Isabela Moner is using her role in this summer’s Dora The Explorer as an opportunity to connect more deeply to her Peruvian ancestry.
The actress and musician, whose mother is Peruvian and father hails from Louisiana, is set to bring to life the popular animated character in the live action adaption set to hit theaters on August 2.
For the role, Moner says she learned Quechua, the indigenous language spoken primarily in the Peruvian Andres and the highlands of South America as far back as the 1500′s.
I’m so excited for Dora, you don’t understand,” Moner said over the phone while promoting the DVD release of her film Instant Family.
“The Peruvian community is going to flip! Dora’s adventures will take audiences to Machu Picchu where they’ll explore the Incan culture. I had to learn Quechua to speak it in the movie because Dora is very cultured and she knows everything about everything. Between scenes, I’d call my great aunt in Peru to ask her about certain phrases and how to say them in Quechua.
I’m still trying to grasp the fact that Peru is finally being represented so largely in Hollywood because it never has before. This is going to be huge in every sense of the word.
I’ve been trying to talk to the director about having a premiere there because it seems appropriate. If not, I’ll just go over there when it premieres so I can make it a big deal because it is a big deal.”
After it was announced that Moner had been cast as Dora, it sparked conversations about whether or not the cartoon was originally from Mexico. The Sicario: Day of the Soldado star says the film’s director James Bobin did his research on the subject.
The casting director reached out to me as I was going into the final casting and they asked me about my ethnicity,” she explained. “They did all their research and Dora doesn’t have a defined ethnicity. So it seems that people have assumed that she’s Mexican but she’s not.”
It was important to Moner that the film feature Latino actors and that their characters weren’t stereotypes. She credits her British director for making this happen by encouraging open dialogue throughout the shoot in Australia.
I’m so excited for people to see the film because I really loved playing such a popular Latino character. I’m especially proud that she’s not a stereotype, our director encouraged us to give him feedback. We have an all Latino cast, too! We have Eva Longoria, Michael Pena and Eugenio Derbez, who plays my right hand man in the movie. It’s just going to be amazing!
I think it’ll do great mainstream because the whole dynamic is like the Buddy the Elf story, very fish out of water type of situation. She’s kind of hyper like she is on the TV show and everyone else is really mellow and chilled out.”
Since wrapping on Dora, the 17-year-old has been working in Canada on a holiday film for Netflix titled Let It Snow alongside Kiernan Shipka, Shameik Moore and Joan Cusack. While there are few details available about the movie, Moner, who was recently named one of Variety’s 10 Latinx Talent To Watch in 2019, compares it to another popular film.
Let it Snow is a Christmas movie for Netflix, and I play the lead,” she said. “It’s a story that’s kind of like Love Actually where all the stories intertwine and come together finally in the end. It’s a feel good movie but it also has some meat in it which is what I gravitated towards.
It’s weird because it’s March and I’m in the Christmas spirit. I’m a little off! That’s all I can say right now because they’re being pretty secretive.”
