Isabela Moner, who plays the lead character in ‘Dora and the Lost City of Gold’, says the film gave her a chance to connect with her Peruvian ancestry.
The actress and singer said she had to learn how to speak Quechua, the indigenous language spoken primarily in the Peruvian Andes.
“There’s a lot of ‘K’s’, there’s a lot a lot of ‘Q’s,’” she said about the indigenous language. “It’s Iike, really interesting.
Moner also relished being part of a predominately Latino cast.
“Eugenio Derbez, Eva Longoria, Michael Pena and we had this one white guy. The token white guy. It was so fun to be able to just speak Spanish on set casually and not have anyone to be like ‘What are you saying?’” she said. “No, it was just a natural environment where we could be ourselves.”
Eva Longoria plays her on-screen mom. Longoria said she couldn’t help becoming motherly and over protective of 17-year-old Moner.
'A little movie star'
“I was like, ‘Listen to me you are talented, you are amazing, don’t mess up. Don’t go down the wrong way’ and she’s not. She’s so elegant and smart and grounded and she has an amazing family. So, I was so excited to be in her presence. She’s a movie star this little girl. Nobody could’ve played it Dora except Isabela Moner,” said Longoria.
What the former ‘Desperate Housewives’ star did not want to discuss was her ex co-star Felicity Huffman’s arrest in the recent college bribery admissions scandal.
When asked about it, she said she hadn’t spoken to her and walked away.
‘Dora and the Lost City of Gold’ opens in US theatres on August 2.
