Mariel Molino Knows “El Sol Sale Para Todos”
⤏ IN CONVERSATION WITH GISSELLE PERNETT
⤏ PHOTOS BY EMERSON RICARD
⤏ STYLING BY BRANDEN RUIZ
⤏ MAKEUP BY KATIE MANN
⤏ SET DRESSING BY EDEN HAIN
Mariel Molino is a lover of making people laugh, trusting her instincts, and eating her mother’s flan (in no particular order). Mariel began her acting career in Mexico City with a role on Muy Padres — a telenovela. Now, making her American television debut on ABC’s Promised Land, Mariel says she may not be the loudest in the room or the strongest, but she always shows up.
GISSELLE PERNETT: I read your last name isn’t Molino. How did you decide on it?
MARIEL MOLINO: I struggled a lot to choose a name. I wanted to honor both my mom and my dad. It was difficult because I felt like choosing one name or the other was not really indicative of who I am. I ended up choosing Molino because my mom has a bakery called El Molino — it literally means windmill. Both my parents moved from Mexico City to Tijuana to start up the bakery together. They eventually immigrated to the U.S. When my father passed away, my mom really took on the bakery as her own. It’s because of her hard work and dedication that I’ve been inspired to work my hardest. I don’t know anyone who works as hard as her.
It’s so funny because my mom doesn’t even like the name. She always asks, “Por qué te llamas Mariel Molino?” I don't think she wants to bring herself any attention, but I love the sound of it. I love the M.M. I love the story behind it. No one has ever asked me that before!
GP: What’s your favorite thing to bake and on that same note what’s a dish that reminds you of home?
MM: Okay, I like to bake, but I’m not good at it. I’m just not good at following recipes, following measurements. My mom? Amazing. Me? Not so much. But I love to cook. I think my favorite thing to bake is cookies.
GP: Like the pre-made cookies?
MM: The pre-made cookies. Literally you put them in the oven and they’re done. Don’t tell my mom. Something that reminds me of home? Flan. I love a good flan. My mom makes the best flan, hands down. So that really reminds me of home. And chile rellenos. I love chile rellenos.
“Acting is not the most highly viewed profession when you come from a conservative, Catholic family. I still hear comments like, ‘Why did you let go of that one ex-boyfriend? He actually was okay with your career.’ I don't want anyone to be okay with my career. I want people to be proud of my career.”
GP: On the topic of family and culture: immigrant parents tend to push their kids to pursue traditional careers for stability. I feel like you know where this question is going, how did your family react when you decided to pursue acting?
MM: My father was always very supportive because he was always more of the rebel of my parent’s relationship. He also pursued a lot of endeavors that were not stable and did not succeed. He saw himself in me. My mother comes from a very strict, conservative, Catholic family. It was a little tougher for her to swallow that pill. I think she tried to be as supportive as she could, but she always had a plan B for me. So when I told her I was moving to Los Angeles, she was like okay, "“But you’re going to study an actual career in case this doesn’t work out.”
Acting is not the most highly viewed profession when you come from a conservative, Catholic family. There’s a lot of risk involved. I think my mom was fearful that I wouldn't find a husband, I wouldn't settle down, I wouldn’t have a family. I think that still is a fear. I still hear comments from my family like, '“Why did you let go of that one ex-boyfriend? He actually was okay with your career.” I don't want anyone to be okay with my career. I want people to be proud of my career and to support my career and lift me higher. At the end of the day, I’m confident in what I’m doing, so it doesn't really matter what other people think.
GP: Is acting something you always knew you wanted to do?
MM: Yes! I always knew I wanted to be an actor, I swear to you since I was five years old. I have truly manifested this. I’ve always loved entertaining people and making people laugh. I knew I wanted to have an audience. In my own family I take on this role of being the entertainer. It took me a lot of years to finally decide that not only am I going to pursue acting, but I’m going to truly believe in my abilities. For years I said, “I’m going to be an actor, I’m going to be an actor, I’m going to be an actor,” but I doubted myself. Then I made a shift: stop talking about it, be about it.
GP: You were raised in San Diego, but moved to Mexico to pursue acting there — which is already an uncommon start. Spanish is a very expressive language, how was acting in another language?
MM: A lot of people think you have to go to Hollywood to make your career happen, but I did the exact opposite. I went South! Thankfully, I grew up speaking Spanish at home, which is a huge privilege that I know a lot of other immigrants and first generation kids don't get because our families want to assimilate. Mexico City is the hub for Latin American TV and film. There's a lot of work there and not that many actors.
Acting in Spanish was really hard. I thought I was fluent, but there’s a difference between speaking Spanish at home and speaking Spanish in a colloquial way. I grew up in America. Having my own Chicano culture is completely different than growing up in Mexico City. One of the first things I booked that was a big role was a telenovela called, Muy Padres. I shot that for six months and we would shoot anywhere from 22 to 25 scenes a day. That was the best bootcamp. Maybe I wasn’t in love with some of the material, but it was the best learning experience I’ve had.
“I could also just play an American role. I’m not just Latina, right?”
GP: On a similar note, my family is Colombian and Venezuelan. Sometimes I struggle with feeling “too American” over there, but “too Latina” here. Is there any pressure on you when you’re auditioning for roles in Latine or American television?
MM: Yeah, I’ve had the same feeling. Sometimes in Mexico I didn’t connect to material or I didn’t connect to my co-stars because I was the gringa. I don’t feel one hundred percent Mexican or one hundred percent American. In America, the scope of what a Latina is or someone who is Latine is very, very small. In America, I wasn’t being seen as Mexican enough. Also, there’s times where I’m like, “Well, I could also just play an American role. I’m not just Latina, right?” I see film and TV moving in a good direction. There’s a lot more representation, whether that be genuine or not. We still need more diversity behind the camera, not just in front of it. I just hope these trends of inclusion are progressive and not just performative.
GP: I just started watching Promised Land and wow, I couldn’t stop watching. I love how it shows the very real struggles after crossing the border like language barriers and having to blindly trust people while leaving family behind. While dramatic, it’s refreshing and super important to watch people become wealthy and successful.
MM: Yeah, one hundred percent. I think that’s what is so cool about this show. We show the struggle and the humanity of immigration, but also show the successes and the sacrifices people are willing to make in order to sustain it. You get to see the good, but you get to see the bad, too. Let’s show the Latine community in all of its humanity. Not just the good. Not just the bad. Everything in between. It’s about taking a hard look at ourselves and our beliefs.
There’s this quote I love that a lot of Mexicans say, “El sol sale para todos.” The sun comes out for everybody. Just because I have some success doesn’t mean you can’t. Just because someone else makes it doesn’t mean I can’t. I think that’s so true with any immigrant story. If you make it or see some sort of success, you have to help bring other people up with you.
GP: Promised Land is your debut in American television, but you’re also playing Luna in the film, Die Like A Man. Given their respective storylines and themes, what’s the most important thing for you, as an actor, when playing these characters?
MM: Luna really was such a challenge for me because I came on that project very late. Luna’s journey is so different to my own, I grew up with a lot of privileges and a lot of support. Luna grew up in a rough neighborhood with not a lot of options while taking care of her younger brother, and being raised by her grandmother. For that film, it was important to try and convey the power that women have in shaping realities. It was the first time I played a role that was so pivotal in supporting someone else. With Carmen, there’s a lot of likeness. The challenge with Carmen is still giving her more weight. I don’t want to play the typical spoiled rich girl. My hope is that people get to see Carmen as an actual human with ambitions and struggles just like everyone else.
GP: How do you prepare for roles? Once a role is finished how do you step out of that role?
MM: I’ve started to put together mood boards. I'll go through photos, music, movies. I’ll put broad glimpses together and then start eliminating things to become more specific to who I think my character is. Costume is also a huge thing for me. To me, it’s the most visual piece of information about who this person is.
I also have a wonderful coach that helps me and then years of practice. I can do a scene and know “That didn’t feel real,” and be able to correct it. I just looked at an audition I did years ago and was like, “Man, that is bad.” It’s about being honest with yourself. Don’t think your shit don’t stink because it does.
“There’s this quote I love that a lot of Mexicans say, ‘el sol sale para todos.’ the sun comes out for everybody. Just because YOU have some success doesn’t mean I can’t.”
GP: Mostly because I’ve always been curiou, but also because I hate finishing tv shows — it’s like saying goodbye to people and never seeing them again — how do you feel once a show or film has wrapped?
MM: Anytime I’m done with a character, it’s a little bit like burying a person. Whether you like it or not, you’ve given a part of yourself to this character and they’ve given a part of themself to you. I approach it with a lot of gratitude and grace. I really, really try to live in the moment with every single job. I feel like with each role I get a little bit more accepting of closing each chapter and moving in.
GP: I feel like we’re always going to be our own biggest critic, but do you think you’re more gentle with yourself?
MM: No. If anything I think I’m harder on myself. But it doesn’t come out of anger. I don’t get mad. It's just a challenge that I have within myself where I’m always trying to be better. I can look at my work and say, “I’m proud of what I did here, it’s truthful. Now how can I elevate it?”
GP: You’ve played very different characters across different films and tv shows, which character do you, Mariel, relate to the most?
MM: I think all of them have a lot of Mariel, but I have to say Luna. Although we grew up so differently, and have such different world views, there’s a fighter in Luna that I discovered in myself. I think she’s taught me some of the most important lessons about myself and the strength that I carry. Luna showed me it’s okay to have doubts, it’s okay to have fears, but you still show up. You don’t have to be the loudest in the room or the strongest in the room, but you show up.
GP: The acting industry, as you know, is a world full of ups and downs, what keeps you pushing?
MM: It’s like, should I say…money?
GP: We can be honest! It’s true! Money keeps people going. It’s sad but it’s true.
MM: No honestly, what keeps me pushing is knowing that I haven’t done my best work. I want to get to a place where I look at a project and I don’t recognize myself.
⤏ GISSELLE PERNETT (SHE/HER) IS A LOS ANGELES BASED WRITER OBSESSED WITH POP CULTURE, EARLY MTV, AND CREATING ODDLY SPECIFIC PLAYLISTS. GISSELLE'S LOVE FOR WRITING STARTED WITH A SUBSCRIPTION TO SEVENTEEN MAGAZINE AND A GENERAL DISLIKE FOR ANY OTHER SCHOOL SUBJECT. SHE ENJOYS TALKING TO PEOPLE AND HAS A LOVE-HATE RELATIONSHIP WITH HER VIRGO SUN SIGN.