from All Things Considered (NPR, Radio) / Host: Michele Norris

Time: 9:00-10:00 PM

Newcomer Catalina Sandino Moreno is already making waves in the film industry with her role in “Maria Full of Grace.” The 23-year-old has won four Best Actress awards. When Sandino Moreno signed on to make the movie, she didn’t really know what she was in for. She says the director, Joshua Marston, only gave her the first half of the script.

Ms. CATALINA SANDINO MORENO (Actress): I read the script, the first part of the script. I read it in 24 hours, and Josh took it back. When he told me I was Maria, he gave the script to me and he took it back. So I went to Ecuador; we shot the first part of the film. And the last day in Ecuador, he gave me the second part of the film. And I read the second part, and I was just waiting for the gun to come out and the blood in Maria’s face to just explode, and it never happened. So I was really happy. In the beginning of the script, I began to read the story about this girl, and now I’m reading the story about this woman. You know, like, the transition between her being a kid and her being a woman was beautiful.

NORRIS: So do I understand this, you only saw the first part of the script? You saw the part up to the point where she was pulled into the international drug trade, but you didn’t see the second half of the film?

Ms. MORENO: Yeah. (Laughs)

NORRIS: Was that by design?

Ms. MORENO: I think he didn’t want us to be attached to the characters. Like, for a lot of actors in this movie, it was the first time. So it was like life; you don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow.

NORRIS: And if you did, you might conduct yourself differently.

Ms. MORENO: Of course. And it’s just nice just–have surprises.

NORRIS: So what did you do to learn more about mules, the men and women who travel carrying drugs in their belly? Did you interview women or men who had done this kind of work?

Ms. MORENO: No, never. Maria didn’t know how to be a drug mule, and me, neither, so why should I go and talk to people before I could do the scene. So when I arrived to the scene, it was my first time taking a pellet in my hand and trying to put it in my mouth. It was all my first time. From that point to the end, it was real, you know, what I felt.

NORRIS: Did you actually, in the end, swallow some of the pellets?

Ms. MORENO: Yeah.

NORRIS: How many?

Ms. MORENO: Through the whole film, I think I swallowed, like, eight. (Laughs)

NORRIS: Colombia is known the world over as a source of drugs, specifically cocaine. As a native of Colombia, a native Colombian, did you have any reservations about making a film that might reinforce that reputation?

Ms. MORENO: No. No. And that was a beautiful thing when I was reading the script, that I was waiting for Maria to be death, because that is what you always expect from narcotraffic and from drug mules. Of course, when you live in Colombia, you know a lot about mules, but very superficial, like you know there’s mules, you know that they’re bad people, you know they’re in jail, and that’s good. And you point the finger on them and you judge them. But after I did this movie, I just can’t do that. How can I judge them for making a living? That’s horrible. So I never thought that Josh was making a bad impression of Colombia. He’s humanizing the mules.

NORRIS: When you traveled back and forth to Colombia by plane from New York to Colombia, I wonder, when you board the plane, if you find yourself looking around and wondering if one of the mules is on board the flight.

Ms. MORENO: Never. Never. But once it happened to me. I was coming back from Bogota to New York, and I arrived in New York, and it was like 6 in the morning with my bags, and everybody was waiting for that plane, you know, in JFK. The immigration were, like, waiting for the plane from Colombia. And I felt, like, so weird. It was after I made the movie. And I’m like, `OK, I just have to be cool. I don’t have anything. I don’t have to be scared.’ But they stopped me. They opened my bags. They were like, `How much money do you have?’ I felt like Maria. And I felt like I had on my forehead, like, `Guilty.’ It’s horrible just to show the passport and they just look at you from head to toe and, `OK, would you come here with me?’ But everybody’s a suspect.

NORRIS: Catalina, thanks so much for coming in to talk to us.

Ms. MORENO: Thank you so much.

NORRIS: Catalina Sandino Moreno is the lead actress in “Maria Full of Grace.” The film opens in New York and Los Angeles on July 16th and in additional cities on July 30th.