Daniela Vega stars in the Oscarnominated “A Fantastic Woman.”
Chilean filmmaker Sebastián Lelio hit an impasse while writing early drafts of his new film, “A Fantastic Woman,” the emotionally potent story of love and loss starring trans actress Daniela Vega. The movie has been nominated for an Academy Award for best foreign film.
Lelio was researching the lives of transgender women for his main character, Marina Vidal, a trans waitress and amateur singer who must contend with the sudden death of her older boyfriend. “I felt I couldn’t continue writing and wasn’t sure I should even make the film unless more was revealed to me,” said Lelio, about the specific experiences and indignities faced by members of the trans community in Santiago, where the film is set.
“And then several people said to me, ‘You should meet Daniela (Vega). She is a singer, she has some acting experience and she is — well, fantastic.”
Audiences all over the world have roundly agreed. Since touring “A Fantastic Woman” on the international film festival circuit this fall, Vega has received widespread raves for her breakout performance and her ability to convey Marina’s unshakable dignity in the face of society’s overwhelming scorn and derision.
The film’s recent Oscar nomination marks a significant milestone, as it’s the first movie ever nominated with a trans actor in the lead. (In the documentary category, Yance Ford, a trans man who directed “Strong Island,” also made history as the first nominated transgender filmmaker.)
Lelio recalls being “blown away” by the naturally gifted 28-year old Vega’s “complexity and beauty, and most of all her strength to cope. When I met her she was working in a hair salon, doing some theater. She had only one student film under her belt,” he said during a recent visit to San Francisco.
Vega started working with Lelio at first as a story consultant, but in the process of becoming friends and honing the script together, “toward the end of all the writing I realized she was the one,” Lelio said. “I realized my adviser was my star.”
“It was a very organic process, and very natural — as these things should be,” said Vega, apologizing for being late as she arrived in an interview room at the Fairmont Hotel dressed head-to-toe in bright red — red knit dress, red beret, red lipstick.
In conversation with Vega, it becomes understandable why the word “natural” comes up repeatedly. Her appearance may be fabulously stylish, but it’s clear that one of her motivating beliefs, in her own life as well as in her mesmerizing portrayal of Marina, is that “some things, some rights, are so universal, so natural, they shouldn’t even be questioned,” she said in Spanish, speaking through a translator.
As Marina, Vega spends most of “A Fantastic Woman” in a state of shocked grief. Her pain at losing her lover, Orlando, is compounded by the people around her, from doctors and law enforcement to Orlando’s transphobic family, who belittle her romantic union, question her identity (Orlando’s ex-wife calls her a chimera) and, most tragically, discredit her right to love and even to grieve.
“One gets exhausted having to explain things over and over,” said Vega. “We are just people, right? And for the simple fact of being born, we have certain human rights. The film deals with that subject and asks, ‘Who said certain lives and loves can be lived, and others cannot? And why can’t they be?’ ”
Lelio said “the film not only poses the question, ‘What is a woman?’ But also, ‘What is a film?’ In Spanish, the same word, ‘genre,’ refers to one’s sexual identity as well as narrative cinematic style. I realized I would make a trans-genre film — part romance, thriller, character study, fantasy — about a transgender woman.”
When people misunderstand and question Marina, “they are really projecting their own fantasies, desires and fears upon someone they don’t know much about. That’s why it was important to create an enigma at the heart of the story,” said Lelio. He is now working on an Englishlanguage remake of his 2013 film “Gloria,” starring Julianne Moore.
“In one of ‘Fantastic Woman’s’ most powerful moments, Daniela looks
“The film not only poses the question, ‘What is a woman?’ But also, ‘What is a film?’ In Spanish, the same word, ‘genre,’ refers to one’s sexual identity as well as narrative cinematic style.”
Sebastián Lelio, director
straight into the lens, as if she is asking you, ‘What do you think when you see me? Do you see a woman? A man? A human being? A crazy person? Someone who should be locked up? Someone who deserves to say goodbye to her lover?’ ”
“The whole thing is an exercise in empathy,” said Vega.
“It was all or nothing casting Daniela in this,” said Lelio. “Either she’d succeed in the mission of carrying the film on her shoulders and making Marina a fascinating cinematic creature, or the whole thing would sink.”
Given the glowing reviews and recent Oscar nod, it was clearly a gamble worth taking.
“I am recognized in many parts of the world,” said Vega when asked how her life has changed. “Yet I don’t always remember that I am now in magazines (including a stunning spread in W Magazine, with a shot of Vega reclining with Robert Pattinson’s head on her lap). I am still living the same life, it’s just with more clothing, more outfits and more shoes.”