A former professional model, Carrera is the daughter of a Nicaraguan diplomat father and an American mother. Her movie career started in 1975 when she appeared in "The Master Gunfighter". She also has done such TV mini-series as "Centennial" and "Masada."
But none of her performances so far had anything to do with Latin women, despite he multilingualism and her charming "Latino look." In "Embryo" with Rock Hudson, she played "a glamorous Frankenstein monster." She was a young Jewish woman who falls in love with a Roman warrior played by Peter O'Toole in "Masada."
Raised in the United States since she was 10 years old, Carrera cherishes her freedom and independence. "If anyone gets caught into a certain cliche, he or she shouldn't curse anyone but him or herself," she said, "It's nobody's fault but the actor's."
Carrera says she believes in changes. "I have discovered that I am constantly changing and I really like that. The minute anyone would want to put me in a number, a label, I would contradict it. Whatever I am now, I am also the opposite of it."
She said Hollywood is famous for stereotyping actors according to their nationalities, but she says this is sometimes the artist's fault. "The actor does not have to permit this," she said.
"It's not easy, because we don't have a constant, big influx of scripts. But we've got to convince (producers) that we can work in other roles, not only in stereotypes."
She admits, though, that she'd love to portray Eva Peron, the late second wife of Argentine dictator Juan Domingo Peron. "I haven't seen the magic of Eva Peron" in the theatre or television versions of her life, she said. "What I've seen are American or British interpretations of her life, but not Latin passion." |
