Actress Annie Gonzalez opens up about her personal growth and the challenges of portraying the iconic singer Jenni Rivera in her biopic.
WHEN SHE GREETS me at her door, Annie Gonzalez is barefoot, her dark chocolate curls loose and bouncing. In full glam and wearing a cream-colored lace dress, she's holding a bundle of clear plastic wrapping in her arms. With an excited wiggle, the actor explains she had a lush white couch assembled in her Los Angeles home just minutes before her TODAY.com photo shoot. Gonzalez may still be in the middle of making her house a home, but she says she's never felt more at home within herself.
“This moment in my life feels like the beginning of being awake,” the 31-year-old says. “I feel like there’s a lot that happened in my life that I was always trying to numb myself to, and for the first time ... I can face whatever it is that comes my way.” That includes starring in the late Jenni Rivera biopic “Jenni,” in theaters and available on the Spanish-language streaming service Vix now. “Jenni” tells the tragic and intense real-life story of the late Mexican American regional singer from Long Beach, California, who became one of the leading ladies in a predominantly male-fronted genre. From her teen pregnancy, musical family upbringing and abusive marriages — all before her untimely death at 43 in a plane crash — Rivera was a take-no-BS woman. And she was one who was admired, scrutinized and beloved by many. Which is why, when offered to audition for the role, Gonzalez says she was “scared s---less.” The team behind the film reached out three times in the span of two months, and Gonzalez kept passing on the opportunity. “I turned it down because I was like, ‘Jesus Christ, I don’t know much about her. How am I going to do this?’ Speaking Spanish, the type of music that she does ... that’s not something that I’m familiar with. Culturally, yes, it’s in my ethos, but it’s not something that I grew up around or listening t
ANNI Gonzalez JENNI RIVERA BIOPIC ACTING CELEBRITY
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