Charise Castro Smith brings Latin experience to ‘Encanto’
‘I said, ‘I have to do this. I have to,’ Castro Smith said in an interview. She joined the project as a writer and had never been in a directing role
Charise Castro Smith, the first Latino woman to co- direct a Walt Disney Animation Studios movie, admits that she has felt terrified at times. But when the chance to work on “Encanto” came around, she had no doubts. “I said, ‘I have to do this. I have to,’” Castro Smith said in an interview with The Associated Press. She joined the project as a writer and had never been in a directing role. Castro Smith, who has a young daughter, said “it means the world to me for litle brown kids everywhere to get to see themselves and to see themselves represented in a positive way and feel seen.”
“Encanto,” which she co-directs with Jared Bush and Byron Howard, is set in Colombia — the land of magical realism — and follows Mirabel Madrigal, a teenage girl dealing with the frustration of being the only member of her family without magical powers. It opens in theaters Nov. 24.
Castro Smith and Bush also share writing credits with Lin-manuel Miranda, who created original songs for the film. The cast, led by Argentine American actor Stephanie Beatriz (“Brooklyn Nine-nine,” “In The Heights”), includes Diane Guerrero, John Leguizamo, Wilmer Valderrama and Colombian Angie Cepeda.
“Encanto’’ is undoubtedly a big step for Castro Smith, who started as a playwright and has credits as a writer for “Devious Maids.’’ She was also a producer and writer for “The Haunting of Hill House’’ and “The Exorcist.”
Her perspective as a woman raised in a Cuban American family proved useful to the job.
“Charise was a godsend from the moment she joined ‘Encanto’ and created a foundation of heart, vulnerability and authenticity that the entire film is built upon,” Bush said in an email to the AP. “From day one, she wanted to create a unique, flawed and uterly human character in Mirabel that spoke to the experiences of so many Latinas, while at the same time being relatable to audiences around the world.” Initially brought on as a writer to collaborate with Bush, Castro Smith was asked to be a co-director ater seven or eight months, she said. “So it sort of happened organically and it’s been amazing.”
She especially credits her bond with her Cuban grandmother as a source of inspiration for Abuela Alma, who is voiced in the film by Colombian actor María Cecilia Botero. “I just remember watching that (talk) show ‘Cristina’ with her a lot,” Castro Smith recalled of her own abuela. “She encouraged me a lot. She was an amazing woman. Actually, the play I wrote most recently (‘El Huracán’, or ‘The Hurricane’) is about her.”
Although Alma “is temperamentally really really different than my grandmother was... that bond and that closeness I think was something that really informed me as I was writing,” she said.
Howard could see this too. “From the very beginning, Charise knew who Encanto’s Abuela Alma needed to be, inside and out,” he wrote in an email to the AP. “Charise’s writing showing Alma’s bravery and struggle became the emotional heart of the film, and I know that much of this intimate connection with the character comes directly from the strong women in her own family.”