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[0:00] Martín Acuña: Hi, everyone. I am Martín Acuña, and you're listening to Backstage Talk.

[0:10] Martín Acuña: Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Backstage Talk. I am so excited for this premiere season episode and this wonderful, wonderful guest that we have today because I am over the moon to introduce you all to Ana Villafañe. I'm fangirling right now. I'm so nervous. I've been waiting to have this conversation for so long. Ana, you've seen her in a bunch of stuff, but mainly as the lead creator of an incredible Broadway character based on the pop icon, Gloria Estefan, in the Broadway production of On Your Feet. And I know that Ana has a lot of things to tell us today because right now she is in London. But yeah, I'll just stop right there because Ana, thank you so much for being here.

[1:11] Ana Villafañe: Thank you. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited. We really have been talking about this for like years. But it's funny how things happen because I think the timing is perfect. And to start the new season for you and also just with everything that I have going on, I think this is the universe needed it to be now. So I'm so excited. Thank you.

[1:31] Martín Acuña: No, thank you. You were a sweetheart when I met you at the Azul, a new musical concert back in New York in May this year. And it was just like a highlight of my trip to New York to see you performing, to finally meet you, get to hug you, get to invite you personally and not only over email. So what else do we need to know about you?

[1:55] Ana Villafañe: Oh, my gosh. I mean, where to begin, right? I feel like we can't be defined by our jobs or by even, you know, an hour long episode of a podcast. I feel like like you just mentioned, you know, there's been so much going on. I think that people are so excited to be working again ever since, you know, post pandemic. And I think that in the artistic field, especially there's such a hunger to create and especially to, I think, uplift voices that weren't amplified before. So that has felt really exciting because like I feel like the world and definitely our industry has been serious about that. You know, there's always more we can do. But I think that I have seen such a shift and it's been beautiful.

And like you said, we met at Azul, which was at Joe's Pub, which was amazing. And it's such an incredible piece to be a part of. And then now I am in London starting rehearsals tomorrow for the new musical Sinatra for the world premiere of Sinatra. I can't believe that they've never done a Sinatra musical until now. And I'm just so excited because I'm playing the role of the iconic movie star, Ava Gardner. And so which was, of course, his wife. And it's just it's so exciting. It's so, so, so exciting. And I look at my career and I'm like, wow, like I've been able to play these women who are real, real life women, not fictional characters who are exciting and powerful and strong and sexy and intelligent. And and and just I mean, you said it best, iconic. So I'm excited. I'm very excited.

[3:50] Martín Acuña: Oh, my God. I cannot believe you're going to be in Sinatra. That is so exciting.

[3:55] Ana Villafañe: I know. I can't believe it either. It's so weird. Everywhere I go, obviously, like we're surrounded. Our lives are always inundated with Sinatra music. Like it's so pervasive and it's such a like cultural. I don't know. It's just everywhere. He's everywhere. And his artistry reaches like transcends everything, like certainly continents as I'm out here and everyone's freaking out about this. And then it's really, really cool. So I'm excited. It's wild, too, because it's the Sinatra estate, you know, and it's universal music. So now I'm like House of Estefan, House of Sinatra. And I'm like, wait, how did this happen? Like, you know, I'm just really, really grateful.

[4:40] Martín Acuña: That is insane. But I want to dial a little bit back, but only to mention to the listeners, this is also your Western debut. So you did your Broadway debut almost 10 years ago with On Your Feet. And now you're doing your Western debut with Sinatra. That is mind-blowing.

[4:58] Ana Villafañe: Yes, I know. I'm so excited. It's such a bucket list item. It's funny because like I have very specific things on my bucket list and West End has definitely been up there. A lot of people don't know this, but I was offered to do the West End when On Your Feet came out here. But at the time I was in a contract with ABC and Disney in L.A. and so I didn't get to do it. So ever since then, I have like that little frustration that I want to do it even more, you know. And so so I'm really excited. I also it's also my second time now originating a Broadway musical because it is going to transfer to Broadway. So it's very exciting. And, you know, we're just getting I mean, I guess at the time this episode airs, we'll be already in rehearsals.

But but right now, while we're recording it, I'm starting tomorrow. So I have all my little I'm like nervous, but I'm excited. I'm excited to meet everybody because these people are going to be in my life for a long time. And, and, you know, it's just it's I look at my I'm smiling like a child and you're glowing. I mean, look at you living the dream.

[6:08] Ana Villafañe: Thank you. Mind you, off a flight that I did not sleep because I was reading. So Ava Gardner has a book and I, of course, you know, if I'm going to be doing a bio, any kind of biographical piece, I dive into the deep end of the pool and I do all my research and stuff like anybody who saw On Your Feet knows how detailed and intricate I was in terms of the responsibility of playing Gloria. And then I just did a movie where I was playing a woman, Alina Fernandez, who is also real and who was on set with me the whole time. So, like, again, it's that responsibility to really honor these women. And then now Ava, she's she passed away a long time ago. But but I've been watching all her films and watching documentaries on her.

And I just started her book last night when when the plane took off. And I assumed that, you know, maybe 20 pages in, I would feel tired and fall asleep. And then I'll just pick up the book here, like, you know, after rehearsals and stuff. And no, I didn't sleep at all. I was just there like reading like a nerd just because, you know, it's informing so much. So. So, yeah, I'm I'm so tired, but I'm so happy and I'm so excited that I don't care. And I'm one of those weird people, too, that when I check into a hotel, I completely unpack, like I move in. Yeah. So as soon as I got here, I did that. And, you know, so it's it's exciting.

[7:37] Martín Acuña: Oh, my God. First, thank you. I want to go back to your beginnings. I know that you are Miami. You were born and raised in Miami before.

[7:46] Ana Villafañe: I was raised, not born.

[7:52] Martín Acuña: Oh, but yes, raised, raised in Miami. I was born in Atlanta.

[7:59] Ana Villafañe: Yes. Oh, Miami, Georgia. Everybody thinks I was born. Yeah. Miami, Miami grown.

[8:07] Ana Villafañe: Yes, exactly. But the Miami is very accentuated because obviously because of my career, because of playing Gloria. And I definitely had a Miami accent when I moved to L.A. because I so I was born in Atlanta, raised in Miami. I got signed my senior year of high school and that took me out to L.A. and I went to college out there and I got a degree in opera at LMU. And but all the while I was already working there, already had an agent. So I was going to auditions and doing commercials and, you know, doing working my way up the system, just like. Oh, doing all of the all of the things, a lot of like co-star roles and then eventually guest star roles and, you know, the the way that it that it happens, all of the paying my dues all happened in L.A. And then and then in 2014, when they were doing the worldwide search for Gloria, I had already graduated from school.

I was like teaching, spinning at different gyms in L.A. and and acting. And then. I heard about this musical happening and about and about, you know, the Estefans doing their story on stage on Broadway, and I was like, I really want to audition for this. And my team, my former team, my agents and my managers of that time, they were like, no, you're not a Broadway girl. But I grew up doing musical theater. So my heart I was like, you don't get to tell me what I am. I tell you what I am. I know what I am. I know what I can bring to the table. And it was just calling me. And I felt this like ridiculous, almost like like a magnet calling me to that show. And and finally I gave them an ultimatum and I sat them down and I was like, if you don't get me in the door, I'm going to find new representation.

And they did get me in the door and I was flown. They sent a video to Gloria's lawyer and Rick Topico and of me singing. And they're like, there's this girl, she's Cuban, she's out in L.A. and she would love to come audition. And they were down to the wire. They had come down to like three girls through the worldwide search they had been doing for months. And so they flew me to New York for two days and I auditioned for Jerry Mitchell, our director, and then I had the call back the next day for Jerry, for Sergio Trujillo, the choreographer, for all the producers at Nederlander and for the Estefans. And that night when I left the audition, I sang Anything for You, Rhythm is Gonna Get You and One, Two, Three.

And when I left the audition, I was shaking. I was completely shaking and I was like numb, like my brain, I like blacked out. And I'm walking the streets of New York just to like get my adrenaline down. And I was like, I really need a drink. And I meet up with my friend to go get a drink. I was like, I need a glass of champagne. I'm freaking out. I just had my first Broadway audition ever. And I got the phone call that I got the job that night.

[11:09] Ana Villafañe: Oh my God. Yeah. So that's the story. And that's what took me to New York. Yeah, that was October. That was the that was the end of September of 2014. And I had two weeks to completely move out of my apartment in LA, break my lease, all the things I just dropped my entire life and move to New York. And I thought it was gonna be like six months I still had my car, my car was at my best friend's house. I was like, Oh, I'll be back, you know, soon, because no one ever assumes that their show is going to be a hit or let alone a worldwide, like, oh, an international hit. And, and we just made that thing with so much love. And we just poured so much of ourselves into it. And, and I never left New York.

[12:04] Martín Acuña: I love that. I love that. Oh, my God, that is so much. I want to ask you, how has your heritage influenced your artistry? Because you also, I mean, you played this Latin worldwide icon and on your feet, but also you grew up being Cuban American. And that obviously must have somehow influenced all your artistry growing up, going to your college in LA, working in LA, and then going to New York and now going to London.

[12:33] Ana Villafañe: Yes, definitely. I credit my family. I credit the way that I was raised. My parents have instilled a lot of pride in me and my siblings. We never grew up ashamed of who we are at all. You know, Spanish is my first language. I didn't really start speaking English more until I moved to LA, to be honest with you. Because in Miami, I mean, everybody's kind of speaking Spanish on the deal. And so my dad is from El Salvador, and he came to this country when he was 16. And my mom is Cuban. And, you know, we were just, I was just taught to own that with such pride and to bring it into whatever room I step into as an added bonus that everybody gets to receive. You know, I also think it does help that I grew up in an environment where Latinos are very much front and center and, you know, the majority in Miami. So growing up seeing Latino CEOs,

[15:46] Martín Acuña: With your answer, I just love it. Thank you so much for sharing that. I want to know, what is the best thing about being a Latin artist?

[15:58] Ana Villafañe: I think the best thing about being a Latin artist is having the humility to learn and to expand, but also having the courage to claim where I come from and bring that with me anywhere. And that ends up, I think, showing in my work. I don't think it's by mistake. I don't think it's a coincidence that the roles I've gotten to play, and especially now, stepping into my first, I guess, non-Latina role, I don't think it's a coincidence that they are so strong, that they are so courageous, that they are so deeply sensitive to the world and empathetic. I think that being Latina has given me that worldview, has given me that perspective, has given me that power within myself, because I don't just look at things in one way.

We draw from what we know. So it's like our view is just a little bit bigger. I love that. Because I'm not just one thing. I think that that's where a lot of actors get stuck into holes, right? I'm not just one thing. I've never had the luxury of being just one thing. I've always been Cuban and Salvadoran and American, and it's all the yes ands. And that's the most interesting characters, because if a character is just the bad guy, that's one-dimensional anyway. So as my culture has informed me to be multi-dimensional, all of my characters get that too.

[17:43] Martín Acuña: I absolutely love that, because I think that when we have... We always, as performers, bring something from our personal luggage into the character. But when we can bring much more things, and as you just said, have a multi-dimensional, really multi-dimensional character that we are portraying, it's just beautiful. And it's not only you can play Latin characters because you're Latin. It's how your Latin baggage can inform any other type of characters that maybe are non-Latin, that maybe are from the other side of the world. And I think that is beautiful.

[18:25] Ana Villafañe: Yeah, it's amazing. It's also just like... We have all these superpowers that we really don't even notice or think about, right? Like, I shot a movie last summer in Colombia, right? And it was amazing, because I had never been working... Well, I'd never lived in Latin America, first of all, because Miami... We always joke that Miami is Northern Latin America, but it's not, right? So living in Colombia for so many months and working there, the crew was entirely Spanish-speaking. My director is from Spain, Miguel Bardem. And so he spoke predominantly in Spanish. And he would switch a little bit when he had to speak to certain people, but the movie itself is in English. The script is in English, and I had to perform the script in English with a very thick Cuban period accent of like the 70s, 80s, 90s. And then in real life, if I would turn to my co-star, James Franco, or to when my boyfriend was in town visiting or whatever, like somebody that speaks only English, I would be speaking how I'm speaking to you right now, in a neutral English, my normal day-to-day English.

So the crew would always be astonished at how fast I would be switching from regular English to my in-character, in-accent English, and then my fluent Spanish, because it's my first language. And it's just like, we don't realize that that's actually really cool. Because to us, it's normal. If you have whatever culture you're from, it doesn't have to be Latin, but if you are, for example, I have a friend who's an actress who's Chinese-American, and when you can just switch like that, that is actually, people get taught that in schools. And when you think about these conversations about accents and about actors with accents, and it's like, well, how many languages do you speak? Because if you want to be criticizing somebody for having an accent, that person can literally speak multiple languages. One, maybe two, maybe three, and that's a superpower. Whereas the people doing the criticizing sometimes, it's like, just get yourself Rosetta Stone, you know what I mean? You can do it.

[20:44] Ana Villafañe: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And actually, this whole week, I've been telling some friends, I always send the modern family scene clip in which Sofia Vergara is like fighting with her husband and her kids saying like, you don't know how smart I am in Spanish, because I have to translate everything in real time. And it's so true. Like us bilingual, trilingual people, we have to, we have the languages in our brains, and we have to literally on real time translate stuff. And it's so funny. It's so funny. I've never, you know, just now, right before this sitting down, this conversation, I was at high tea with Kathleen Marshall, my director, and with Scott Landis, my producer for Sinatra. And it was so interesting because I had, I guess, because I started in a show that was, I mean, it was the first show ever on Broadway to hire a truly authentic Hispanic cast.

Yay, Emilio Estefan. And then, but it's weird to go from that to then this element, being out here in London. And she's like, so do you speak Spanish? And I was like, yes. Like, you know, so it's like, it's interesting. It's the code switching that we do and the way that we carry ourselves, that we're able to carry ourselves and shape shift in all these different, in all these different elements, depending on where we're standing. Like if you put me, I mean, case in point, I'm here in London, I'm at high tea, and I'm being asked if I even speak Spanish, whereas in Colombia, they were shocked that I was speaking English. You know what I mean? So it's really interesting. And I think that that's a really, I mean, we are, wherever you're from, again, it's not just about being Latin, but being an artist that is of a different culture and that brings that culture with them, like you really are, I mean, you're the entire world in one person and that being able to access all of that is delicious and will be so incredibly powerful, whether it's on stage or on screen or if you're writing or if you're, you know, because you have all of that world within you. And that's so cool.

[23:00] Martín Acuña: Yes. One of my last questions for you is who is your biggest Latin inspiration?

[23:07] Ana Villafañe: Wow. Wow. Oh my God. What a, what a question. I mean, it would be impossible not to say Gloria's one, like up there, like top three, because obviously, hello. But I think I would say, I mean, there are so many people. I look at AOC, I look at Celia Cruz, today's 20 years since the passing of Celia Cruz, right? Yes. I mean, let's go with that. Today is the 20th. I mean, she changed the game and she brought herself so authentically and talk about courage, talk about being a pioneer and just showing up and wearing those colorful wigs and all of the wardrobe and just being unapologetically herself and being, and unmistakably so because now you look back and you're like, oh, that's Celia, like you, you, you, the feathers and the purple hair and the whatever, like, like she had her trademark things that nobody else was doing.

And you think of this during a time when, when she was one of one, you know, and, and especially as a woman, that is, that is bad-ass. Am I allowed to say bad-ass? Am I allowed to say a bad word? Okay, great. That is bad-ass to me. Like to, to have that type of azúcar, I mean, hello. She said the word best herself, but she, she's, we're going to go with Celia Cruz today.

[24:48] Martín Acuña: I love that. I love that. My last question for you is what are your top five favorite musical theater shows?

[24:52] Ana Villafañe: Rent. Rent is like forever. I'm such a rent head. I actually live in the East Village because I have romanticized Rent my whole life. Gypsy. I love Gypsy. I really want to play Mama Rose one day when I'm una señora, you know? Okay. Top five, top five. I, gosh, okay. Rent, Gypsy, musical theater, not, not plays as well.

[25:25] Martín Acuña: You can add them if you want to.

[25:27] Ana Villafañe: Okay. I would say Hedda Gabler because that's another, that's another role I want to play. So that's a straight play. I would say, wow, I'm like drawing a blank. Maybe this is the part where the jet lag happens. I mean, In the Heights I still like to this day I'll go for a run and I'll just listen to the cast album, the original cast album of In the Heights. It was a game changer, absolute game changer. It got me through college. I would, I would walk around like crying, lonely, homesick when I was living in LA and didn't know anybody. And I would just be like, you know? So definitely In the Heights. And then one more. I, this is so hard. I'm trying to think of like what I've seen recently. Pop five. Oh, I'm going to be so mad at myself when I can't think of something. I'm going to leave it open. I'm going to leave it open.

[26:35] Martín Acuña: Perfect. I can't, I can't think of it.

[26:38] Ana Villafañe: I love it. No, no worries. I love that. I know this has been absolutely a dream come true. Thank you so much for being here, for being part of this Ladins in musical theater special. You know how much I love you, so I don't need to like restate that, but you're going to be great in London. I cannot wait to see you back. Not only on the West End, but on Broadway with Sinatra. Thank you so much for being here.

[27:04] Ana Villafañe: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[27:09] Martín Acuña: Thanks everyone for listening. Thanks everyone for listening to this new episode of Backstage Talk. Remember to follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Backstage Talk Podcast.