¡Presente! Representation in Hollywood: Interview with Chayenne Rae Hernandez
[UNPUBLISHED:] How did your debut film, The Tax Collector, change your life?
[CHAYENNE:] I still don't really believe that it happened.
[UNPUBLISHED:] What was the feeling you experienced when you got the part?
[CHAYENNE:] Honestly, I didn't really believe that it happened until I watched the movie on my TV. I was aware that we filmed it. You know, things can go wrong, and in my life, they often do. I just didn't believe that it could happen. And then people kept saying; “Oh my God, this movie, this movie, you must be so excited!” I would just change the subject, because I think somewhere in my brain I was just waiting for either all my parts to get cut, or for the movie not to go forward - you know, anything that could have happened. Then all of a sudden, I'm sitting here in my living room watching myself on TV, and I kind of look around going; “Oh my God, I was in this movie”.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Was it weird for you to watch yourself as this other character?
[CHAYENNE:] Definitely, because most of this movie was method acting. I essentially killed the character in my head after the movie was done. So I felt like I was watching this home video of some girl that I had murdered, you know, because she's no longer alive. It was pretty surreal. I didn't recognize myself, because I don't remember a lot of it, it's really weird.
[UNPUBLISHED:] What do you think of the Latinx, Hispanic and Native American representation in Hollywood today?
[CHAYENNE:] I’m a pretty positive person. So I like to think that it's getting better. I think that in the past, it was definitely unfortunate that as kids, we weren't able to really look on TV and see versions of ourselves. But now, you just look around at how rich everything is becoming. It's amazing to see, all of a sudden, these shows like Jane the Virgin, shows where the characters look like us. I think it's really important because now kids get to look on the TV and it's no longer; “Oh man I wish I could be an actress one day” it's; “Wow, I can actually do this. There's people like me on that screen.” I think that was a struggle for me when I was a kid. There just wasn't a lot of variety on TV. I knew that I wanted to act, but I didn't have too many people up there to look at and be like; “Oh, they look like me.” I think it's really awesome where we're heading.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Growing up, who did you look up to?
[CHAYENNE:] I love George Lopez. You know, I used to watch it in the morning or at night. It was really cool that I walked on set and he was there. And I told him that. I was like; “You really set the bar.” So I used to look up to him a lot. I used to really love Meryl Streep, I used to love her different characters. I also used to love Johnny Depp. But there weren't too many Latino women.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Are there any roles that you really want to portray in the near future?
[CHAYENNE:] A female Indiana Jones. Or also, I mean, Quentin Tarantino - I'm coming for him. I watched Kill Bill and it was like, my eyes just went, wow. But I've always been pretty rowdy. I want to be in adventure or in action, that type of stuff. I'm all over it. However, I got to hang out with Lopez a lot and he kept giving me different advice for comedy.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Are there any genres that you think it'd be really awesome for Latinos to break through, that are not conventional to Latino Hollywood stereotypes?
[CHAYENNE:] Latina Superwoman, that would be awesome. Wonder Woman.
[UNPUBLISHED:] I also heard that you are into scriptwriting, and you're potentially working on a script. Do you see yourself going more behind the camera? Maybe do the best of both worlds?
[CHAYENNE:] I think that if an opportunity comes my way, I will jump and I will grab it.
It's just, I don't know, I’m passionate, passionate. I'm very passionate about writing. I'm very passionate about acting. I'm very passionate about learning in general. So I mean, even on the set of The Tax Collector, even if I wasn't acting that day, I was hiding behind David, (the director). What are you doing? Why are you doing that? Yes, I want to learn everything in this film.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Do you see yourself as a director?
[CHAYENNE:] Yeah. Everything. I'm constantly learning everything. And I've really learned this in Hollywood. Now, I'm learning a whole bunch about aerospace. But I feel like if there are people that are really passionate, and they see that you're eager to learn, they are more than happy to teach you just because they're excited to share the information that they're so proud of. I love to learn. When I see somebody that's really good at their craft, no matter what it is - cooking, fishing, or directing - I'm right there next to them, asking them; why are they passionate about it? How did they learn how to do that? Can they teach me a little bit? And so it's like, I love it. I'm just excited to learn.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Tell us a little bit about your journey going into Hollywood. For many young, aspiring Latinx artists, it seems daunting to go to Hollywood, and take that leap of faith, because it's an industry that sometimes feels like it's not for our community, that it's not made for us.
[CHAYENNE:] It's scary, but I can tell you that there's one thing that's even scarier, and that's regret. I know that I didn't want to be old and laying on my deathbed thinking; “I wish that I had just gone for it. I wish that I had said screw my fear and just went for it.” That's kind of what I was thinking when I did it, too. I was in a really bad place at the time. My brothers were killed by a drunk driver years back. So I was mad. I was suicidal. I was drinking a lot. I was just not okay. I had promised them at their funeral that I was going to do this for the both of us. I realized I wasn't doing it. I realized, okay, I made this promise mostly to my brother Isaiah, and I just gave up. So I realized that I was either going to die, or I needed to do this. There was no in between, it was that big of a deal. So from one day to the next, I packed up everything. And my cat and my grandma who flew to Seattle, helped me drive my cat to Texas where she watched my cat, and I drove my car to LA. I was living out of my car or staying on a friend's couch just making peanut butter and jelly, you know, just doing what I could. Then I started interning, and I mean, you're not in. I wasn't making any money interning, but I was getting closer to the industry, and that's what I wanted. Then I worked my way up to; “Okay, now you're going to teach this improv class to kids”, because I had already interned there and learned from the teachers enough that they're like; “Okay, she knows what she's doing”. So then all of the parents of the kids started to really like me, and they started to give good reviews. That's how I met my acting coach, who just said; “I see something in you... I think we can make this work”. He introduced me to my manager, who said the same thing; “I see something in you. Let's do this”. Then my first audition came, and I was selected. It just goes to show that if you want it bad enough, if you're willing to not let anything stand in your path, you're going to get it, you're going to get there. It's just a matter of not having an attitude of every time something doesn't go your way, every time you get a no, or every time you're disappointed. You just can't give up right there, it's gonna suck. There were a lot of times where I was just sitting in my car sobbing, asking myself; “What am I doing? Why am I here?” and then I would watch a movie, and I would see the goose bumps on my arm, and I'm like, crying. I'm like; “That's why, that's why I'm here because I want to do that!” You just have to keep that one reason for you to stay, and you need to hold that above all of the doubts, and everybody else. I mean, if only you knew how many people were telling me to give up. It's just, you just have to ignore it. You have to want it bad enough. To the people who tried it for a little bit and then went back and thought it's too hard - you just didn't want it bad enough.
[UNPUBLISHED:] What was going through your head on your first day? You're there like, it's going to happen. You don't know if the movie is actually going to go through, but you're there with people who are pros, who have done this before. What was that feeling like?
[CHAYENNE:] The main cast had been training together for the last few months. So by the first day of filming, we were already a family. So I was the prankster on set. The first day, I was messing with everybody. I was hiding in the parking lot, so every time we would close that day, and people were walking to their cars, I would hide like behind the steering wheel and honk and scare them. They would love that. I got really close with the crew, too. I was constantly hanging out with them asking them questions. What I love about this project, (and I've been on a couple of projects like this now), is that the passion that's on this set was just crazy. I mean, you don't wonder why the people there got that gig. All of them are so passionate, they're willing to stay late, they're willing to do whatever it takes to make the shot perfect. And my favorite question to ask all of them is, why did you choose to be in this field? Then they'll answer and then I say; “Do you love it? Are you happy?” Because I love hearing people just gush about how excited and happy they are to be doing what they're doing. I think that's how I connect to people, because I'm passionate as hell about what I do. So I love to watch them and you’re like, yeah, they get it. They're all amazing people who, like I said, have so much knowledge and they were just pouring it onto me and I was just soaking it up. I mean, they're my family.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Ten years from now, where do you view the Latinx, Hispanic and Native communities in Hollywood? What do you envision 10 years?
[CHAYENNE:] Ten years, it's just gonna be even better. I mean look, I just watched Hamilton. Have you seen that? Yeah, Hamilton? Yeah. It was beautiful. I really hope that, you know, we can look at that. That can be the future of Hollywood. I think it'd be awesome.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Did you have these types of conversations with the crew as well? About representation or even just your experiences?
[CHAYENNE:] I had this conversation, but at the same time, it's like, you know, a lot of people were getting mad, and there was backlash about Shia doing brown face and stuff. But I mean, he's not, he's playing a white guy that grew up in the hood. And so it was cool. Because on set, you know, we have people that were actually like that, that actually grew up in the hood, helping Shia get into the lingo and stuff and how they cope with it. So he was kind of like, he wanted to learn, learn, learn, and you know, about us Latinos, and we were all just showing him our culture. He ceased to be the white guy among us. We were all just this big family. That's what I want for every movie, for everything and everyone to be just a family together, sharing each other's culture.
[UNPUBLISHED:] What is one piece of advice that you want to give to young aspiring Latinx, Hispanic, and Native actors or artists who are trying to make it in the film business, Hollywood, and who want to start in their first film, whether it's behind or in front of a camera?
[CHAYENNE:] If you really want this, if this is the career that, like I said earlier, gives you goosebumps when you watch that big screen, then don't let anything or anyone get in your way. There's a right and wrong way to do this, obviously. And I've already done it the wrong way. When I first started out, everyone kept saying; “You need to change how you look, you need to change how you talk.” You need to change this to change that. And I listened. I started to speak and act like someone that I didn't know. I was just trying to fit in, and it wasn't getting me anywhere. I realized that I was insanely unhappy because I wasn't being authentic. Finally, I just kind of threw my hands up and said; “You know what, this is me, take it or leave it.” And I started to be myself. I'm goofy and weird and strange. But I realized that people were gravitating towards me because I was authentic. Things only started to go right for me when I stopped lying to myself. That is the best advice that I can give somebody: be yourself and go for it. And you're going to hear people tell you; “You can't do this.” You're going to hear people tell you; ”Oh, it's a one in a million chance”, and it is pretty hard to break in, but if you want it bad enough, who's gonna get in your way? What's going to get in your way? You know, all we have is time, and when our time runs out, I know that I want to spend the rest of my time trying to do something that I love. So yeah, just don't let anything get in your way, and be yourself.