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Las Tres Sisters - Valeria Maldonado - Part One |
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Our conversation this time focused almost entirely on the
nine-year journey to get this film made with her co-writers and
co-stars, Marta Méndez Cross and Virginia Novello, who were joined
brilliantly in supporting roles by Cristo Fernández and Adam Mayfield.
The opening scenes of Las Tres Sisters seem to set the film up
perfectly for the three distinct personalities of Sofia (Novello), Maria
(Cross) and Lucia (Maldonado). Actress, producer and screenwriter Valeria
Maldonado, sat down with Riveting Riffs Magazine over a Zoom call
recently, from her home in Los Angeles and we talked about her current
film, a dramedy, Las Tres Sisters now streaming on numerous platforms in
North America and it was preceded by a limited cinematic release. If
there was an award in the film and television industry for being the
most congenial person, we are quite sure that Ms. Maldonado would be one
of the top people considered. She is thoughtful, a smile seldom leaves
her face and she has this attitude of gratitude about her. Our conversation this time focused almost
entirely on the nine-year journey to get this film made with her
co-writers and co-stars, Marta Méndez Cross and Virginia Novello, who
were joined brilliantly in supporting roles by Cristo Fernández and Adam
Mayfield. The opening scenes of Las Tres Sisters seem to
set the film up perfectly for the three distinct personalities of Sofia
(Novello), Maria (Cross) and Lucia (Maldonado). “The three of us wrote the whole movie. It was
very collaborative between the three of us. We used something called
Writer Duet and you can be writing at the same time. It is kind of like
a Google Doc only for screenplays. Someone could be doing a scene and
then another person could be behind her saying I am going to tighten it
up. We would be doing things like that. It was great. We based the characters on pieces of us, but
that doesn’t mean that every line that Lucia said I wrote. It was this
is where I want my character to go and I think this. Then we would help
each other out. We would write for each other. Sometimes we would go in
and go this is how Lucia (Make sure you pronounce this name right. Watch
the movie and you will know why!) would say it. We say they are cartoon
versions of the unhealed versions of us. What would have happened if we
hadn’t worked on ourselves. Marta’s character Maria is really hilarious.
When we were writing the script she would say I feel like Maria is not
going to be very fun. We were like, the second you say the words it is
going to be funny. Don’t worry about it, trust yourself. Marta is very
quirky and she is very loving and very positive (just) as Maria is. She
says things that you don’t expect her to say out of nowhere and she
doesn’t expect to say it either. Whatever she thinks comes out of her
mouth,” explains Valeria Maldonado.
“She is the one who started saying if she had
been in her unhealed version. She said if I had been in my twenties and
never went to therapy this is how I would be. Virginia is now a tantra
teacher and she is very sexual and very sensual, but she has turned it
into a healing modality and a superpower. She says if I hadn’t known how
to channel that energy that is what I would have become (Sofia). The
drinking is completely fictional. She actually doesn’t drink much in her
real life. She has had that experience with people around her, very
close people that are alcoholics, mostly in recovery. She wanted to
write about alcoholism, because of what she has experienced in her life
with her loved ones,” she says. The infusion of comedy into this film, keeps it
from descending into something dark and we were pleased to learn that
was intentional by the co-writers. “Yes. That was very intentional. It was
very hard for us to find the tone of the movie, because we always knew
it was a dramedy. Writing dramedy is very difficult, because you feel
like you are walking a very thin line. We had some directors onboard
(previously) who wanted it to be a broad, huge comedy. At a certain
point it was that way. Then we had other directors who wanted it to be
super dramatic. I always say this, (I remember) this quote from when I
was studying acting in college and I believe he was quoting someone
else, ‘in the arts you have the power to make somebody laugh and they
laugh, they open up their mouths really wide (she opens her mouth wide
and laughs to illustrate her point), then when the mouth is open you put
in the truth. I love that and that was at the forefront of how we were
writing. Have some comedy, make it light and let people have fun. Also,
all of these situations that happen to the sisters and to people
visiting the country that they are originally from (Mexico). All of
these things that happen, but then when you have their heart open, you
can put in some truth. People are more open and receptive to it. We were very open to that and then in the edit
is when we got to work on the tone. Even with the footage that we had,
it could have gone broad comedy and it could have gone super, super
drama. We had an amazing, amazing editor Youssef Delara who also wrote
the first two drafts with us. Then we made another twenty drafts
ourselves. He was great since he knew the material. He came in as the
editor and he was so good at getting the beats of comedy and letting the
dramatic moments land. He was like a conductor in a way (her hands
motion as in conducting an orchestra),” says Valeria Maldonado. As for how Valeria, Marta and Virginia met,
“Virginia and Marta had known each other for a few years. Their mentor
introduced them and said you two should create together. They had a web
series they were working on. They were in that world. I met Virginia
through Denisse Prieto, our producer. She has a little tiny cameo as a
doctor who comes in (at the hospital). Denisse was one of my best
friends here in LA and she introduced me to a bunch of people including
Virginia. She and Virginia met in high school in Guadalajara, so (the
three of us) were friends. We were not creating together or anything.
Denisse went back to Mexico and Virginia and I got together as friends,
shared our lives and what we were going through. On one of those days Virginia said, I have a
camera, I have a scene, let’s shoot it. Then she said well how about we
write a scene and I said no Virginia it is going to take forever. We
were sitting on the couch and talking about forgiveness, which we both
were dealing with in our lives. How do you forgive? How do you feel
forgiven? Out of that a monologue came out and if somebody
had just given me a list on how to forgive someone. I would have just
followed that list and I would do it. (As for the scene) where are they?
They are sisters and they are in a kitchen. The first intention was to shoot a scene in a
couple of days, grab a camera, put it on your reel and you’re done. That
(turned into) the short film that took a year. We thought if we are
writing it, we might as well write it well. We might as well bring in a
DP (Director of Photography) and we might as well rent equipment and it
just kept on growing. Then we had a Kickstarter campaign. That turned into a short film and Virginia
brought Marta onboard to direct the short film. She was eight months
pregnant. There was this instant chemistry (between us). This executive producer that I knew from Mexico
City, Gonzalo Ruiz de Velasco said I am interested in the short film,
can you send me the script? I thought (she has a perplexed look)
the short film, because he does big movies. He read the short film and
he said you guys need to make this into a feature. I want to become
executive producer on the short and he gave us money (she has this
expression of disbelief and gratefulness). He is the one who really
brought that idea to us. Now I understand, because he said in Mexico
everyone was trying to understand how to write from the Mexican American
experience, which is very different from the Mexican experience. They
are almost like two cultures. He said you guys were naturally doing that
without knowing, because that is how you live. You live in a bilingual
world. That is why I wanted to be a part of this movie. He is the one
that pushed us into writing a feature film. He stuck with us all of
these years and six years after we started writing and we got a lot of
(people saying) maybe and no from the industry everywhere, Mexico and in
the States, it was Gonzalo who found the money in Guadalajara. Thanks to
him and he was the one who said let’s do this. We’ve got to do it,” she
says. How does one prepare to play the part of a
sister to two other sisters, when your only sibling is a younger
brother? “I always wanted to have sisters when I was a
little girl. I would go up to my mom’s belly, touch it and go is my
sister in there? I was always looking for sisters. I did get to
experience it to a degree with some very close cousins in Mexico. We
were very, very close (she smiles). I have three of them with whom I am
super close. It is funny, because like our characters in the movie their
names sound alike. They are Nely, Yani, and Gaby. Marta has two sisters,
Virginia has one sister, and we really did become sisters. Actually,
when I talk about them people get confused, because when I say I am
going to my sister’s house people say, but I thought you only have a
brother. We call each other sisters, because we have been on this
journey for nine years. It is a really long time and we have been with
each other through super intimate and super difficult and super
everything types of moments. We also laugh a lot. When we started writing Marta was nursing a
newborn, while I was making dinner and Virginia was running the bath. In
the middle of that we would say what if in this scene we do blah, blah,
blah. We have gone through so many ups and downs. We also live in LA
without our blood family members,” she says. Continuing, Valeria Moldonado, provides more
insight about her life, “I was born in San Diego, but I grew up in
Mexico, so I always say that I am like a reverse immigrant, because most
people come from Mexico here and I went from San Diego to Mexico. My mom
was originally an American from LA, with a family that was Russian /
Polish. I have a lot of heritage (roots) and a very interesting story in
terms of my grandparents who were American / Russian / Jewish / Polish
and they moved to Mexico when my mom was six years old. On my side of
the family, I have American immigrants who were immigrants to Mexico. I
find that super, super fascinating. All of my family in terms of my
Mexican family live in Mexico. I do have an American side of the family
that moved back to the States. They are mostly in San Diego and here in
LA and one is in Arizona. All of my Mexican family is in Mexico and so
is Virginia’s. Marta’s (family) is in Texas. We became sisters, because we became family
here. I feel like LA is a land of orphans in a way, because most people
move here without their families, so you create your own families. I
have learned so much about sisterhood with the two of them throughout
these nine years and I love it.” Valeria Maldonado’s first love as a child was
dancing and singing, “I feel like I came out of the womb dancing. I love
dancing. Both of my parents were excellent dancers. I was brought up in
it. I remember being tiny and at parties doing the salsa with adults
that were really big. Ever since I can remember I danced. My mom did
ballet, contemporary and all of that. I had it from her as well. I was
four years old and I gave them a couple of flashlights and I said
spotlight me and I danced for them. (She has a big smile while recalling
these childhood memories.)
I was the youngest person at the talent shows
dancing ballet or whatever I was doing. That has always been a part of
me. Where I grew up there wasn’t a lot of theater, but there was more
dance. It was easier to go into dance than it was to go into theater. I
was probably eleven when I discovered musical theater at a camp that I
was at. Then I saw RENT (the musical) and I loved it. It talks about all
of the different communities and I felt very understood. I then thought
about acting, but I was more interested in musical theater.
I moved to London and I lived (there) for a
year. I loved it and I go back all the time. I absolutely love it there.
I was watching everything in the West End. It was when I was there and
doing my musical theater course for a year that I realized I am a very
deep person and I love psychology as well. I was missing something from
the musical theater training and I wanted to go deeper into the
characters. That is when I (thought) acting. I studied acting for my BA.
That took the lead. I have been in a couple of musicals. I dance, but I
got an injury many years ago, so I don’t professionally dance anymore. I
dance just for fun. I would definitely like to get back into
singing.” Parental influence, but not parental push, if
anything remember this is the person as a four-year-old who handed her
parents flashlights, so they could spotlight her, contributed to her
interests in the arts. My parents were not in the arts professionally.
They were academics and both linguists. My mom had danced her who life
and danced and sang and my dad plays the guitar and sings. He is taking
piano lessons right now. I think he is a closet actor, because anytime I
have an audition and I ask him to be my reader he loves it. On my dad’s
side of the family there are a lot of artists, so I am not the only one.
There are five actors, a movie director, director of photography, a lot
of musicians, my brother is a musician. He (her brother) wrote the last
song in the movie, the one when it ends. Two of his songs are in the
credits. It is very much in our blood. I think that is also why parents didn’t fight me
on it. They weren’t ‘No how dare you.’ They were more like that is to be
expected. Sure. I have always had support and we are a very artistic
family,” she says. Watch this space for the link for Part II The
Men, which will be published in a few more days.
“The three of us wrote the whole movie. It was very collaborative
between the three of us. We used something called Writer Duet and you
can be writing at the same time. It is kind of like a Google Doc only
for screenplays. Someone could be doing a scene and then another person
could be behind her saying I am going to tighten it up. We would be
doing things like that. It was great.
We based the characters on pieces of us, but that doesn’t mean that
every line that Lucia said I wrote. It was this is where I want my
character to go and I think this. Then we would help each other out. We
would write for each other. Sometimes we would go in and go this is how
Lucia (Make sure you pronounce this name right. Watch the movie and
you will know why!) would say it. We say they are cartoon versions
of the unhealed versions of us. What would have happened if we hadn’t
worked on ourselves.
Marta’s character Maria is really hilarious. When we were writing the
script she would say I feel like Maria is not going to be very fun. We
were like, the second you say the words it is going to be funny. Don’t
worry about it, trust yourself. Marta is very quirky and she is very
loving and very positive (just) as Maria is. She says things that you
don’t expect her to say out of nowhere and she doesn’t expect to say it
either. Whatever she thinks comes out of her mouth,” explains Valeria
Maldonado.
We can’t give away spoilers here so we will dance around this next
question a bit, but just how much of Virginia is in her character Sofia?
“She is the one who started saying if she had been in her unhealed
version. She said if I had been in my twenties and never went to therapy
this is how I would be. Virginia is now a tantra teacher and she is very
sexual and very sensual, but she has turned it into a healing modality
and a superpower. She says if I hadn’t known how to channel that energy
that is what I would have become (Sofia). The drinking is completely
fictional. She actually doesn’t drink much in her real life. She has had
that experience with people around her, very close people that are
alcoholics, mostly in recovery. She wanted to write about alcoholism,
because of what she has experienced in her life with her loved ones,”
she says.
The infusion of comedy into this film, keeps it from descending into
something dark and we were pleased to learn that was intentional by the
co-writers.
“Yes. That was very
intentional. It was very hard for us to find the tone of the movie,
because we always knew it was a dramedy. Writing dramedy is very
difficult, because you feel like you are walking a very thin line. We
had some directors onboard (previously) who wanted it to be a broad,
huge comedy. At a certain point it was that way. Then we had other
directors who wanted it to be super dramatic. I always say this, (I
remember) this quote from when I was studying acting in college and I
believe he was quoting someone else, ‘in the arts you have the power to
make somebody laugh and they laugh, they open up their mouths really
wide (she opens her mouth wide and laughs to illustrate her point),
then when the mouth is open you put in the truth. I love that and that
was at the forefront of how we were writing. Have some comedy, make it
light and let people have fun. Also, all of these situations that happen
to the sisters and to people visiting the country that they are
originally from (Mexico). All of these things that happen, but then when
you have their heart open, you can put in some truth. People are more
open and receptive to it.
We were very open to that and then in the edit is when we got to work on
the tone. Even with the footage that we had, it could have gone broad
comedy and it could have gone super, super drama. We had an amazing,
amazing editor Youssef Delara who also wrote the first two
drafts with us. Then we made another twenty drafts ourselves. He was
great since he knew the material. He came in as the editor and he was so
good at getting the beats of comedy and letting the dramatic moments
land. He was like a conductor in a way (her hands motion as in
conducting an orchestra),” says Valeria Maldonado.
As for how Valeria, Marta and Virginia met, “Virginia and Marta had
known each other for a few years. Their mentor introduced them and said
you two should create together. They had a web series they were working
on. They were in that world. I met Virginia through Denisse Prieto, our
producer. She has a little tiny cameo as a doctor who comes in (at the
hospital). Denisse was one of my best friends here in LA and she
introduced me to a bunch of people including Virginia. She and Virginia
met in high school in Guadalajara, so (the three of us) were friends. We
were not creating together or anything. Denisse went back to Mexico and
Virginia and I got together as friends, shared our lives and what we
were going through.
On one of those days Virginia said, I have a camera, I have a scene,
let’s shoot it. Then she said well how about we write a scene and I said
no Virginia it is going to take forever. We were sitting on the couch
and talking about forgiveness, which we both were dealing with in our
lives. How do you forgive? How do you feel forgiven?
Out of that a monologue came out and if somebody had just given me a
list on how to forgive someone. I would have just followed that list and
I would do it. (As for the scene) where are they? They are sisters and
they are in a kitchen.
The first intention was to shoot a scene in a couple of days, grab a
camera, put it on your reel and you’re done. That (turned into) the
short film that took a year. We thought if we are writing it, we might
as well write it well. We might as well bring in a DP (Director of
Photography) and we might as well rent equipment and it just kept on
growing. Then we had a Kickstarter campaign.
This executive producer that I knew from Mexico City, Gonzalo Ruiz de
Velasco said I am interested in the short film, can you send me the
script? I thought (she
has a perplexed look) the short film, because he does big movies. He
read the short film and he said you guys need to make this into a
feature. I want to become executive producer on the short and he gave us
money (she has this expression of disbelief and gratefulness). He
is the one who really brought that idea to us. Now I understand, because
he said in Mexico everyone was trying to understand how to write from
the Mexican American experience, which is very different from the
Mexican experience. They are almost like two cultures.
He said you guys were naturally doing that without knowing, because that
is how you live. You live in a bilingual world. That is why I wanted to
be a part of this movie. He is the one that pushed us into writing a
feature film. He stuck with us all of these years and six years after we
started writing and we got a lot of (people saying) maybe and no from
the industry everywhere, Mexico and in the States, it was Gonzalo who
found the money in Guadalajara. Thanks to him and he was the one who
said let’s do this. We’ve got to do it,” she says.
How does one prepare to play the part of a sister to two other sisters,
when your only sibling is a younger brother?
“I always wanted to have sisters when I was a little girl. I would go up
to my mom’s belly, touch it and go is my sister in there? I was always
looking for sisters. I did get to experience it to a degree with some
very close cousins in Mexico. We were very, very close (she smiles).
I have three of them with whom I am super close. It is funny, because
like our characters in the movie their names sound alike. They are Nely,
Yani, and Gaby. Marta has two sisters, Virginia has one sister, and we
really did become sisters. Actually, when I talk about them people get
confused, because when I say I am going to my sister’s house people say,
but I thought you only have a brother. We call each other sisters,
because we have been on this journey for nine years. It is a really long
time and we have been with each other through super intimate and super
difficult and super everything types of moments. We also laugh a lot.
When we started writing Marta was nursing a newborn, while I was making
dinner and Virginia was running the bath. In the middle of that we would
say what if in this scene we do blah, blah, blah. We have gone through
so many ups and downs. We also live in LA without our blood family
members,” she says.
Continuing, Valeria Moldonado, provides more insight about her life, “I
was born in San Diego, but I grew up in Mexico, so I always say that I
am like a reverse immigrant, because most people come from Mexico here
and I went from San Diego to Mexico. My mom was originally an American
from LA, with a family that was Russian / Polish. I have a lot of
heritage (roots) and a very interesting story in terms of my
grandparents who were American / Russian / Jewish / Polish and they
moved to Mexico when my mom was six years old. On my side of the family,
I have American immigrants who were immigrants to Mexico. I find that
super, super fascinating. All of my family in terms of my Mexican family
live in Mexico. I do have an American side of the family that moved back
to the States. They are mostly in San Diego and here in LA and one is in
Arizona. All of my Mexican family is in Mexico and so is Virginia’s.
Marta’s (family) is in Texas.
We became sisters, because we became family here. I feel like LA is a
land of orphans in a way, because most people move here without their
families, so you create your own families. I have learned so much about
sisterhood with the two of them throughout these nine years and I love
it.”
Valeria Maldonado’s first love as a child was dancing and singing, “I
feel like I came out of the womb dancing. I love dancing. Both of my
parents were excellent dancers. I was brought up in it. I remember being
tiny and at parties doing the salsa with adults that were really big.
Ever since I can remember I danced. My mom did ballet, contemporary and
all of that. I had it from her as well. I was four years old and I gave
them a couple of flashlights and I said spotlight me and I danced for
them. (She has a big smile while recalling these childhood memories.)
I was the youngest person at the talent shows dancing ballet or whatever
I was doing. That has always been a part of me. Where I grew up there
wasn’t a lot of theater, but there was more dance. It was easier to go
into dance than it was to go into theater. I was probably eleven when I
discovered musical theater at a camp that I was at. Then I saw RENT
(the musical) and I loved it. It talks about all of the different
communities and I felt very understood. I then thought about acting, but
I was more interested in musical theater.
I moved to London and I lived (there) for a year. I loved it and I go
back all the time. I absolutely love it there. I was watching everything
in the West End. It was when I was there and doing my musical theater
course for a year that I realized I am a very deep person and I love
psychology as well. I was missing something from the musical theater
training and I wanted to go deeper into the characters. That is when I
(thought) acting. I studied acting for my BA. That took the lead. I have
been in a couple of musicals. I dance, but I got an injury many years
ago, so I don’t professionally dance anymore. I dance just for fun.
I would definitely like to get back into singing.”
Parental influence, but not parental push, if anything remember this is
the person as a four-year-old who handed her parents flashlights, so
they could spotlight her, contributed to her interests in the arts.
My parents were not in the arts professionally. They were academics and
both linguists. My mom had danced her who life and danced and sang and
my dad plays the guitar and sings. He is taking piano lessons right now.
I think he is a closet actor, because anytime I have an audition and I
ask him to be my reader he loves it. On my dad’s side of the family
there are a lot of artists, so I am not the only one. There are five
actors, a movie director, director of photography, a lot of musicians,
my brother is a musician. He (her brother) wrote the last song in the
movie, the one when it ends. Two of his songs are in the credits. It is
very much in our blood.
I think that is also why parents didn’t fight me on it. They weren’t ‘No
how dare you.’ They were more like that is to be expected. Sure. I have
always had support and we are a very artistic family,” she says.
Watch this space for the link for Part II The Men, which will be
published in a few more days.
#LasTresSisters #ValeriaMaldonadoActress #ValeriaMaldonadoInterview #RivetingRiffs #RivetingRiffsMagazine
|
We
can’t give away spoilers here so we will dance around this next question
a bit, but just how much of Virginia is in her character Sofia? 
That
turned into a short film and Virginia brought Marta onboard to direct
the short film. She was eight months pregnant. There was this instant
chemistry (between us).