Eiza Gonzalez
SWIMSUIT (VINTAGE): SOUTHPAW. SKIRT: RE/DONE. NECKLACE: VINTAGE. STYLING: ALASTAIR MCKIMM. HAIR: DUFFY/STREETERS. MAKEUP: MARK CARRASQUILLO/STREETERS. MANICURE: YUKIE MIYAKAWA USING DIOR BEAUTY/KATE RYAN. SET DESIGN: PIERS HANMER. PRODUCER: CAROLINE STRIDFELDT/LOLA PRODUCTION. PRODUCTION MANAGER: TERESA BERGEY. RETOUCHING: GLOSS STUDIO NEW YORK. DIGITAL TECHNICIAN: NICHOLAS ONG. SPECIAL THANKS: RED HOOK LABS.
AGE: 27.
HOMETOWN: Mexico City.
UP NEXT: As a bank robber in Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver, with Kevin Spacey, Ansel Elgort, and Jon Hamm; in Robert Rodriguez’s sci-fi thriller Alita: Battle Angel, with Christoph Waltz and Jennifer Connelly.
My last audition for audition for Baby Driver, I had to meet with Jon Hamm and go through the scenes. I was a bit nervous: “What if Jon Hamm dislikes me? This is the end.” I also watched Mad Men religiously, so that didn’t help with my nerves.
EARLY EDUCATION: When my father passed away, I learned to be unattached to physical things. At a very young age, I was able to roam the world and be emotionally connected, but physically disconnected. I’ll get homesick in that I miss my mom. My grounding rock is her and my family.
WORST AUDITION: I’m a perfectionist, which is bad at times but very good at other times. It was one of the first auditions I got in the U.S., and it’s a different format than to Mexico. In Mexico, it’s always a chemistry read; you always read with another actor and it’s usually on a set. Here, you read with a casting director while they’re taping and some of them just read blankly. I was given four scenes, and I thought I was meant to choose one, because that’s how it is in Mexico. But the casting director stopped everything. She was pretty mean. She said, “You’re probably going to work just because you’re pretty.” I was like, “What does that even mean?” I was so upset, and I made a mental note that I never wanted to hear that again. I was like, “I’m going to show you.”
THE POWER OF A POLYGLOT: I speak Italian and a little bit of French. I moved to Trento, Italy, when I was around 10 to learn Italian. I have family there. I’m trying to restart my French. And then I want to get into Mandarin.
PRIMARY PET PEEVES: When people are not professional. When people are not disciplined. When people don’t follow their hearts—but that makes me frustrated more than angry. Or when people let other people’s opinions bleed into who they are.
RETIREMENT PLAN: I would like to look back on my life and be thankful that I was able to make it to that age. I’ve lost people at a really young age, so I embrace growing [old]: being able to see your children and your grandchildren, your successes and your failures. Building your personality and building your persona. Falling 80,000 more times and standing up. Whenever I’ve fallen, I’ve stood up stronger and more humble. I want to walk out of the, “me, me, me” age, which is this one, and focus on a third person —a child or a partner.
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