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- So you are presenting
or you're playing Selena

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and you're presenting her songs.

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And I know you've said
there's like a lot of pressure

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and everything.

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So I wanna know how you
prepared to like present

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those songs.

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Like, were you learning breathwork?

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Were you watching like
endless hours of tapes?

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You have to make sure you
got the points just right.

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So how did you do it?

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- Endless hours of tapes, so many photos,

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just as much research as I could.

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Her, her style on stage
changed so much throughout

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her career.

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Her career started so much
earlier than I think a lot

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of people think.

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Our first season is so focused on that

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and her growth as a young
woman, but as a performer.

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And, you know, she didn't always
move in the flamenco style

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movements that we know Selena to have had.

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She, that was, she found that, you know

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she was inspired by so many people.

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And I had to... I really
wanted to focus on, you know,

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when she was younger she
didn't kind of jive so much

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on stage.

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And then, you know, she became a teenager.

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She was really into like
the, like the eighties music

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and movements and hip hop
and that jazzy movements.

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And then

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and then it became kind of
the icon that, that we know.

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So I just really tried as
much as I could to study,

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like all of Selena's material.

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- Do you have, do you have a
track that like you built up

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an appreciation for over time?

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Where you were like, this
is it, this is my jam.

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- All of them. I grew
up listening to Selena.

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So I've like gone through
my phases of different

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Selena songs.

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But as I grew up I think I
became more attracted to like

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the powerful songs like
Que Creías and Si una Vez.

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And, you know, I worked with
two vocal coaches for this

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and just to,

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you know, cause I'm lip-syncing of course

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to Selena it should be Selena's voice.

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That is what fans wanna hear is Selena.

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But I'm singing on stage just
so it doesn't look like I'm

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lip-syncing and I wanted
everything to be correct.

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Like the way she moves her mouth,

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and the way she holds her mic

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and how closely the mic is to her mouth.

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And, and, you know, I think
it's that attention to detail

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that fans are really gonna appreciate it.

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- You know, you've embodied
Selena for a bit now

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and while you've never met her
and you weren't her family,

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like where do you think she...

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Do you have a thought about
like where she might be now

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had we not lost her so early?

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Like where do you think Selena
would... would she have taken

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over the world?

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- Yeah. She would have. She,
you know some people are just

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born with it.

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And I really think that
she was born with it.

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She was meant to be a star.

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There was something so
special about her but

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she also accomplished so
much at such a young age

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and in a very weird time
for somebody who was diverse

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and she really, you know was
a pioneer in terms of like

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her artistry.

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Like she wasn't just a
singer and a performer

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and an incredible dancer
and her own choreographer

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and creative director
but, she was in fashion

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and was her own stylist and
seamstress and makeup artist

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and all of these things that she wanted,

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English music and Spanish music.

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And she wanted, you know,
Mexican influence in her music,

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but also, you know, different
styles of music within

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that genre in and of itself.

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So, you know, she was really
a pioneer and I think for her

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to have done all of
that by the time she was

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in her early twenties,
like there's no saying

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what she would have done.

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- Yes. It makes me feel
awful about myself.

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(laughing)

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It's like, what the hell was I doing?

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Last question, this show
was mostly shot in Mexico

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was hound by a Latin X
producer among other people

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with a crew that largely
spoke Spanish, featured a cast

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that's mostly people of color.

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What does it mean to you
as an actor that identifies

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as Mexican American and
like, what did that...

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How did that set feel
different from other ones?

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- Yeah. This one feels... I'm
really proud of this because,

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not only my huge Selena fan
but I am also Mexican American.

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I also started in the
entertainment industry when

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I was really young and had
to find and make a place

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for myself in the same
way that she and they did.

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And it made me

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so happy to

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go back

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to Mexico

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where my grandparents
are from and film there

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with an entirely Mexican
crew and people who looked

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like me and spoke like
me and joked like me

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and had the same upbringing as me.

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Like you, what a great experience.

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This will probably be one of
my favorite set experiences

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for that reason alone.