Moreno is full of amazement over her Oscar nomination
Like the character she played in “Maria Full of Grace,” Catalina Sandino Moreno left Colombia to live in New York City. But her address these days is more like Cloud Nine.
When Moreno was announced as an Academy Award nominee for best actress last Tuesday, she was “in total disbelief.”
Having performed only in Colombian theater before “Maria,” Moreno, 23, is the freshest face among this year’s nominees.
A year ago, the HBO-produced film won best drama honors at Sundance. Since then, the story of Maria, who turns to drug smuggling for money, has become an independent hit.
We caught up with Moreno to find out what it feels like to go from being a student in Bogota to an Oscar nominee:
Q: What went through your head when you heard your name announced?
A: It was a mixture of everything. I was talking to my mother, I had my boyfriend right beside me. I was watching my face and my name. It was so unreal – a total disbelief that it’s happening.
Q: When you began the movie, did you ever imagine this could happen?
A: Oh, no. When I heard that HBO was going to be producing it, I thought it was going to be on HBO, the channel. And I was so happy because my mother had cable and I was like, “Oh my God, Mom, we can see it on HBO! We can just lie here in bed and watch it.”
I never thought it was going to be released. I never thought it was going to be in festivals, I never thought I or the movie could win something. And everything happened. It was just a dream that I never dreamt.
Q: How did you come to be cast in the film?
A: I was studying acting in a little theater in Colombia, and somebody saw me. I was at the end of my semester studying advertising in college, and I was so busy that I didn’t want to go to the audition. The person who had seen me in the theater liked me and called my mother. …
My mother was the one that pushed me. She said, “You should go. You should go meet the American doing a Colombian film.” … Two weeks later, they called me to tell me the director wanted to meet me. At the end of that day, Josh (writer-director Joshua Marston) told me: “Welcome to the crew; you’re my Maria.”
Q: Why do you think this movie has gotten so much attention?
A: I think it’s because it’s a real story with real human beings with very naturalistic acting. (The actors) are so fresh and so natural and so human and so beautiful. And I think people like that.
Q: Are you excited for Oscar night?
A: I’m happy. A lot of people ask me, “What are you going to wear?” I’m like, “I don’t know! I just knew (I was going) three, four hours ago! I don’t know anything!” I just know that I’m trying to realize that I’m getting an Oscar nomination! That is very, very odd. Just let me digest it and then we talk about dresses.
The birthday bunch
Actress Carol Channing is 84. Actress Jean Simmons is 76. Actress Suzanne Pleshette is 68. Actor Stuart Margolin (“The Rockford Files”) is 65. Singer Harry Wayne Casey (KC and the Sunshine Band) is 54. Singer Johnny Rotten (Sex Pistols) is 49. Actor Anthony LaPaglia (“Murder One”) is 46. Actress Kelly Lynch is 46. Actor John Dye (“Touched by an Angel”) is 42. Actress Minnie Driver is 34. Actress Portia de Rossi (“Arrested Development”) is 32. Actress Kerry Washington (“Ray”) is 28. Singer Justin Timberlake is 24.