Adria Arjona and Glen Powell Turn Chemistry Into an Art Form

Adria Arjona has had the kind of year that dreams—and careers—are made of. The 32-year-old actor followed up her pivotal role in last year’s Andor—the best thing Star Wars has done since the ’80s—with a lights-out performance in the Netflix smash Hit Man, showcasing her crackling chemistry with costar Glen Powell. She kept that same live-wire energy in Zoë Kravitz’s feature debut Blink Twice, and the result is an industry lining up to be in the Adria Arjona business. Next up, the Puerto Rico native is tackling a more personal project in Los Frikis, a film about a group of punk rockers in ’90s Cuba. Adria reunited with Glen on her way to the airport to talk about, among other things, making the Hollywood leap.

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TUESDAY 12:45 PM OCT. 22, 2024, MONTREAL

ADRIA ARJONA: I don’t know why I’m nervous!

GLEN POWELL: You shouldn’t be nervous. This is what we do all the time. There’s no one that’s easier to bullshit with than you. Where are you right now?

ARJONA: I’m on the way to the airport—I’m always on the way to the airport. I’m in Montreal, but I’m heading to New York for a day and then coming back.

POWELL: Are you still shooting the show?

ARJONA: No, we’re shooting the movie Splitsville.

POWELL: You’re going from one thing to another right now, that’s insane.

ARJONA: I know. And then I go straight into the A24 movie, Onslaught. I might have three days off.

POWELL: This is the one you’re also producing?

ARJONA: Both of them I’m producing.

POWELL: Are you having fun with all of this?

ARJONA: I’m having a lot of fun, especially because they’re all very different characters, so I think that keeps me on my toes and entertained. And I’m jumping between genres, which is also fun. It does get overwhelming to always be on the move, but I grew up like this, so I’m used to it.

POWELL: I remember hearing stories when we were doing Hit Man about you basically on the road with your dad sleeping in all sorts of positions and places. I also remember you have endless energy, but you can nap very well.

ARJONA: I’m a good napper. But you facilitated that—remember that one day that I didn’t sleep? And I opened the door to my trailer, and you had all these blankets and pillows for me to nap with during lunch? It was very sweet.

POWELL: Look, we worked really, really hard. The thing about these movies that I’m realizing is they’re not all built the same, and if you catch a couple in a row that are a lot of night shoots, you can go down really easily, even if you have a lot of energy. Not everyone’s made for that pace, and you’re at that pace right now. Are you wrapping this project up or are you starting it?

ARJONA: I’m wrapping.

POWELL: What are you doing with your days off?

ARJONA: I’m training for the next movie. I’m a sniper in it, so today I was training with guns.

POWELL: Badass.

ARJONA: I still close my eyes when I pull the trigger. I’ve got a lot of work to do. [Laughs]

POWELL: I mean, you’re going to be lethal on the other side of this, and I’d rather you know how to handle a weapon than not. We’re all safer for it. [Laughs] I know you’ve done action movies in the past, but probably nothing like this. I’ve seen a lot of your stuff, and I don’t think I remember you being—

ARJONA: I think we’ve established you haven’t seen a lot of my stuff. [Laughs]

POWELL: I have! I haven’t seen one specific thing of yours that everybody else has seen, which is Andor, but that’s it! Sorry, my Disney Plus account, I think somebody hacked it. I’m gonna blame the cloud. Anyway, let’s talk about Los Frikis, a movie I have seen. It’s incredible, and it’s an incredible role for you. You told me a bunch of stories while we were shooting about the beautiful experiences you had on that movie. I’d never seen any of those other actors before, but everybody is sensational—the level of chemistry and depth. And it’s not a movie that lives in the sadness of HIV or this oppression that’s happening in Cuba; there’s an odd joy throughout a lot of it. But your role specifically exists on its own plane. I was thinking about how you developed that character. It’s based on a real person?

ARJONA: Maria, my specific character, isn’t. But Los Frikis were very much. When Michael [Schwartz] and Tyler [Nilson] presented me the script, I felt so ignorant that I didn’t know the story, that I didn’t understand that this was going on so close to me when I was growing up in Miami. I started going into this spiral trying to find out more about these people and this time period. For those that don’t know, it was kind of like the dark ages in Cuba. There was no food, so a lot of people were trying to escape on rafts and dying in the middle of the ocean. People weren’t even allowed to choose the movies they watched or the music they listened to. And back then they didn’t really know what HIV was. It was almost like the beginning of COVID, where everyone was like, “Oh, it’s just a flu.” So when the idea came up of injecting HIV, it was a ticket to freedom within their own country. And when I understood that, it just broke my heart. But that’s why it’s a joyful movie, because it’s about the discovery of freedom. And when everyone watches the movie, the first thing they say is, “It’s really funny.”

POWELL: It’s true.

ARJONA: Nobody ever expects it to be funny. Michael and Tyler did a really good job with that. And for them, it was really important that the actors came from Cuba. So every one of the actors, except for Héctor [Medina] and myself, was flown in from Cuba to the Dominican Republic. And they had never left Cuba before, so I really got to experience life through their eyes. I got to see them walk into a full supermarket for the first time, try to grasp commercialism. There are a lot of things that I’ve taken for granted throughout my life, just because we were raised in privilege. And thanks to this movie and every single one of these actors, they really slapped me with perspective, with how much joy they have in the simple, tiny things in life. There’s so much joy in dancing. There’s so much joy in just one piece of chicken. They’re constantly feeding their souls and looking for happiness. So that’s why I keep saying this movie changed my life, because these kids changed my life. They’re a reminder of how beautiful simply living can be.

POWELL: Totally, the movie is a feeling. When you originally told me about the idea—and I wasn’t aware of this moment in history either—I was like, “Why would anyone think to inject themselves with HIV?” But the first act did such a great job of showing the lack of choices, the oppression. While I was watching it, I became so overwhelmed with gratitude for my own freedom. And I literally told a friend, as soon as I finished watching, “This is what movies can do.” They can tie hearts with very little in common together. Give me the process of how you find something like Los Frikis and how it fits into the bigger picture of what you want to do and where you’re going.

ARJONA: When I read it, I was like, “This is the kind of story that has to be told.” It’s important to keep telling Latin American stories that aren’t just about narcotraficantes and the border. There’s so much more to our history. And I fell in love with being able to play a different version of a mother that doesn’t necessarily have biological kids, who just wants to take care of everybody and share love and light because she understands what the future holds for them. Also, in Santo Domingo it was so freeing and liberating to be able to get back to my Latin roots and explore that. I don’t know how it happens for you, but when you get a project like this, you just know.

POWELL: I’ve seen you fit into things of every size and scope, and there’s a reason why everyone is clamoring to have you in their movie at a studio level. But I also think it’s very refreshing to watch something like this. If this movie was made by a studio, it would be completely devoid of heart and all the things that are magical about it. It’s so interesting how movies are lightning in a bottle and about the investment of the actors. It’s one of the reasons I enjoyed working with you so much and why I would like to do it over and over again for the rest of time.

ARJONA: Yes please, Glen! You work very similarly to me. You just have to commit to the world. That’s why you know when it’s right and when it isn’t. There are scripts that I read and I’m like, “Man, this is brilliantly written. I love it. But I don’t know how to fit myself in.” But with Hit Man, I was like, “I get it. I love it. I want to be in it.” And then you just open-heartedly go for it, make a fool out of yourself, try different things. The same with Los Frikis. I’m like, “I understand this character. I understand this world, and I want to be a part of it deeply.”

POWELL: Oh I know, because of the way that you talk about it. In our careers, you don’t know how many really great movies you get to make, so we do our best to try to fill our time with things that matter, and you hope the experience is as magical as the product. But I find that what’s really special about you is just how proud you are of something that you put so much into. It can be so demoralizing when you work with actors that are clearly there for the wrong reasons, where there is no level of investment. You’re the opposite. You’re one of the most invested people I’ve ever met. You slam your heart onto celluloid and it’s an incredible thing. But not everybody does that. You show up with an actor that’s like, “Yo, I’m in and out. I’m catching a plane in two weeks. I’m just waiting for that date,” and it can be disheartening. But you feel like you want to be on set forever, and it’s such a beautiful quality.

ARJONA: You’re the same. I feel like the set is both of our happy places. At the end of the day, people don’t realize that we spend a lot of time with these characters. They spend two hours with them; we spend three months with them, and with these actors and the directors and in this world. So I always ask myself, where do I want to be spending my time? I’m going to make sure that I’m happy and telling stories that are important to me, and that I’m surrounded by people who are cool and artistic and just down to be weird. That’s what I tell myself before “action.” I’m like, “Be fucking weird, Adria.” And keep it open-hearted. When we try to reach perfection, it always slips away. Just keep it honest and authentic.

POWELL: A lesson for on and off set. Keep it weird, keep it honest.

ARJONA: I think it’s what makes life fun. Not trying to be something you’re not.

POWELL: Well, you’re definitely not, I’ll give you that. If I’m being honest, you are weird. [Laughs] One of the other things I’ve noticed is that you start to see which actors let roles take from them and get drained by stuff—where roles siphon a bit of their energy, their spirit. I’ve talked to some actors that literally have to hold funerals for their characters at the end of things. Do you have anything like that? Because with some of the characters that you’ve played, there are dark things. You’ve gravitated towards a slew of some pretty taxing characters.

ARJONA: What are you asking me? Am I dark? [Laughs]

POWELL: I’m asking what you do to not go crazy, because you’re just an even-keeled, sweet person who plays really fucked-up roles.

ARJONA: It’ll always be a struggle, but I try to surround myself with people I love and trust, and who make fun of me and are funny. As long as I’m laughing, I can go through just about anything. And I do have little rituals. I’m always with a little palo santo. I have crutches of things that I have invented for myself that are good luck—like I always start a job with a white shirt, which you’ve helped me with.

POWELL: Yeah. Maybe at the pace you’re going, I’ll just put my Amazon account on auto-order for non-specific white t-shirts.

ARJONA: Just Hanes t-shirts on auto-delivery. [Laughs]

POWELL: I’m going to have to work more to buy you this many Hanes t-shirts; you’re on quite a clip. [Laughs]

ARJONA: But yeah, I think just always being near my family. So even though I’m playing a really dark character, I get to talk to someone I love and hear about their day, and not self-indulge so much in it.

POWELL: Having a stable family life does allow you to always have a pressure release valve of reality on the other side. That’s why I keep my family really close too. Thank goodness we both lucked out in that department.

ARJONA: I’ve told you this before: We’re the luckiest people in the world for having the support that we have. Not a lot of people have that in this industry. We’re constantly taking risks and putting ourselves out there for criticism and also for praise, for positivity and negativity, and it’s really confusing. So I’m like, “All I want to do is make my mom laugh,” and that feels a little bit safer.

POWELL: Your mom is unbelievably proud of you, but I’m second in line. Well, I’ll let you get to the airport, because I know you’ve got to fly.

ARJONA: No, you’re so much more important.

POWELL: Get out of here.

ARJONA: I already missed my flight, it’s fine. [Laughs]

POWELL: [Laughs] I’ll stop talking. This was so fun, Adria. I got to see Rick [Linklater] over the weekend, and we talked about you and that experience [on Hit Man], and I just can’t wait to get back in the saddle with you.

ARJONA: I have an idea. I’ll call you about it.

POWELL: Yeah. This is probably not the place to pitch the idea.

ARJONA: You know me too well, where I would fucking do that and tell the whole world. [Laughs]

POWELL: [Laughs] Alright, fly safe. I miss you and I love you.

ARJONA: Kill it over there in London. I miss you and send you all my love.

POWELL: Yes, ma’am.

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Hair: Akki using Oribe at Art Partner.

Makeup: Grace Ahn using Mac Cosmetics at Day One.

Nails: Nori using Chanel Le Vernis at See Management.

Tailor: Macy Iszakovich.

Photography Assistant: Meghan Marin.

Fashion Assistant: Colton French.

Hair Assistant: Vanessa Li.

Production Assistant: Jordan Santisteban.

Post-production: Helen Retouch.

Location: Highlight Studios.