A Fantastic Woman star Daniela Vega on being transgender actress and journey to the Oscars
The Chilean singer and theatre performer discusses how she fell into acting and how she landed the lead roll in A Fantastic Woman. The film is nominated in the best foreign language category at the Academy Awards
Daniela Vega is sitting in a room in a boutique London hotel. It’s late 2017, and she’s contemplating the possibility of becoming the first transgender actress to be nominated for an Academy Award. “I think all recognition is important and is a high point in the career of somebody,” the Chilean native says, in measured tones.
“The Oscar is very spectacular. But I’m going to cross the bridge when I get to the river. For now, I’m just walking.”
Deliberate in her answers, it was perhaps just as well that she prepared herself for disappointment: when the nominations arrived two weeks ago, Vega’s performance in A Fantastic Woman was overlooked in favour of more established stars like Meryl Streep and Frances McDormand.
But it wasn’t such an outlandish dream. The film, which won the Silver Bear for best screenplay when it premiered at the Berlin Film Festival last year, will compete at the Oscars in the best foreign language category.
Oscar or not, it’s been a remarkable journey for the 28 year-old Vega, which began when she met the film’s director Sebastián Lelio (whose previous film, Gloria, about a middle-aged woman rediscovering her love for life, was another festival hit). “I knew him because of his films,” she says.
