Lorenza Izzo On the Gravity of the Moment, Leaning into Fear and the Invaluable Currency of Being Yourself
In our efforts to keep ROSE & IVY original, we are delighted that an array of talented women with upcoming projects are helping us maintain our integrity by photographing themselves home.
Sometimes you walk away from a conversation and think, wow, I really needed that today. This was the case of my recent conversation with Chilean actress Lorenza Izzo, who you probably know from the blockbuster hit Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, The Green Inferno and now, she stars as Santa Muerte in the new SHOWTIME series Penny Dreadful: City of Angels, which also includes a cast of Natalie Dormer and Nathan Lane. I spoke to Lorenza about how she’s navigating this unprecedented time period and how it’s okay to just be. So often, we feel such an immense pressure from society or ourselves to do so much—like over-perform or have long to-do lists—rather than let ourselves just sit in the moment. She speaks eloquently about how she has repeatedly chosen to lean into things that make her scared and how within failure she has grown. She also talks about how comparing and competing won’t get you anywhere and why the highest and most valuable currency of all is being yourself.
Interview by Alison Engstrom
Photography by Sara Newman | Styled by Khoi Le | Creative Direction by Sophie Tabet
first off, How are you doing and navigating this time period?
I feel like every day that will be a different answer. I’ve come to terms that the new normal will not be anything that we thought. At the beginning of the lockdown, I was thinking, it’s okay, we’ll get through this and then we will go back to normal but I had to adjust the language that I’ve been using for mental health purposes to realize that when we come out of this—it’s not so much the when it’s about the how—and how different it's going to be. But today is a good day—I feel good and not too stir crazy. I feel lucky and blessed to have a home to live in and to have a bit of financial cushion that it's not too scary but it’s certainty scary in some ways. There are things that make this one reality for one person and a whole different reality for another person. Not to say that everyone is entitled to their own pain and fear but I know that I am in a semi-good place compared to what others might be in. It’s frustrating because my immediate family—my mother, sister, grandparents and aunt—are all back in Chile where I was born and raised. I’m used to be being far from them but I’m not used to being far from them in a pandemic. It's a whole new world. There have been so many things to adjust to but what has helped the most, besides being lucky enough to be in quarantine with the person that I love, is to be aware that everyone is in the same boat and we’re all having to face this global fear which has helped. Just like me, there is another person whose family is far away; or another person has to deal with the barriers of having family issues or grieving virtually.
It’s interesting because, in a sense, it’s forcing me to be more philosophical about things. You rarely get the chance to stop and take a breath. I’m a person who is very impulsive and feels better in the chaos of going non-stop: I have this interview, then I have to learn this script, then I am going to be on set for 14-hours and if I’m not busy, I make myself busy. This time has forced me to not do that but yet I felt all of this pressure to be so creative or come up with a masterpiece! Then the pressure of being really clean and cleaning everything! And if you want to donate them donate everything! But then you physically can't get out of your house. So in a sense, you can get lost in all of these things and don’t get me wrong I’m all for doing good things—if you are in a position to help then do it and I have—but it’s been a weird way of expedited transitioning from freak-out phase to I am here for the long run, I better take a seat.
Once things do begin to settle, I've been thinking a lot about what ‘normal’ could look like. I read a powerful quote about how we shouldn’t return to normal though because normal wasn’t working.
It’s a strong one, if you think about it because the normal wasn’t working and that could go so far. I mean we could have a conversation about what capitalism means and what it’s gotten to mean. I can speak on my own perspective from where I come from in Chile; we were having a very big social crisis that started in October because of the mega-gap we have between the ruling class—the rich people—and the poor people. It’s a mass movement we have seen repeated and there were all of these big things happening, mainly led by younger people. Millennials, our generation, get hit on so much. We had to deal with the biggest recession in 2008 and now it’s a double whammy with this one. As a Millennial, I feel so underwhelmed by both the Chilean and US governments. We come out of college with so much debt and there isn’t anyone supporting us politically, or in our values and what we strive for. So going back to what you said, I don't want the old normal, I want a new normal because the old one was not working. We need to change a lot of things. I want positive collective energy to go somewhere and to make the change and to be the change. I think it's so important right now.
“I don’t want the old normal, I want a new normal because the old one was not working. We need to change a lot of things. I want positive collective energy to go somewhere and to make the change and to be the change.”
I completely agree, i don’t want to go back to the way things were either. Now to switch gears and talk about how things began for you, were you always interested in performing growing up?
I think I was, unbeknownst to me, but as an art. I was such a goofball, you know playing with paints—I was obsessed with painting rocks. I had quite the knack for performing, however, in my teenage years, I think it was more about entertaining my friends than seeing acting or painting as a passion. I thought they were more like hobbies. I come from a family of models and it was a very hard-working generation. My mom had me when she was 19 years old, it was my mom and two sisters, they came out of the 1973 dictatorship and times were tough for them and they became models out of necessity. Of course, they are beautiful people, but they had to work their asses off, they didn't have the opportunity to go to college. So I came from a household where studying was very important and also having a proper career. I think consciously, I always pushed back that I wanted to act or be artistic, however, when push came to shove, there was no denying it. The first time I was in a play, I was probably tree number three or four in the back, but I was obsessed! From that experience, I knew I really wanted to be on stage because I had an early understanding of how good it felt. But I didn't do it professionally until I was 18. I moved to New York to live with my aunt, who is a model, and I studied at Lee Strasberg but New York felt too damn scary to me. I was too much of a baby and I missed my mom. I moved back to Chile to finally caved into her wishes and studied journalism for two years. It wasn’t until my first year in college, where I saw an ad for a student film. I booked the film and I got paid for it—it was so much fun. Then I booked another movie, but then I started failing in class and I was like, mom sorry, I tried, but I really know what I want to do. By that time, she was like, I always knew it but I had to make you try.
“I realized very early on that anything I was scared of was a sign that I needed to do it. I say yes before I think if I am prepared for it or not. I’d rather say yes then figure it out then say no and regret it. ”
You leaned into fear and I feel like people like you are destined for greatness because even though you feel it, you keep going. So when did you move to the US?
I moved here seven years ago because I had just done a movie called Aftershock, this Chilean/American production that was about the earthquake that happened in 2010. The producer and lead was my now ex-husband Eli Roth and unbeknownst to me, he grabbed my audition tape, which was in American English. I got the role because they had been looking in LA and New York for this one part they couldn’t find, so they opened the casting to Chilean actresses who could speak perfect English, at the time no one knew I could speak it like an American. They decided my tape was really good and they sent it to a couple of agents and casting directors—Kelly Wagner was one of the casting directors—and she loved it and sent it to a couple of agents. I got an email asking if I was interested in moving to LA and trying out acting here. And I was like yes! I packed my bags, moved to LA and I booked a role in Hemlock Grove which was the first Netflix show ever done. I remember people asking me, Netflix is doing a TV show? (laughs). We were so ahead of our time with it. Looking back at the show, yes, it was that fearlessness of just saying yes and jumping for opportunities, then it was the next seven years of just figuring out what a crazy life Hollywood actually is. I’ve had ups and downs, but mainly downs. I have learned so much from them it’s all been a freaking rollercoaster ride.
What’s one thing that you’ve learned about yourself?
I’ve learned how resilient I am. I don’t give myself enough credit. I think that for women, it's harder because we have to have to fight for what we believe in. I am a Latina actress and I’m very proud of being a woman of color but it took me a lot to understand what that actually meant. I didn’t think that I was even worthy of that title, because I am white-looking and I can get away with those types of parts. It took me a long time to accept and love who I am. All the parts that were available for me to audition for were the housekeeper or the young sexy girl, then it was all cops, I remember a pilot season, where I was going out for all of these roles but they were all just tough Latina cops. Why do we get so pigeonholed? But I have seen things change and its felt like natural growth for me. I like to call myself a feminist in progress; I’m always, working on myself, understanding where I am at, loving who I am and also loving everyone around me.
I came from a sexist, conservative, male celebratory country and society—I think living in America has shifted that for me. When I lived here when I was young—it's where I learned English—it opened my mind about how different things could be, not just the way your parents or how society teaches you to be is the only way to go about it. There has been massive inner growth and I’ve seen my industry also grow. We still have a lot to do but it's certainly inspiring and enlightening to see how many people are standing up for what they believe in and doing what they want, with fear, but without it letting them stop them. I was so scared of failing but you have to fail; it’s within the failure that I am going to grow. As an actor, I get a lot of no’s, I think that’s one thing I was so scared of. It's interesting as humans, I realized that I went after things that I was most scared of—it was failure or not being loved or liked and I have these issues of abandonment, and every month or so I will have it. I’m like, what am I doing, why did I choose this, it's too hard. It’s nice to say out loud that yes, I am sensitive and this is very hard.
“If I go around comparing myself to other people, I am not going to get anywhere. ”
I think all of that rejection can build character, because eventually you can look back and say, wow, look what I did because I didn’t give up.
It also changes what you value. At the beginning, all I cared about was booking roles, red carpets and being famous just for the sake of more opportunities. Whereas today, it's so different from what I care about and what matters more to me because it's certainly not that, I mean it’s fun—bring it on, love it—but it’s not what I am most concerned about.
Your latest project is playing Santa Muerte in Penny Dreadful: City of Angels. Can you share more about how that role came to be and your character? Tell us about getting into character with the costume and makeup!
It was three to four hours of makeup every day and I had three teams working. The wardrobe, which is so intricate, took a whole year of preparation because there was so much research and we didn’t want to step on the toes of the legend that already exists. We wanted to be respectful of the culture and in the meantime come up up with our own. I had to have about five people to help me get into the costume. The makeup took about an hour and a half, then I had special effects because I wore prosthetics. John Logan is a masterful creator, he’s such a widely talented producer and Michael Aguilar, another producer was there working and I felt so supported, even though it was a massive production. There was an entire world built, but it did feel very intimate, warm and safe. Every day was such a treat and then such a pain to take off the makeup. I wasn't shooting every day but my character has a strong presence because she is intense and when you watch the series, you’ll see she’s always fighting Magda, who is played by Natalie Dormer, who is an incredible actress. Adriana Barraza is one of the most incredible actresses in our Latin community, you’ll be floored by her acting, it’s on another level. Nathan Lane, I can’t even begin, when we were on set together, which wasn’t very often because we didn't have that many scenes together, I wanted to hug him so hard. He is the funniest person, so smart and so much fun to have on set. For me, to be a Latina and work with a mainly Latin cast in such a big production, it's so unprecedented and wildly important. John Logan is self-aware, very informed and mindful of how he goes from the page to the screen—he’s apart of every single step. I’ve done television before, where you are let loose, but here was a very specific system, there were certain things we were trying to get out. You don’t get to make up dialog, the words are the words. By the time I had the contacts in and the costume, I became her. It was my first time when I took off the costume and makeup that I actually was leaving the part at the trailer.
“I was so scared of failing but you have to fail; it’s within the failure that I am going to grow.”
“How much are you willing to do for your dreams versus for yourself and then where do those things collide and come together in a good way?”
How did the role come to you?
Wow, this is a Hollywood story! I’m not at a point where I get everything offered to me, I actually love auditioning because I feel like I’ve really earned the role. At the beginning I hated it, it’s such a mind game with a completely different set of skills. But this one, I was offered to me by John Logan himself. He had seen my work and said that he had been following it. One day, I get a call from my team and they asked if I knew who John Logan was, I was like the John Logan who wrote Gladiator, Casino Royale and The Aviator? And they said yes, that one! They said he wanted to meet with me for a role and I just lost my shit, I couldn’t believe it. At the time, I was still on hold for an Amazon pilot lead, but by that time, I knew it wasn’t going to go, but I didn’t know if this new role would work out. I didn’t have the offer, but it felt that way. I got released from the pilot and I got a call from my team and I couldn’t believe it.
What is one thing that you know now that you didn't know before but wish you did?
It’s not so recent, but it's something that I have to remind myself every once in a while because I forget. Comparing and competing with other people is going to get me nowhere. I tend to compare where I’m at to where I thought I should be. It's going to get me nowhere. When I first got here I thought I would win an Oscar! I’m a super superstitious human being with my work. When I audition for something, I don’t tell a soul about it because so many things can happen in that room to getting the call to actually going on set. I’ve gone through pilot season, when you sign the papers and see how much money you’ll make and then the show doesn’t go. In the movie world, it’s been such a struggle to get my name out there because there are so many beautiful and talented actresses that look like or have the same vibe as me and it gets so competitive, but the whole point of acting is that it shouldn’t be that. So the thing I am learning today is that I have to stay in my lane.
One of my managers said something beautiful to me not so long ago: when you’re in your car and you’re driving, if you’re only looking at the signs you are going to get into a car accident. If you’re only looking ahead of you, you will too. There are a lot of sayings like this but it's essentially about focusing on you. Do you, because everyone else is taken. It’s so important because you can only be yourself at the end of the day. You can try to play the game and say, if I did this, or looked like this or cut my hair, lost weight or gained weight, but no one cares. We are all attracted to originality, authenticity and talent. There is a fine line between doing everything for what your dreams are versus taking a more healthy approach for yourself. I think as you get older those things start coming together more. How much are you willing to do for your dreams versus for yourself and then where do those things collide and come together in a good way? Be ambitious, obviously go for it, but then at the same time, how far do you want to go. This industry can get really nasty sometimes. There is one side which is the craft, it’s collaborative and you need other people to make television, movies and to tell stories, but you can't compete with them because you need other people to create these wonderful stories for everyone to see. If I go around comparing myself to other people, I am not going to get anywhere.
Besides acting do you have any interest to write or produce in the future?
There is a movie that is called Women Is Losers, that I produced and starred in but because of all that has happened to our world, the festival run was cut short, but we are hoping for 2021, we will go for it again. I am writing, which is something that I was always scared of—if I was actually a writer. I love telling stories but I have had such a fear of the title ‘writer’, it’s the biggest and most difficult job in the world. I have a lot of ideas and things I want to do. I mean, as said at the beginning, I am a little scared of it so why not do it?