“When I saw the poster and my name next to hers, I had a real moment—I kind of cried,” Eiza González shares, recalling how, the day before we speak, she saw the poster for her upcoming film, Fountain of Youth for the first time. Her name was next to that of her co-star, Natalie Portman, who also happened to be González’s childhood hero. “I wanted to be an actress all thanks to Natalie Portman,” she beams. “For me, she was it: she was the role model. It makes me emotional talking about it even now,” she says, teary-eyed. “It’s all so surreal, still.”

Fountain of Youth sees González reuniting with Guy Ritchie following her work with the British director on last year’s World War II action caper, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. In that, she played actress-turned-spy Marjorie Stewart in a story based on a secret operations unit formed by UK wartime Prime Minister, Winston Churchill. She impressed Ritchie so much that she returned to work on not one but two more films with the Snatch, Sherlock Holmes and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels director. First, there was In The Grey alongside Henry Cavill and Jake Gyllenhaal (both of whom she’d worked with previously). She describes the film as “full on action,” and like “a Thomas Crown Affair movie” in tone. Next came Fountain of Youth—an Indiana Jones-like “action adventure” she says, which follows a team on their hunt for the source to everlasting life, which will stream globally later this year on Apple TV+.

“To me, being successful is when I’ve worked with a director and he wants to work with me again,” González says of her joy when returning to work with Ritchie. “That means I’ve achieved something great, that someone saw something good in me. Nothing satisfies me more than the feeling that someone had a certain type of expectation and that I was able to achieve it. They believed in me, and they trusted in my artistry. That’s such a boost of confidence and a gift I’m really grateful for.”

We’re chatting with González on a sunny LA day and she’s speaking to us over video call, wearing a pale blue spring-ready dress and jewelry from David Yurman, for whom she is a global brand ambassador. It’s been a breathless few years for the actor. In the last two years alone, González has worked on five major projects. Once filming wrapped on The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, she flew out to New Zealand to shoot dark psychological horror-thriller Ash alongside Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul. After that, she filmed Fountain of Youth and In The Grey back-to-back, before venturing into comedy with Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice with Vince Vaughn and James Marsden. She says another “dream project” followed when she worked on Boots Riley’s next film, I Love Boosters, alongside Demi Moore and Keke Palmer.

Mexico-born González first made a name for herself as a teen star in Nickelodeon sitcom Sueña conmigo from 2010-11, and then as a singer, releasing two albums, Contracorriente and Te Acordarás de Mí between 2009 and 2012, before settling on acting full time. The actor showed an early desire to take on roles that went against those usually offered to women—in particular Latina women—keen not to be boxed in by Hollywood stereotypes We see her tenacity in films like Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver, as daring bank robber Monica Costello/Darling, or as a ballsy paramedic Camille “Cam” Thompson in Michael Bay’s Ambulance, and in cyberpunk film Alita: Battle Angel. She’s starred alongside Jason Statham and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in Fast and Furious spin-off Hobbs and Shaw, and co- starred with Rosamund Pike in black comedy I Care A Lot. She’s also led the way in Netflix’s hit series 3 Body Problem from David Benioff and D.B. Weiss—the team behind Game of Thrones.

“I can’t believe I get to do what I do,” González says. “Playing in a show like 3 Body Problem where the lead happened to be a scientist and Mexican—that just makes me feel very proud because every time I get to represent my culture, I want to do it in a non-traditional way and [choose roles] that elevate the general consensus or the consumption of our culture,” she explains. “If you pay attention, I’ve steered away from any film that can portray my culture or Mexico adjacently in a negative light. I’m just not interested in making or creating roles like that.”

She continues, “To me, what’s fascinating is also keeping it ambiguous. There’s nothing I’m more proud of than being Mexican and coming from Mexico and my culture,” she continues. “However, it’s not my identity as an actor—I’m an actor who just happened to be born in Mexico...it doesn’t really matter where you come from as long as you have a connection to the source material and you believe that it’s going to make you grow as an artist and help you learn something from it. The challenge is important. I know how to be Mexican—I’ve been doing it for 35 years on this planet,” she laughs. “For me, it’s how I can challenge myself to do things I didn’t think I was capable of.”

When it comes to finding challenges, González takes a lot of her inspiration from fellow actors—not least Jake Gyllenhaal, whom she first met while filming Ambulance. She remembers a recent conversation with the actor, discussing his role in Shakespeare’s Othello on Broadway with Hollywood legend Denzel Washington. “I went to see him in Othello and for someone who has that body of work, someone I look up to that much, to hear him saying he never thought he was capable of doing Shakespeare with the level of artistry he’s already at, says everything,” she explains. “And like Denzel too. He’s on that plane. He’s 70 years old and still doing it now. I think it’s all about pushing yourself to do things you never imagined you were capable of,” she continues. “My motivation is other incredible artists. I really respect artistry in a very profound and emotional way.”

It was Gyllenhaal who gave González encouraging advice about working with Ritchie after sharing stories with her about his time working with the director on The Covenant. What González loves most about working with Ritchie is his marriage to improvisation: the director likes to famously rip up scripted scenes in favor of improvised ones. On The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, González spent months with dialect coaches learning all the different accents she flexes in the film (González herself speaks Italian and French alongside her native Spanish and English). She also studied German for her part, which came in handy when all the dialogue learned was discarded and replaced with new lines on set one day. Because she’d spent time learning the mechanics of the language, it meant she could adapt quickly to the changes and Ritchie’s way of working. “You’ve got to trust the way that the director knows how to create art,” she says, “and if you’re willing to take a leap of faith and play their game, there’s a reward on the other side.”

She had so much fun on their first outing together, she says she didn’t need much convincing to work with him again. “I’ve done two more movies with him since Ministry and for one of them I didn’t even read a script. I was like, ‘Sure, I’ll do it—I don’t care what you give me. I could be tree number 45 in the background and I’ll do it,’” she laughs. “I just know the experience is going to be joyful and he’s going to elevate it.” 

Recently, González worked on one of her most challenging roles to date in psychological thriller Ash, which premiered at SXSW this year. In the feature, directed by record producer Flying Lotus, González plays Riya, an astronaut who wakes up to find the entire crew of her space station has been killed. Riya has no recollection of what happened to her crew or caused their deaths, but with flashbacks, must try to piece together the tragedy. She spent months shooting Ash in isolation in New Zealand, which felt emotionally draining. “I was in the Guy Ritchie world of Ministry and tone—going from the comedy of that to bearing the deep depths of your soul in this raw, deep performance,” González explains of the experience. “Just baring it all on Ash was a shift.”

To mentally prepare for the role, the actor leaned into therapy, which she says she started years ago after burnout, especially in an industry where women and Latinas feel pressures to be constantly working for fear of being quickly forgotten, or dropped entirely. “I’ve been on projects where I’ve been in a very terrible mental space…I think the moments when that’s happened to me, I’ve not been comfortable or secure enough to take a break—and I’ve felt that as a minority and as a woman,” she says. “I always felt the pressure to keep turning work around. I’ve learned throughout the last five years of my career that you have to be more careful with the way you pick your jobs. Not only whether you like the director or the script, but where you are emotionally at the time too.”

Due to the emotional demands of her role in Ash, González says she had to be “more diligent” with her therapy than ever before. Not only is the subject matter of the film distressing, revolving around grief, confusion, and constant defense, but shooting Ash was a new experience in its own right. She explains: “My responsibility for this role was to keep my mental state in balance so that I could bring everything to the role. When you’re playing [the part of losing your mind] 15 hours a day— that can bleed into your reality. Especially if you’re isolated in New Zealand on your own with no one there with you…you go back to an empty home that is not your home.”

She reassures, though, that despite the obstacles, she’s appreciative of the opportunity, and feels that her time playing Riya pushed her forward as an actor. “I really wanted something that was going to require every single piece of me,” she confesses. “I wanted to be raw; I wanted to emotionally be taken there. But you know, I really feel like I went to war on this one!”

Part of her inspiration for attending therapy in the first place was her mother, who re-trained as a therapist later in life. She describes her mother as her “role model” and someone who supported her tirelessly in her pursuit of her acting dreams. The pair became even closer after her father died in a motorcycle accident when González was just 12 years old. “My mom is definitely my rock. I’ve always been inspired by my mother my entire life…but I’ve never been more inspired by her than now.”

Even through a Zoom screen, her love for her mother is tangible.“My mom is the definition of a baller. When people say ‘badass bitch’—that’s what my mom is: she’s a go-getter. She’s a loving, bubbly, entertaining, fun, big personality—a hilarious, laugh- out-loud woman who is strong, bold, determined. When she wants something, she does it. Right now, I’ve seen a whole other side of her: I thought I couldn’t fall more in love with my mother and yet here I am. I’m just like, ‘You are the toughest woman I have ever met in my life.’”

Lately, her mom has been unwell and is now visiting the hospital frequently, which González says has changed her perspective on her life and work. “I take artistry very seriously,” she admits. “Sometimes a little too seriously—because when you see real life and you see people really fighting for their lives… it shows another side of humanity. It’s inspired me to get into a second stage of my life in such a more profound way than I ever thought I was capable of.” González says she’s constantly in awe of women who succeed in a world that’s full of pressures from the patriarchy and beyond—especially in Hollywood. “I will forever have copious amounts of respect and admiration for any woman who has shouldered this business for that long and who keep a smile on their face and a tender heart. It’s not easy,” she says. She notes actors like Rosamund Pike (“one of my best experiences was working with her”) and Demi Moore, who she worked with on the upcoming film I Love Boosters. 

In terms of the future, González wants to continue the diverse trajectory she’s been on in the last few years. “I really dove into character selection...If I was doing something, I wanted the next job to be the complete opposite,” she says, adding that the more varied her roles are, the better. And we see that too: just in the past year she’s been a scientist, a special-ops sharpshooter, a sports journalist, and now, an astronaut. She says she isn’t planning on resting on her laurels. “It’s a humbling experience to be a minority in this industry,” she adds. “I don’t take anything for granted.”

For now, though, she’s allowing herself to have a moment of celebration. “I just feel so much empathy for myself as little Eiza, that girl that was so hungry and so willing to go for it,” she smiles, recalling how often she’d watch films while dreaming of the career she has now. “It’s been a journey and it’s not been an easy one. I’m just really proud that my tenacity and my passion for it has allowed me to get to where I am,” she smiles, contentedly. “But you know, looking at the poster and seeing that I’m next to the person that motivated me to become an actress?” she tails off, having a moment to take it all in once more. “It’s fucking surreal!”

Photographed by Kat Irlin

Styled by Dy’amond Breedlove

Written by Elizabeth Aubrey

Hair: Danielle Priano at Kalpana

Makeup: Mia Jones at The Wall Group

Flaunt Film: Darin Burch

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