Amigos del Español

Viola Davis: She is the lady of the moment, the woman who changed the TV with her amazing show How to Get Away with Murder

The latest Emmy winner talked to us in the Beverly Hilton Hotel about her amazing year, her fascination with Shonda Rhymes, creator of the show, and her interest in other cultures. Seriously, who wouldn't want to be Viola Davis? 

Jennifer Garner: "I’m fluent in Spanish, love talking and reading in Spanish"

 

I recognize how wonderful is to speak in another language and have the possibility to discover different cultures through the language. It’s difficult for me to read but I do it. I force myself to keep learning. 

Christoph Waltz: a few actors are as charismatic as the Austrian Christoph Waltz. When the DVD of James Bond comes to the stands we sat with Waltz in México to talk about movies.

  There are few film franchises with as many fascinating and fun villains as James Bond, from Auric Goldfinger to Ernst Stavro Blofeld to Red Grant to Alec Trevelyan and on, and the 24th Bond film Spectre is no different. In it, Christoph Waltz plays Franz Oberhauser, a mysterious man with a mysterious connection to 007 himself. The two-time Oscar winner was very uncomfortable with some of the questions bu the chat a lot about his passion for the Opera, .....

Will Smith. He’s done it in Ali, in The Pursuit of Happiness and now in Concussion.

The story tells the tale of Dr. Bennet Omalu, the neuropathologist and  Nigerian immigrant that forever changed the game of American Football. In 2002, Omalu performed an autopsy on Mike Webster, one of the Pittsburgh Steelers' most famous players. In the years before he died, Webster had struggled with mental illness and fallen into financial ruin. 

Benicio del Toro: "But of course. I’m from Puerto Rico and I feel Latino. It’s my culture, my identity, I do speak Spanish and I embrace who I am"

Without a doubt Benicio del Toro is one of the best actors in Hollywood, and it happens to be also a proud Latino. The Oscar winning actor was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico in 1967 to lawyer parents, and moved to Pennsylvania when he was 12. In 2000 he played a police officer in Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic, for which he won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and a Bafta. He has also starred in The Usual Suspects, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Che. In his latest film, Sicario he plays Alejandro, a former prosecutor turned CIA collaborator.

 

 

 

Meryl Streep: "I think one of the best Spanish authors was Lorca. I would love to play one of the characters in any of his plays."

We are in a suite at the Ritz-Carlton in New York, with us a Hollywood legend known for playing great women, mastering accents, and generally making her mark as the greatest actress on earth.  But now it seems that Meryl Streep is enjoying a second life as a musical performer.  Having first sung in films like Postcards From the Edge and Ironweed, Streep again wowed critics and audiences alike with her singing in 2008’s hit musical, Mamma Mia. Earlier this year, she displayed her vocal agility in Into the Woods where she pushed her voice “beyond all my expectations.” Now she’s playing hard-rocking singer/guitarist in Ricki and the Flash, directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Jonathan Demme. With a very limited knowledge of Spanish the actress confesses that she would love to learn and is committed to do it in the future. Now 65, Meryl Streep is in the middle of a career renaissance that begun with her Oscar-nominated performance in The Devil Wears Prada (2006) and continued with films like Julie and Julia (2009), The Iron Lady (2011), which earned Streep her third Academy Award, and 2013’s August: Osage County.

Streep and her sculptor husband Donald Gummer live in the Tribeca area of New York. Two of their four children are actively pursuing acting careers:  daughter Mamie Gummer, 31, (Side Effects) and Grace Gummer, 29, (Margin Call, Frances Ha.)

Vin Diesel: "I am not completely fluent [in Spanish] but I can make myself understood. The Spanish culture is part of our identity"

Vin Diesel, the actor and producer behind the mega success Fast and Furious had a few minutes to talk to us about his last chapter in the franchise; Furious 7.  The movie is the highest-grossing so far this year, and explosion-filled, car-centric installment in the Fast and Furious franchise.

The series' stunts have gotten progressively more spectacular — from fairly straightforward street racing to cars dragging a bank vault through the streets, to a tank bulldozing through a freeway full of vehicles, and now — in Furious 7 — cars dropping from a plane 10,000 feet in the air. In Los Angeles we had the opportunity to interview Vin Diesel great admirer of the Spanish Culture.

 

Chris Pratt: "I don’t fly planes, I don’t know how to do furniture and yes I do speak Spanish"

The star of the moment comes to talk to us about his new status in Hollywood and his passion for Spanish food. It’s Jurassic June and this month the world gets flooded by dinosaurs thanks to the movie Jurassic World. Chris Pratt is the lead actor in this sequel of the beloved dinosaur franchise to wrangle any prehistoric monster in case things go wrong. Pratt shared his excitement to be part of Spielberg’s legacy, working with new director Colin Trevorrow and actress Bryce Dallas Howard, the preparation that went into becoming the raptor trainer Owen Grady. And if that is not enough remember that soon he can become the next Indiana Jones

Patricia Arquette

Having a dream come true this year Patricia Arquette makes history on TV as the fist female lead on the popular franchise CSI. Arquette takes the role of special agent Avery Ryan en the spinoff CSI: Cyber.  CSI: Cyber is truly the Patricia Arquette show. The first CSI to be led by a woman, this latest incarnation is very 2015 while not trying any sort of genre or franchise overreach in what has obviously been a successful endeavor for CBS over most of the past 15 years. The actress, who won last month her first Oscar for Boyhood, talked to us about her career, her choices and her family.

Quentin Trantino: "I know some Spanish, but I can't really speak it too well, my Russian is better"

The road to success leads to the place of wisdom, and there is for a few decades now lives Quentin Tarantino. His movies are a declaration of violence, blood, comedy, dialogue, style and history, usually a encyclopedic range of references to other movies. A hero who instead of going to film school learned what he knows working as a clerk in a video store. With his passion intact Quentin Tarantino keep working as hard as ever

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