The actress spoke with ET about the poignant Oscar-winning film.
Eva Longoria couldn't be happier for Roma’s big night at the 2019 Oscars!
The Netflix film, written, directed and produced by Alfonso Cuarón and starring newcomer Yalitza Aparicio, had a historic night, taking home awards for Best Foreign Language Film, Best Cinematography and Best Director.
“I’m very excited for the movie, for Alfonso, for Yatliza, they’ve already broken so many records and really have humanized the issue for domestic workers in a beautiful, poetic way,” Longoria told ET during an Oscar Watch Party thrown by the National Domestic Workers Alliance and Participant Media at the Jane Club in Los Angeles on Sunday. Attendees included Rashida Jones, Me Too Movement founder Tarana Burke, Rosanna Arquette and veteran activist Dolores Huerta.
Roma offers a stunning look into the world of a live-in housekeeper set in Mexico City in the early 1970s. Longoria couldn’t help but gush over the film’s beauty, and the importance of its message.
“I think that all we see in the news about the Latino community is that we’re synonymous with immigrant, or synonymous with illegal. It’s important that Hollywood contradict that and show a different side,” she explained. “Show the contributions that we give to the county and the world.”
“You really get lost in the film,” Longoria added. “Yalitza did an amazing job. I realized I was just watching a story and I was never taken out of the context. I felt like I was in Mexico and with that family. It’s beautifully done, beautifully shot and wonderfully done.”
The Desperate Housewives star also spoke to colorism within the Hispanic community that found Aparicio receiving backlash due to her indigenous roots and brown complexion.
“I think what she’s done in the film is beautiful, I think she’s beautiful," Longoria said. "People forget that Latinos are not a monolithic group. We’re an umbrella of colors, so whether you’re Dominican or Cuban or Puerto Rican, or Mexican or indigenous, I think that we should celebrate all of that. We have to unite as a culture if we’re going to expect to get ahead. We have such an amazing buying power and we’re a moviegoing audience. [We have to] really aggregate that power and use it to change the way Hollywood thinks of making films, and hopefully, they’ll make more about us.”
Huerta, who has long been at the forefront of for fair labor laws and co-founded the United Farmworkers Association with late activist, Ceasar Chavez, hopes Roma will inspire support for immigration reform.
“There are so many aspects of the film that really touched me emotionally,” said the 88-year-old activist. “We see all the work Cleo [Aparico] does as the maid in the family, but also the respect that she has, even though the family does more than most families would do in taking care of her. She becomes a part of the family."
“Immigration is the No. 1 issue that we have right now in our country,” continued Huerta. “There are many people like Yalitza’s [character], even working in some of the homes in Hollywood, who don’t have documents and maybe [this film] will also touch people’s hearts to say we must support immigration reform.”
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