“Sean [Anders] has an incredible manner in directing children, from the extraordinary kids in the Daddy’s Home movies to this,” says producer Marc Evans. “Having three kids in his own life means he knew what he was doing when he was watching these guys together.”
Those kids are the wonderful Gustavo Quiroz, who plays Pete and Ellie’s adoptive middle boy, Juan, and Julianna Gamiz, their youngest, Lita. Wrangling them, as oldest sibling Lizzy, is Isabela Moner, who, at 16, is not only a young woman, but one of the most sought-after talents in Hollywood.
Acting since she was 11, Moner broke out on the big screen in Transformers: The Last Knight before being snapped up for the acclaimed genre follow-up Sicario: Day Of The Soldado, being declared CinemaCon’s Rising Star of 2017, and then landing her whole-movie-stealing turn in Instant Family. Little wonder her next role is her biggest yet, fronting the live-action, blockbuster reimagining of Dora The Explorer, which will hit screens next year.
“They are all brilliant,” says Mark Wahlberg. “And Isabela, in particular, is going places, fast.”
Exclusive interview with Isabela Moner
How do you feel about this movie, now it’s finally done?
I took some friends to see one of the previews and they really, really, really enjoyed it because they’re also going through this struggle of trying to adopt a child in foster care. It was a wonderful experience for me, with only positive outcomes. From what I’ve heard from Sean, people are seriously starting to consider adopting [after seeing the movie]. And that was the mission of this film, to depict these stories in a real way, not trying to sugar-coat it like movies often do. You see the raw emotion. You’ll laugh while you cry and cry while you laugh. You’ll feel that feeling in your heart of being home with a perfect stranger.
How open was Sean to you playing with the material?
He was always open for input and willing to work with whatever I had to say, because I did have a few things to say about Lizzy’s character. He was always looking for my input because he actually originally adopted younger children, never a teenager. It’s almost like, how can these teenagers feel that they’re a part of your family if they’re only contractually obligated to you for a few more years until they no longer have to be a part of your life? Sean was definitely respectful of representing other people’s stories truthfully as well. From what I understand, he spoke with teenagers in the foster care system who grew out of the system or were adopted by families when they were teenagers and they had nothing but positive things to say about the film, as they felt they were accurately represented.
How did you feel about working with Gustavo and Julianna? Everyone says they looked up to you a lot on set...
I loved it. Gustavo is so talented and so in tune with his emotions, I can’t believe that’s possible for a boy his age. And Julianna has the biggest personality and the most charisma. Who wouldn’t want to work with that? We’d have play dates and I’d take them to parks. I still FaceTime them to this day. Julianna, I don’t know why she has a phone [laughs], but she FaceTimes me all the time. Honestly, props to Sean Anders for making it this way.
Did you meet some real foster kids to prepare for this?
Yes, because I wanted to know more about their experience. In reality, I’m a lot older than Sean’s kids when he first adopted them. So I kind of had nothing to go off. He obviously didn’t know the teenage foster experience but, again, he was very respectful with wanting to be honest with that story. It’s one thing to think, ‘Okay, if you’re a teenager in foster care you’re going to be angsty and yelling all the time.’ That’s easy to say and do. But to really dive deeper into that, and make that real connection between the birth mother and my character wanting to be that maternal force in the younger siblings’ lives, that’s a lot to hand over to a teenager and I can understand why Lizzy’s feeling so much all the time. It’s so much for someone to handle and I don’t think she realises she doesn’t have to feel that way. It’s sad because a lot of kids go through this.
I also met Sean’s kids quite early on in the process, before we started filming, and they were so cute and so sweet. Sean would tell us stories about how they would speak Spanish when they first got to [their] house because they were raised to speak Spanish, and Sean didn’t understand words they were saying and I thought that was so cute. Sean was also respectful of the fact that he wanted the children in the movie to be Hispanic, like his kids. That alone, adopting outside of your culture, is also very different and another challenge to add on top because not being able to speak the same language is a challenge I’ve never had to go through. So, again, props to him for that accurate representation.
As one of three siblings in real life, did you draw on any personal family experiences to prepare for some of the chaos of Instant Family?
Oh yes… I definitely drew from personal experience. There are a few examples: on some aspects I personally can relate to Lizzy but I feel like I have a little bit of each sibling in me. I have Lizzy’s motherly care for my younger brother, Gyo. I have Juan’s emotional side of me who just cries in any tense situation, and also his clumsy side. And then I have a little bit of Lita’s character in me where I’m just a crazy coocoo-head who plays with boxes and uses her imagination, and prefers a cardboard box over a fancy dollhouse for a Christmas gift. The chaos came very easily. The yelling in Spanish also came very easily – that’s my family’s favourite method of arguing, it’s just more fun [laughs].
But also, when I was auditioning for this, I couldn’t be there in LA because I had to be in Cleveland. I [had to] self-tape but it was at night so I spent hours setting up the lights and I put the camera on the tripod and I was getting ready to do the FaceTime audition. It was a huge risk they were taking because Mark and I were already in a movie together [Transformers: The Last Knight] and it was sort of the same kind of chemistry, and I don’t think they wanted to see me initially for that reason. But eventually they came around. Of course, as soon as we started that FaceTime call, my brother started getting ready for basketball. I don’t know why this guy thought it was a good idea. He knew I was auditioning but he decided to bounce the basketball around our home. And I was so irritated, I wanted to just bite his head off! But damn, I really miss him now. I’ve been in Australia [shooting her lead role in Dora The Explorer] and I wish he was here bouncing his basketball, annoying the hell out of me.
How do Rose [Byrne] and Mark measure up as on-screen Mom and Dad? What are they like to work with?
It’s exactly how you see it in the movie. They’re the perfect couple, they have such good chemistry. They’re both drama actors who can also be comedic actors and they’re both really silly, goofy people. I’m like, ‘Please adopt me!’ I would want them to adopt me.
Your performance in Instant Family feels like a massive moment for you. And then you're following that as none other than the world-famous Dora the Explorer. Is it fair to say you're having something of a 'moment'?
You never know when the moment is going to be the ‘moment’, you usually don’t realise it until after. I’m not projecting anything, things just happen at the right time and the right place and I’ve been really blessed. Even if it was a moment, I don’t think I’d be able to really realise. I have a hard time knowing how popular I am – do people actually know who I am, or are they like [it’s] ‘that chick from Nickelodeon’ or ‘that chick from Transformers’? [Laughs] I don’t really know, I’m not very aware of these things.
Overall, I’m really lucky to have acting as well as singing. Within acting you’re always being told what to do. You are being creative, but you’re also always being told to do something by someone. Whereas with writing and singing I find that to be my most creative outlet. At the end of the day it’s these projects and these moments that give me more material to work with and write music with.
The experience I had on Instant Family alone allowed me to write a song that I really was passionate about and poured my heart and soul into. I was very happy, honoured and appreciative to Sean for seeing the opportunity for him to put one of my songs in the soundtrack. I mean, that’s crazy! I was like, ‘Are you sure you’re not doing a charity thing? You know you don’t have to do this out of pity?’ [Laughs] I don’t know, it’s just really crazy that this is all happening. It’s so nice to be decent at something you love to do. That’s how I’m feeling about this ‘moment’ you say I’m having. That’s why choosing to do the movie after this, Dora [The Explorer], was also a huge risk for me, because I wasn’t sure if I could do it. But as soon as I got into character and studied it, it was quite easy. It’s all about getting comfortable with being uncomfortable! That’s the only way we’ll ever improve...
Instant Family arrives in UK cinemas on February 14, 2019.
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