Vega had never acted on camera before (she was singing locally when she met the director) and, as you’d expect, she and Lelio spent a significant amount of time rehearsing beforehand. Those hours weren’t just about the film’s heartbreaking dramatic scenes, however, as “A Fantastic Woman” features some truly surreal cinematic moments as well. For much of the film, Marina wanders Santiago in a daze and there was one particular hallucinatory dance number where she literally takes to the sky that took a tremendous amount of preparation to get right.
“Just to fly? Imagine? To be able to fly? They planned the scene like three months in advance,” Vega says. “We had to find a place with a very high ceiling. We had to look for people who would be strong enough to be able to carry me and to rehearse the fly.”
Overall, Vega says she wasn’t as nervous as you might expect a first-time actor, or anyone else for that matter, to be in her situation. To say she took a very pragmatic approach to the endeavor is a slight understatement.
“The most important thing is to trust. If you get nervous you will lose. You have to be confident in what you have done,” Vega says. “Even beyond whatever is happening to you that day or your surroundings that day. If you are happy with whatever you do everything is fine.”
The experience of watching herself on the big screen? Well, that was one thing she was absolutely unprepared for. She recalls, “When I watched it the first time I felt overwhelmed. I couldn’t understand what I had seen or watched. What I had done, the way I had done it. It was like ‘Wow.’”
Try to ask Vega about any celebrities or notable names she’s been excited to meet along the film’s journey from Berlin to Toronto to Oscar and she immediately becomes the sober sage of sensible advice.
She notes, “There is nothing more beautiful than knowing you are alive and being alive means going across the street and running into a superstar and turn around and seeing someone who is totally alone and just needs good advice.”
What’s next for Vega? She says she’s writing a book about “a lot of things I have lived and experienced,” but won’t say much more than that. Oh, and don’t expect her to step away from the global spotlight anytime soon (presenting at the 90th Academy Awards will see to that).
“I would like to keep acting and singing, but I think that no one can tell me what’s going to happen tomorrow,” Vega says. “For now, I’m just gonna keep doing what I’m doing and I’m going to share my art with you guys and I am sure you guys are gonna keep watching things I’m going to do in the future. Also feel from a historical and political standpoint the world is going through a time where either we are together or we are separated. And I wanna be with the people.”
“A Fantastic Woman” is now playing in limited release.