When it comes to representation in Pixar movies, the animation company has been including more leading characters of color in many of its recent films across the past decade, from Coco to its latest title, Elio, which is new on streaming this week. Earlier this year, when CinemaBlend learned about the movie at Pixar’s headquarters in Emeryville, California, we talked to the filmmakers about the Dominican family at the center of it.
Elio is a fun space adventure that also has a lot of say about parenthood. In the movie, Elio and his aunt Olga Solís are adjusting to living with each other in the wake of Elio’s parents dying, and the heart of the movie lies in their relationship. Here’s what co-director Domee Shi told us about what Zoe Saldaña brought to the movie as Aunt Olga:
It was really awesome getting to work with her. She brought her own kind of background and kind of infused it into the character of Olga. She's Dominican and so is Olga in the movie. We would workshop ways that she would say a line or like express frustration or just a song that Olga would listen to on the radio that a Dominican might listen to. So, we leaned on her a lot creatively for those kinds of things.
Elio and his family are of Mexican-Dominican heritage, which marks a first for Pixar. Since Saldaña is half Dominican herself, she could infuse some of her own experience and specificities of her culture to the movie with the filmmakers. They took her ideas to heart.
It sounds like the Oscar winner was generous with the filmmakers about this behind the scenes. It only helped make the character more authentic. As co-director Madeline Sharafian added during our interview:
And, her sense of humor. I think a lot of the movies she's in showcases her amazing, serious acting chops. But she's also just a really funny, warm person, and I'm really glad that we got to see both sides of her in this film, laugh with her and kind of laugh at Olga. You watch this buttoned up woman become a little less buttoned up as time goes by, and I think you just love her all the more for it.
Olga Solís is an Air Force major who is struggling with basically becoming a parent and adjusting to giving up her dreams to be an astronaut in order to raise him. The movie has been praised for being accurate to the U.S. Space Force.
Elio also received positive praise from critics and audiences alike (just check out our Elio review) during its underwhelming theatrical release in early summer. As Shi (who also helmed Turning Red) also shared about working with Saldaña on the animated movie:
In her performance she infuses so much of her own experience being a mother. When there's scenes where like Olga and Elio are butting heads, and they're arguing and maybe Olga kind flies off the handle, or like gets worked up, like Zoe's performing it from a place of love and concern. And, you always feel that when you're watching these characters on screen.
Zoe Saldaña is also a mother herself of kids around Elio’s age, as she has three sons with husband Marco Perego. They have 10-year-old identical twins Cy and Bowie, and an eight-year-old named Zen. Producer Mary Alice Drumm said this about collaborating with Saldaña on the new Pixar movie:
She's the queen of sci-fi, right? She's done all that. So she brings that aspect of the film. She's also played these military roles, so she has great respect for the military and was really great about playing that aspect of Olga.
It’s great to hear Zoe Saldaña was so involved in the process of bringing the studio’s first Dominican family to screen, along with her great talents that have also been made apparent in her other sci-fi projects like the Avatar and Star Trek movies. Now that the original movie is on Disney+, you can watch for the specificity Saldaña brought to the role on streaming.
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