Incredible Mag

An Interview with Actress and Entertainer Giannina Esquivel

<p><strong>We caught up with busy actress Giannina Esquivel to find out about her latest projects and some of her favorite roles&period; Here is what she had to say&colon;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Hi Giannina&comma; its great meeting you&period; Tell us how you first got into the entertainment industry&colon;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I am currently residing in Los Angeles&period; My first experiences with performing started when I was very young&semi; I began as I imagine many other actors have as well&colon; with a strong fascination with camcorders&excl; I was making small home movies and television shows by the time I was 10&comma; and somehow knew even back then that it would be a dream to get to continue doing it the rest of my life&period; Once I attended boarding school in Connecticut at 15&comma; I went to my first drama class and my fate was sealed&period; Ever since&comma; no matter what other subjects I endeavored to focus on&comma; I always came back to acting&period; The joy of it haunted me continuously until I finally took the plunge to commit myself to it professionally&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>What were some of your inspirations growing up&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I grew up seeing the masterpieces of cinema&period; My parents were incredibly special in the sense that they shared films with us as children that they felt were relevant to film history and to humanity in general&period; One of my early memories is getting to see &&num;8220&semi;Doctor Zhivago&&num;8221&semi; and &&num;8220&semi;Empire of the Sun&&num;8221&semi; back to back on a day when I was home sick from school&period; These were films that fed my love of cinema that has endured to this day&semi; the opportunity to tell stories about people that might have never been seen otherwise has always seemed like the greatest privilege&period; I left Costa Rica for Los Angeles because I wanted to be in the hub of it all&comma; to be around the very people that made the films I love&period; What better way to learn and to be inspired&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter wp-image-2081" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;incrediblemag&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;02&sol;Screen&lowbar;Shot&lowbar;20180305&lowbar;at&lowbar;10706&lowbar;PM&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"473" height&equals;"252" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>What kind of training have you had&comma; if any&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I started training ever since boarding school&comma; where I was always involved in the drama productions and classes&comma; and even went to LA for a summer for the NYFA acting program&period; I graduated from Swarthmore College with a major in Theatre&comma; and during my time there also attended the BADA Midsummer in Oxford program in Oxford&comma; England&period; But my most immersive training was at the Stella Adler Academy of Acting here in LA&period; I completed the two-year intensive program&comma; and learned more in my time there than I ever could have imagined&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>What has been one of your favorite roles to film so far&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It can be difficult sometimes to define my &&num;8220&semi;favorite role&&num;8221&semi;&comma; because there is always a difference between the most enjoyable role&comma; and the most challenging but ultimately rewarding role&period; Nostalgia also plays a part in it when I look back at the characters I&&num;8217&semi;ve played&period; For instance&comma; purely for nostalgic reasons&comma; I loved playing Yelena in Anton Chekhov&&num;8217&semi;s &&num;8220&semi;Uncle Vanya&&num;8221&semi;&period; It was at college and it was my first real exposure to Chekhov&&num;8217&semi;s writing&comma; which I instantly fell in love with&period; The spaces left between the words the characters say leave so much up to interpretation&comma; so much room to play&comma; that it felt like the first in depth analysis of a character and circumstances I&&num;8217&semi;d ever really done&period; As far as the most challenging and enriching role goes&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;d have to say Blanche DuBois in &&num;8220&semi;A Streetcar Named Desire&&num;8221&semi; by Tennessee Williams&comma; which probably comes as no surprise to anyone who&&num;8217&semi;s familiar with the play&period; I worked tirelessly to dive into Blanche&&num;8217&semi;s life&comma; but there is so much to pick apart&comma; so much to try and understand&comma; that I think it only left me with more questions&period; She is one of those characters that you can work on forever&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>What has been one of the biggest highlights&sol;achievements of your career so far&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Costa Rican film I was in&comma; &&num;8220&semi;Insomnio&&num;8221&semi;&comma; premiered in San Jose just this past October&period; It had been stuck in post-production for several years and was the first time I had worked on film&period; Getting to finally see the finished product and having it be in my native language Spanish and premiering in my native country filled me with so much pride&period; The Costa Rican film industry is still in its early stages despite some truly incredible work by Costa Rican filmmakers in recent years&comma; and to feel like I could be a part of it’s growth was such a joy&period; Hopefully someday I can continue to collaborate with the artists there and continue to bring attention to this tiny country&&num;8217&semi;s film industry&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>What projects do you have coming up&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I have several short films in post-production that will be released this year and submitted to film festivals&comma; and am currently working on a pilot for a new TV show&period; Stay tuned&excl; Also&comma; I am  playing the Black Dahlia in Mysteries of the Unexplained&comma; premiering in April&comma; or the short films Listen and Guardian&comma; both being released this year&comma; or maybe a mention of being on You’re the Worst on FX or Westworld season 2 on HBO&period; I’m also preparing for a tv show called Luna&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Who would you most like to work with&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There are so many women working in film and television today that I admire and would love to work with someday&period; Female directors like Ava DuVernay&comma; Nancy Myers&comma; Greta Gerwig&comma; Dee Rees and Kathryn Bigelow&comma; female show runners like Issa Rae and Amy Sherman-Palladino&comma; and actors like Nicole Kidman&comma; Laura Linney&comma; Jessica Chastain&comma; Lupita Nyongo&comma; Carey Mulligan&comma; Keira Knightley&comma; Viola Davis&comma; and Cate Blanchett&semi; I mean&comma; the list for me is endless&comma; I could keep going&period; I have such a strong respect for the women working in this industry&comma; and see so much excellence in the work they produce&period; They have set the bar high for all of us&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>What are your plans for the future&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>My future plans involve only staying in LA and continuing to work hard&period; Nothing is achieved here without hard work&comma; discipline and perhaps a drop of luck&period; Simply being a working actor in Los Angeles is a blessing and I treat it as such&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>What is your best piece of advice for aspiring artists&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&lpar;Laughs&rpar; My advice to aspiring performers is exactly what I just mentioned&colon; be prepared to work diligently&comma; and to keep an open mind&comma; open to all the different learning opportunities that life has to offer&period; Sometimes the key to a character or the solution to a problem can come from the most unlikely source&period;The moment we set aside our ego and learn to listen is an important one for actors&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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