It was the cover of this magazine and they had like little stars covering his private parts. And it's like he has a sex tape, but it's not me.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
In Mexico, you don't know. Again, no defamation. It's wild, wild west. When people complain about the UK press, I'm like, live in Mexico's press for three months. If you survive, I will applaud you. That then makes you like a different type of person. And so he emailed, this was a really funny story. A lot happens, chaos, drama. I don't pick up the phone. I'm screaming.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
And so he thinks that the best idea is to send this email where he CCs my brother, my mother. Oh boy. His whole family.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
You're just in there. You're like one of like 20. You know when you open CC and you're just like, oh no. And the title was like, let me explain or something. To not get into detail, he's like going back and forth about how this sex tape wasn't well-being with me. The comparison was him in his underwear and sending screenshots of the sex tape to my mom.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
I don't even have this underwear anymore. You know that. I don't have that tattoo. He's pointing out tattoos. Oh, shit. And I am just like... What are you?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
So a whole defense, which maybe if I was in that situation, I would have done the same thing. I don't know if I would CC someone's brother with my body naked and photos of before and after, like a selfie of him with his underwear. And my brother just sent me a mess and he said, what's going on? Why do I have photos of this guy naked on my email? And so anyway, I left Mexico. It was so jarring.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
Oh, my God. She's getting self-conscious. I think I did have a deep dive when I figured this whole thing out. And it's a scary percentage. Definitely like a 5% of human flesh, which is pretty high. Hold on, though.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
Did you send nude photos of you to compare to your wife? To Kristen's dad.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
I've said this story before because it's a Phoenix story. And I always bring this to my dad's death. You couldn't think of something more tragic than losing a parent. And my father would have never let me be an actress.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
No, it would never happen. I was convinced that his narrative was my narrative. And I say with all the love because he didn't mean it in a mean way, but he wanted the best for his daughter. And he thought economy, making money, artistry, modeling, acting. It didn't sound like.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
And still, by the way, we're not a lot that are from Mexico that crossed over. And so when I did that, I thought amazing, positive things can happen from horrific situations. And that's kind of been my life. Thanks to that, I moved here. I rented a little bedroom and my mom had the brilliant idea. I'd always wanted to act here, but I never thought it was like a reality.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
I studied in Lee Strasberg and they educated us that you need an agent, you need a manager, you need a lawyer. And I was like, I have no into any of this. And she said to me, I've heard about this thing. It's called IMDB Pro. Have you heard of it? I was like, mom, you need a manager and agent. She's like, no, no, I heard I can put my email under your profile and then we can get auditions.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
I was hiding. I was in depression here after that. I was distraught. My boyfriend, I was a public, real, big, brutal thing. I was already the black sheep in the business. People loved to like really hate me, which was always interesting because I never understood why.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
We like archetypes. And if you're a woman, I think at the time, the way you see me, I come in strong and confident. And I think that the confidence was off-putting. They liked a woman that they would kind of bully.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
But I'm saying that it started with flesh and then I kind of unraveled.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
Which I did, but I think I didn't do it in the way because I always felt like I had to defend myself constantly about something that I hadn't done. And that's how I felt here too for many years. There was this underlying, I always needed, wanted to be here through a man or because I was dating someone. Disregarding my 10-year career in Mexico because for people that was irrelevant.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
When I started dating Josh, they would write, I was using him. And I've always wanted to talk about this publicly, but I've never found where to do it in a safe space. They sort of tied this desperation to me as a Latin woman, like I was coming and wanting to cross over when I had already had a career.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
And funny enough, they would say that I would call or tip off paparazzis when they forget that 99% of the paparazzis and the kitchens and the belays will work the kitchens. Who works at valets?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
Yeah. And I had 10 years of a career in Mexico. I was huge in Mexico. So every time I'd walk into a restaurant or go somewhere, they would call. They knew.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
But because people here didn't know who I was, they were like, who is this weird bitch who came out of nowhere? She's calling the paparazzi. for attention. And it was so crazy because it was a combination of I had no value, but at the same time it was also sort of said in a way that was discriminating of something that I wasn't doing.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
And it stayed for long and it was this sort of sense of the experience of being an immigrant. I wasn't worthy of being here.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
I think that when you're incriminated of something that you're not doing, it always feels that way.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
Because I felt really frustrated how to navigate it because I'm a person that would be like, that's completely fucking untrue. So I don't even care. But at the same time, I was being guided to like not engage into it because you're feeding it. Maybe it wasn't as big, but I felt injustice, complete character assassination of who I am. You're selling someone that I'm not.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
I hate people that get incriminated for things that they didn't do. In criminal justice, when people get wrongly convicted, it boils my blood.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
When they talk about people publicly, it's so triggering for me. It drives me nuts because I've been that person. To add to your point, I worked really hard. I didn't let that define me. And I cried in silence many days to just not let it become who I was because it was really prevalent at the beginning of my career.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
I also was dating and I didn't want to stop my dating life because I was looking for love.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
It was a done deal for me. Look on the surface, though. It's not really my kink.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
No disrespect. I'd be more sad to eat a pig than eat him. I'd be more sad.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
I mean, he looks, I don't know him, but he looks like, if I had to compare it to a little pig who's sitting there just like...
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . a a
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . in P a
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
In our hidden environments, we're disgusting. Yeah. It's true. It's really hard to say. I do think that sometimes animals can be cleaner than humans. They lick their own booty holes.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
So it was pretty wild. I was trying really hard to be cool. I was just like, hi. So like, I'm like you. And I like know everything in a creepy, like probably she could sue me kind of way. I was so uncool.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
Yes. It's easy because she's the nicest person ever. I couldn't stop staring at her. It's only happened to me twice with her and Marion Cotillard when I did a show with her. You're like, how do you look like this?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
Totally. And she was so fun to work with. Really challenging physically. Watered tanks for hours, freezing cold in the air of the UK. And we were laughing all the time. We would always be like joking about it. She has the best humor. Krasinski obviously has the best humor. And it was good vibes all day long. And it was a dream job. And I couldn't believe it.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
It's clean. You ain't cleaning your booty hole as much as... The hell I'm not.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
We shot everywhere. We went to Thailand. Then we went to Vienna. Then we went to Egypt.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
Yeah, but not the water baths. That's how you pay for the trip. But it's cool, though. Like how many times can you say, oh, I was in some weird water tank for hours with Natalie Portman.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
I'll take it. It was an amazing experience. So we have become quite tight with Guy Ritchie.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
Hero, the director, did such an amazing job. And yeah, he called Skarsgård and me. We had already worked together on Godzilla. He was like, would you guys come and play for like a few days? And we want your stereotypical couple of what you would think Mr. and Mrs. Smith is going to be. And then turn it on its head. And it was fun. You think we're going to be in it. And we're like... Dead.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
Hopefully we'll make it back. Maybe it could be a throwback. You never know.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
I don't know Moon. You should watch it. That's incredible. That's a huge reference. And that's someone's kid director, that David Bowie's kid or something?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
So maybe this is a moment to tell you that I've changed my last name. Yes.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
Yeah, I've harvested. Yes, I couldn't be more like her.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
Flying Lotus is an artist. So he's a musical prodigy. He's incredible. He's a producer.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
And I was a humongous fan of his music. And I had seen this insane, crazy movie called Cuso that he did before this. There's really not a plot. It's just a crazy, brutal, gory, insane movie. It feels like you're watching back in the day, late night MTV. Just weird.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
And I was obsessed with him and the script came across my table and I was really yearning for something that was in the horror space, bizarre and creepy. And I like a psychological thriller. This felt really in the vein and he showed me his visuals. I mean, we made that movie for no money.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
No, like in shower. Are you like a full hand clean or you're just like a toss of water into it? No, you got to get in there.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
That's how I describe you're doing a perfect job of just substance in space. Yes. Because when we got this movie was a wild card. Everyone was like, are you sure you want to do this? And I was like, yeah, it's insane. I don't even know what's going to turn out to be because it's like when you think, you know, you don't know. And it gets crazier and it gets crazier.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
I'm willing to take the risk. This is fun. I can see his vision because he had like a very strong point of view. And I trust people that have strong points of view when it comes to creative. In my experience, Edgar Wright, Guy Ritchie, Bob Semeckis, like work with people that have points of views, you're in it. And when the substance sort of took a life of its own, I was like,
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
I'm glad people are open to crazy films and it is slightly camp, but also uncomfortable and weird and dark and brutal. It goes from psychological thriller to really gory, really bloody and back and forth. It's dark. It's a crazy movie.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
She was quite a risk taker, I think, with her choices.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
Thank you. That means a lot because you just nailed it in the head why I picked this role. I've always craved... I guess coming from soap operas, and I talk a lot too, as you can tell. We love talkers. Yeah, I'm a heavy talker. And I fill space... my anxiety with speaking.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
I've always, I think, secretly wanted to experience what that was like to be able to feel comfortable in that space because I don't think that people see me as a type of actress ever because the roles that have flashed into the zeitgeist have been quite the dynamic ones. And I personally like these performances way more. And so I really enjoyed it. And I was really scared.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
And I had come off of a run of doing like three body problem was one of the most challenging jobs I've ever had. Because while everyone was sort of rooted on factual things, I had to be creating this
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
anxiety building moments with like nothing in the show i'm watching numbers coming and i'm becoming suicidal and i'm going through a really hard time where i'm seeing this boat get sliced completely that i never saw so a lot of my performance came to childlike imagination that's a scary place to be as an actor as you know you came from lunch you have a real life you walked over you can't even connect with another actor in the scene you can't run only
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
On imagination. And then gauging how much is too much, how little is too little, what is over the top, what is not over the top. You're not giving enough. You don't have a real gauge. When you're in a scene, you're bouncing off of each other. Here, you're just like free falling. I had done that back to back. I went from that to three body problem. And that was scary.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
Some people can call it a success and people will be like, I don't love it. But at least I felt really proud. Have you seen three body problem?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
So there's an episode in Three-Body Problem. Something really major happens. It's like the Red Wedding on Game of Thrones. Like it's like a crazy episode. Thousands of people get killed and we're seeing it sort of unravel in front of our eyes, but we're seeing it on screens, but nothing was happening. So you're just seeing this ginormous sort of tragic moment happening, but we're seeing nothing.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
And we have nothing. No idea what the effect is going to look like, how severe, how not severe. You really rely on your director. And if you're lucky, you have an amazing director. If you're unlucky, you don't have an amazing director.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
For three body problems, I was scared for two years. Two years of like bracing because my whole performance on that show, I'm the only one that is relying on nothing because I'm talking to myself. I'm looking at things.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
Hopefully that's not me and hopefully I'm never there. Yeah, let's hope. Pretending that you can do it is terrifying. But yeah, so anyway, it's challenging and I appreciate you.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
To kind of build an arc is where it becomes scary. That's where I find hard in the psychological thriller type of like discombobulating films because same on Three Body Problem. You have to build an arc.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
But you don't know because especially on Ash, Flying Lotus was sort of like, I can move scenes around. And I was like, wait, wait, what do you mean?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
No, but actually it's the most fun because then I would play every scene differently. And then he had like an array of things to pick from. So that's kind of the dream. I can be quite type A and I used to have gotten better at it. Because I came from a school of there are certain directors that want a very specific type of performance. And I had worked in a row with a lot of those directors.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
So it was very healing for me to go into plays where like, just go for it. And I was like, what do you mean? Yeah. Like, go for it. And that felt scary for me for a while. And so it was great. And so we played a lot of different things.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
No, I don't know about that. Back to humans being disgusted. Yeah, that feels... Is this a morning shower? That feels aggressive in the morning. Just a whole bar of soap.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
I know you're going to be watching. I care a lot now, for sure. You really sold it. Wait, didn't you cut the pegging scene? Yeah, boring now.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
There's little heavy makeouts here and there, but no pegging.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
And movies. It's wide release. Why I'm also really scared. That's awesome though. We need a lot of love. Please go watch it. Go to the movies. The movies are fun. I miss the movies. And it's a horror movie. I love going to the movie theaters for a horror movie.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
No, I'm up in there too. I'm up in there, but I'm not a bar girl. I'm like a liquid soap. I'm kind of crazy about that. I have a bar soap.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
So you said, let's just jump in and straight up live together while making a movie. That sounds insane.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
I don't think any adult that has no children has watched Frozen as much as I have. That's the first time I've heard that.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
I would go on dates with guys and I'd have my Spotify and shuffle.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
Yeah, in the backseat. And then all of a sudden it was like, do you want to build a snowman? And I'm singing and they're like, this is so weird. You can totally tell I had no childhood and I was like a child star who got completely ripped away from having a childhood. So now I'm living it.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
I went to the movie theaters. I watched it 17 times. I cried. I was blown away by it.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
I am sure that I am really good at cleaning. But I think for girls, that's more normal. When we were little, my mom with her hands, very Mexican of her, would be like... In my butt like that. With girls, it's a bit more normal. I feel like guys... By the way, I have showered with men at one point in my life.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
But it was very powerful. And it makes me really happy for John Chu. Random, John Chu was the first person to actually cast me in a movie. Really?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
He did a movie that was not successful at all. And we always laugh about it called Gem and the Holograms.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
And he cast me as the misfits, which was the bad girls. And we had a little tiny scene. I remember it was Kesha, me. And we had two lines at the end of the gem in the Hollywood because supposedly we were going to do another one. It never happened. Yes. But it was my first role actually before Baby Driver now that I think of it. Wow. And we've been friends ever since.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
You grab your titties out of fear. That's a good sign. Thank you so much for having me. I'm such a fan of the podcast.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
I hope people don't think that I'm insane. I'm not insane.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
This is across the board, not women or men. So my mom's an orthodontist.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
So it was the other way around. So my mom, one out of eight brothers and sisters from like a very small town, and she was the only one that got out. She got a full scholarship in Mexico City when she was 18. And then crazy lady, she might kill me for saying this, but she got pregnant the first time she ever had sex with my brother. So she was super young. She was studying to be an orthodontist.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
And then she had to work because she had to support myself.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
my brother because that dad did not stick no no he's not around and so she started modeling simultaneously because a friend of hers was like i have some extra jobs and then so much more money as a model she had a master degree and she was orthodontist for like three months and then she was like well the model life is paying me more so she did it for a very long time did she do your braces
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
Your teeth are literally perfect. They look like veneers. That's very sweet. Thank you.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
And they're so white. So when I was little, all the cool girls had braces in my school. Did that happen here too?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
retainers people would go and get a retainer all the cool girls cool girls yeah in middle school it was a thing all the cool girls had braces and they would change I remember the band Halloween and I was obsessed with it and I really wanted it and I would torment my dentist who was not my mother but they studied together and he was like you don't need them and I begged forever and now I'm like wow I really was clueless about what I was begging for did you want a cast too I had that from scratch
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
I've been in the hospital in and out probably past 40 times in my life. Really? Yeah, I was a very accident prone kid from age negative zero.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
I mean, it was an ongoing joke constantly that I'd be standing and fall. My mom was like, you're just standing there. Like, how did you fall? It's like you're on roller skates, but you're not. All the time. I've been very lucky because I've had impact to the face. You name it. Broken nose and six pieces.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
This is unfair. Because I broke it at 11. I went straight into a, you remember we had coolers outside instead of ACs? And I went straight into a tube at night playing hide and seek. Five pieces concussion. Broke it completely. Like I have a Harry Potter scar on my forehead. One year old. This is a table. This is jumping in the shower. Oh my God.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
If I was your mom, I would be like, I'm putting you in a bubble. But to the point of the dentistry of it all. Yes. If you brush your teeth, you need to brush your tongue. Oh, yeah. This is the one thing I constantly see that kills me. I'm like, I cannot kiss you now if I've seen that you don't scrape your tongue. You don't get a scraper. They have tongue scrapers.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
And especially if you're shoving that piece of that part of your face into my mouth.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
It's important. You know, the one movie also that I remember very clear in my head when I was young and I was like, oh, wow, this is realistic. Bring It On. Oh, loved it. The brother and the girl are in the bathroom and they're brushing their teeth and she stays over at Gabrielle Unions. No, that's the bad girls. The main girls. Kirsten Dunst. Yeah, it's Kirsten Dunst.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
And then they're brushing their teeth with Kirsten Dunst's brother and they're going in. It's a whole scene of them sort of flirting, brushing their teeth and she's going into the tongue. And they kept it in.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
I'll have to go back and watch for the fact check. Important. Cleansing your tongue.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
I love to see what's happened with Mexico City because when I moved to the U.S. 10 years ago, we're saying that everything for us is 10 years ago, even though we've been here for like probably six decades. When I moved here, every time I said I was from Mexico, they were like, how's Mexico? Like, I feel like a lot of people were sort of on the fence of going.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
And in the past seven to eight years, it's changed so drastically. Every time I say I'm from Mexico, someone says, my God, I love Mexico City. Oh my God, I love San Miguel de Allende. Oh my God, I love Merida. The amount of people that have embraced Mexico, everything progresses. And I think that cities get better.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
And I definitely feel like Mexico City, especially after COVID, got much better because so many people traveled to Mexico because it was open in the middle of COVID. I'm glad that you had an amazing time. I mean, hey, I'm a patriotic Mexican. Is that a thing? Can you be a patriotic Mexican?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
I did have, in a sense, a privileged education, but with parents that worked really hard. My school was very expensive. It was one of the best when it came to education, but my family wasn't wealthy in comparison to everyone else. You know, Carlos Slim's kids were there. We didn't have that type of money. My mom, you know, was truly the breadwinner of the house.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
My dad was incredibly talented, but not very successful at businesses. And so he was an incredible father figure to me because he spent a lot of physical time with me. And his priority number one for me was education because he didn't get that. And so he really wanted me to be like a lawyer or a doctor.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
I have. I played a scientist and an EMT. So it was helpful.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
It's interesting. So I went half my life to an American school.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
Yes. People that flew from America, all their kids were there. Or people that worked for the embassies and stuff like that. And then my other half of my education, I went to a British school. American meant it was full English all day long, no Spanish. So I had geography, math, chemistry, everything in English. So I was fully fluent in English since I was a baby.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
That was never thought. My dad had like fixation with languages. So he really was hyper focused on me speaking multiple languages. And I do. I was his only daughter and his only kid. My dad really didn't want any artistic sort of influence in my life in the sense of like music. And my mom was a naughty one who would take me to dance or singing.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
I have amazing, life-changing information for you. For me specifically? Yeah, this is what started it.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
And he was like, stop distracting her from 17 different languages.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
From my mom's side. I went to Trento to learn Italian when I was little.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
I actually haven't because I'm paranoid of human DNA, as you can tell.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
But I should because I do know that I have a little bit of everything.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
By the way, that's so funny to me because when I moved to the U.S., when I would ask people, where are you from? They'd be like, yeah, yeah, I'm American, Italian, Spanish, with a quarter Cherokee. And I was like, what?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
That is, with all due respect, such an American thing.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
I'd be like, I'm from Defe. You'd be like, I'm from Rome. Like, I've never in my life thought of this.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
Yes and no. We're all sort of in agreement that we all know that there were some sort of mix. It's settled. We got conquered. The conquistadors came in, took us. We had some Jewish communities coming in from this side, some German on that side. In the best way possible, it's a new country type of mentality. America is the land of immigrants, right? It's the concept of it.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
So everyone's identify by where they came. I don't want to talk about other countries specifically, but I feel for Mexico, we were just all like... Yeah, we're Mexican. We didn't really care if we're like more Aztec, more Mayan.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eiza Gonzalez
I fear it will be happening. Are you traumatized by this?