America Ferrera has made a career of playing real women, ranging from portraits of historical figures (such as political activist Helen Chávez in “Cesar Chavez”) to portrayals of the relatable plights faced by everyday girls everywhere (as embodied by the actress’ viral speech in “Barbie.”)
Ferrera’s selection of roles have seeming all lead to her turn in Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie,” which landed Ferrera a Best Supporting Actress nomination at the 2024 Oscars. But the former teen star was already an icon to fans of the “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” franchise, “Ugly Betty,” and “Superstore.” “Barbie” was just a nice reminder that maybe we’ve all been taking Ferrera’s talents for granted too long.
Let’s not forget that Ferrera made history by winning the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for “Ugly Betty,” becoming the first Latina woman to take home the prize in the category.
Ferrera’s selection of roles have seeming all lead to her turn in Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie,” which landed Ferrera a Best Supporting Actress nomination at the 2024 Oscars. But the former teen star was already an icon to fans of the “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” franchise, “Ugly Betty,” and “Superstore.” “Barbie” was just a nice reminder that maybe we’ve all been taking Ferrera’s talents for granted too long.
Let’s not forget that Ferrera made history by winning the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for “Ugly Betty,” becoming the first Latina woman to take home the prize in the category.
- 1/30/2024
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
From those that focus on singular defining events in a subject’s life, to those that aim to encompass an entire existence from birth to death in a matter of a couple hours, biopics are tricky feats to carry out successfully. After all, the life of a prominent individual is anything but ordinary, thus merits being translated into film. The chosen approach will determine whether the work serves as respectful homage or if it falls short. Unfortunately, Diego Luna’s Cesar Chavez fits in the second category, and not because of inadequate direction or issues with casting. Its problems are deeply rooted in the screenplay and the way in which it quickly summarizes Chavez’s struggle to deliver a satisfactory conclusion by Hollywood standards.
Structured like a bullet point-driven school presentation, the film appears as a succession of crucial events that in the end amount to a significant victory, but which also dismiss the darkness experienced by the Mexican-American leader throughout his fight. Chavez served as the voice of thousands of farm workers whose conditions were below acceptable, and for whom he felt great appreciation and respect. He felt for their suffering as he had been one of them growing up in Arizona. In the film, this is rapidly covered via voice over and the viewer is thrown into the history class-worthy facts forgetting to really give depth to Chavez as a man.
Played by Michael Peña, the Chavez portrayed here appears genuine, assertive, and honest, but it is rarely shown with the emotional complexity that person in his position must have felt. Having said this, this in no way diminishes Peña’s heartfelt performance. He is on point, and because of his great talent and commitment it is a shame the material did not provide him the challenging character that it should have. There is no denying Chavez deserves endless praise for his relentless labor, but in a film like this, straightforward glorification leaves no room for exploring the man and not simply the icon. Trying to make up for the lack of nuance written in the screenplay, the film makes a point of Chavez distant relationship with his oldest son Fernando (Eli Vargas). This never fully works with sufficient emotional weight.
As the marches, the boycotts, and other landmark protests against the greedy California growers roll out one after another, everything increasingly seems like a list of items being checked off to reach a happy ending. At the same time, the supporting characters fail to add any type of edge or interesting conflict to the story. America Ferrera as Helen Chavez only has a couple scenes where she gets to give life to the activist’s wife. A role that could have turned out enthralling settles for being generic, once again not for lack of talent from the performer but because of the genesis of the project. Rosario Dawson, as fellow activist Dolores Huerta, is equally forgettable and tragically underexploited. There is no point in expanding on the film's plot since all major occurrences are included and easily resolved, it is the lack of humanity that it is troublesome. It is sad to see such a lukewarm depiction of a passionate figure.
Cesar Chavez is Mexican superstar Diego Luna’s second feature in the director's chair - his first being the small scale Spanish-language drama Abel – and it is overall well-crafted and well-intentioned, but it certainly looks like it could have been directed by anybody else. Luna's voice as an artist has no resonance given that the screenplay by Keir Pearson forcefully wants to package all the societal and internal struggles into a formulaic piece. One that would be better suited to help teachers introduce students to the Ufw movement than to be an artistic interpretation of a man conflicted between his cause and his family. Hopefully both Luna and Peña will get a better chance in the future to create valuable work instead of didactic classroom material.
Structured like a bullet point-driven school presentation, the film appears as a succession of crucial events that in the end amount to a significant victory, but which also dismiss the darkness experienced by the Mexican-American leader throughout his fight. Chavez served as the voice of thousands of farm workers whose conditions were below acceptable, and for whom he felt great appreciation and respect. He felt for their suffering as he had been one of them growing up in Arizona. In the film, this is rapidly covered via voice over and the viewer is thrown into the history class-worthy facts forgetting to really give depth to Chavez as a man.
Played by Michael Peña, the Chavez portrayed here appears genuine, assertive, and honest, but it is rarely shown with the emotional complexity that person in his position must have felt. Having said this, this in no way diminishes Peña’s heartfelt performance. He is on point, and because of his great talent and commitment it is a shame the material did not provide him the challenging character that it should have. There is no denying Chavez deserves endless praise for his relentless labor, but in a film like this, straightforward glorification leaves no room for exploring the man and not simply the icon. Trying to make up for the lack of nuance written in the screenplay, the film makes a point of Chavez distant relationship with his oldest son Fernando (Eli Vargas). This never fully works with sufficient emotional weight.
As the marches, the boycotts, and other landmark protests against the greedy California growers roll out one after another, everything increasingly seems like a list of items being checked off to reach a happy ending. At the same time, the supporting characters fail to add any type of edge or interesting conflict to the story. America Ferrera as Helen Chavez only has a couple scenes where she gets to give life to the activist’s wife. A role that could have turned out enthralling settles for being generic, once again not for lack of talent from the performer but because of the genesis of the project. Rosario Dawson, as fellow activist Dolores Huerta, is equally forgettable and tragically underexploited. There is no point in expanding on the film's plot since all major occurrences are included and easily resolved, it is the lack of humanity that it is troublesome. It is sad to see such a lukewarm depiction of a passionate figure.
Cesar Chavez is Mexican superstar Diego Luna’s second feature in the director's chair - his first being the small scale Spanish-language drama Abel – and it is overall well-crafted and well-intentioned, but it certainly looks like it could have been directed by anybody else. Luna's voice as an artist has no resonance given that the screenplay by Keir Pearson forcefully wants to package all the societal and internal struggles into a formulaic piece. One that would be better suited to help teachers introduce students to the Ufw movement than to be an artistic interpretation of a man conflicted between his cause and his family. Hopefully both Luna and Peña will get a better chance in the future to create valuable work instead of didactic classroom material.
- 3/29/2014
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Sydney's Buzz
America Ferrera stars as Helen Chavez, the wife of our hero played by Michael Pena, in the new political drama, .Cesar Chavez.. The last time I spoke with the actress, it was for .How to Train Your Dragon,. four years ago. Now, Ferrera is tackling more grown-up roles that challenge her.
In this interview, we talked about her interest in making .Cesar Chavez,. the importance of Helen in the life of Cesar Chavez, how she researched the part, and the rise of a revolution.
In this interview, we talked about her interest in making .Cesar Chavez,. the importance of Helen in the life of Cesar Chavez, how she researched the part, and the rise of a revolution.
- 3/27/2014
- by Manny
- Manny the Movie Guy
Four years ago, Diego Luna sat down with the Chavez family and asked permission to tell the story of Cesar Chavez to world through film. "We sat down with Paul Chavez, Cesar's son, and explained to him why we felt the film had to be done and why with us," director Diego Luna told Twitch. In February, Cesar Chavez premiered at Berlin Film Festival and played to a packed Paramount Theater in Austin for SXSW filmgoers and activists, Chavez family members, people who were involved in the movement, and the stars of the film - Michael Peña (Chavez), America Ferrera (Helen Chavez) and Rosario Dawson (Dolores Huerta).Twitch: What was it like screening to such a passionate and involved audience?Diego Luna: It was the perfect mix...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 3/14/2014
- Screen Anarchy
Diego Luna may have traveled into the future for his role in the sci-fi action movie “Elysium” but the Mexican actor recently also went back in time to direct “Chavez.”
The 33-year-old star sat down with HuffPost Live’s Alyona Minkovski on Tuesday to chat about his latest projects, including his first English-language feature film based on the life and work of American civil rights activist Cesar Chavez.
Despite being born and raised in his native Mexico, Luna said he learned more about the Mexican-American activist during the time he was was living in the United States.
“The idea behind the film is to talk about a community that now I have a strong connection with,” the actor, whose first son was born in the U.S., told Minkovski. “And I found out that no one has done a film about him and I don’t think it has been celebrated enough.
The 33-year-old star sat down with HuffPost Live’s Alyona Minkovski on Tuesday to chat about his latest projects, including his first English-language feature film based on the life and work of American civil rights activist Cesar Chavez.
Despite being born and raised in his native Mexico, Luna said he learned more about the Mexican-American activist during the time he was was living in the United States.
“The idea behind the film is to talk about a community that now I have a strong connection with,” the actor, whose first son was born in the U.S., told Minkovski. “And I found out that no one has done a film about him and I don’t think it has been celebrated enough.
- 8/7/2013
- by The Huffington Post
- Huffington Post
It's been nearly two years since Oscar-nominated screenwriter Keir Pearson announced his plans to write a biopic about Cesar Chavez, the labor organizer who fought for the rights of migrant farm workers in the Southwest in the 1960s and 70s. The biopic seemed to have stalled out somewhere in development since that announcement, but today we're learning it's gotten a big, starry boost. Variety reports that Michael Pena is set to play Chavez in an adaptation of Pearson's script to be directed by Diego Luna, the actor known for roles in Y tu Mama Tambien and more recently Contraband. Luna has one feature film behind him, 2010's coming of age story Abel, but Chavez will likely be a whole lot bigger, and with bigger stars to go along with it. America Ferrera is set to play Chavez's wife, Helen Chavez, while Rosario Dawson will play his aide, Dolores Huerta.
- 3/7/2012
- cinemablend.com
United Farm Workers (Ufw) has announced Honorary Co-Chairs of the Ufw 50th Anniversary 2012 year-long celebration.
The distinguished group of entertainers, public officials, dignitaries and Hispanic national leaders is led by Helen Chavez, wife of founder Cesar Chavez. Among today’s named co-chairs include actors Eva Longoria, Diego Luna, Tony Plana, Lupe Ontiveros, Martin Sheen, America Ferrera, Danny Glover, Ed Begley Jr., Edward James Olmos, Benito Martinez, screenwriter Keir Pearson, musical superstars Kris Kristofferson, Taboo of the Black Eyed Peas, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-ca), U.S. Congressman Howard Berman (D-ca), U.S. Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-ca), California Senate President proTempore Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento), California Speaker of the Assembly John Perez, Rabbi Steven B. Jacobs, Cardinal Roger Mahony, Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Henry Cisneros, Executive Chairman, CityView, Dr. Robert Ross President and CEO, The California Endowment, Janet Murguia, Nclr President & CEO, Thomas A. Saenz, Maldef President and General Counsel, and Arturo Vargas,...
The distinguished group of entertainers, public officials, dignitaries and Hispanic national leaders is led by Helen Chavez, wife of founder Cesar Chavez. Among today’s named co-chairs include actors Eva Longoria, Diego Luna, Tony Plana, Lupe Ontiveros, Martin Sheen, America Ferrera, Danny Glover, Ed Begley Jr., Edward James Olmos, Benito Martinez, screenwriter Keir Pearson, musical superstars Kris Kristofferson, Taboo of the Black Eyed Peas, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-ca), U.S. Congressman Howard Berman (D-ca), U.S. Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-ca), California Senate President proTempore Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento), California Speaker of the Assembly John Perez, Rabbi Steven B. Jacobs, Cardinal Roger Mahony, Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Henry Cisneros, Executive Chairman, CityView, Dr. Robert Ross President and CEO, The California Endowment, Janet Murguia, Nclr President & CEO, Thomas A. Saenz, Maldef President and General Counsel, and Arturo Vargas,...
- 2/17/2012
- Look to the Stars
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