Wizard Of Oz is given the TV treatment.

Adria Arjona puts her best foot forward as she hits the Yellow Brick Road for a TV remake of The Wizard Of Oz. Kerry Harvey reports.

Her trip down the Yellow Brick Road left Adria Arjona battered, bruised and scarred but the actress wouldn’t have it any other way.

In fact, the 25 year old is still stunned at being cast to follow in the footsteps of Judy Garland and play Dorothy in Emerald City, a modern television remake of The Wizard Of Oz.

“Oh man, it was a huge deal and I think it was an even bigger deal because, yes, it’s an iconic American character but also I am Hispanic,” Arjona says, from China where she is filming Pacific Rim: Uprising.

“It was also a big realisation moment for me that the world was changing, that people did want to see Hispanics that weren’t only prostitutes or drug dealers or maids or cops. The opportunity to play an American icon as a Hispanic, it was such an honour.

“That also helped me put aside Judy Garland’s performance. It was obviously something so different I thought I’m just going to stay true to my script and perform what I think this story should be like.”

Emerald City tells the story of 20-year-old nurse Dorothy Gale, who is swept up into the eye of a tornado and transported to a mystical land where an all-powerful ruler, known as The Wizard (Criminal Intent’s Vincent D’Onofrio), has outlawed magic. As she travels the Yellow Brick Road (or here as a yellow road of opium poppy pollen), Dorothy is accompanied by amnesiac Lucas (Oliver Jackson-Cohen).

“I cannot believed we walked the Yellow Brick Road. I played it really cool while I was on set but afterwards I was a wreck,” Arjona confesses.

“I couldn’t believe I was walking on the Yellow Brick Road, that I was filming in Spain, that I was a lead in this show. There was just so much excitement going on and I felt a lot of pride.”

Mindful of the life-changing experience her first lead role offered, Arjona threw herself into the part, even insisting on doing her own stunts.

“I watch the show and I’m really proud of the fact that I did all the stunts,” she says.

“The only thing I wasn’t really allowed to do was ride the horse. They did draw the line there. They knew me too well. I’m a big fan of speed and they’re like, ‘No, this girl is going to go flying on that horse’. They did let me drive and I think they learned their lesson there.

“I had multiple bruises from this show, ridiculous amounts, but I took such great pride in them. I never looked at it as a complaint; it was more like, ‘I’m kicking ass’. I flaunted them to everyone. I have two or three scars from the show and they’re like my little gems. I love them.”

Just as real is the countryside Dorothy passes through on her way to see the wizard. Emerald City was filmed in Spain, Croatia and Budapest and was, says Arjona, a big adventure.

“There was very little CGI in this, which is unbelievable because everything looked like it might be CGI, but we filmed on very real locations. Everything was pretty much real, especially the exteriors.

“Everything on the Yellow Brick Road, the Wicked Witch of the East’s Castle, all of that is real and everything else was in the studio.

“Our art department was phenomenal, they were geniuses. They built all these sets that just made you feel like you were part of that world. You could just walk around everywhere and open any door, any drawer and you had elements of the person who lived in that castle or in that home. It was pretty unbelievable.”

The actress says there were many times she felt like she, too, was on a journey just like her character.

“There were a lot of things about Dorothy that I related to while filming this,” she says.

“I was miles and miles away from home in a land I had never been to before and getting to know (cast and crew) and falling in love with them.

“Towards the end it was so hard to go back home. I wanted to stay but I also wanted to go and a lot of those things are feelings that Dorothy is going through.”

“It was also a big realisation ... people did want to see Hispanics that weren’t only prostitutes or drug dealers or maids or cops.” – Adria Arjona, pictured with Oliver Jackson-Cohen