|
|
Actress - Kika Child |
|
Recently
Riveting Riffs Magazine sat down with Colombian film, television and
theater actress Kika Child, very popular in Colombia, but who for the
last (never ask a woman her age!) has made New York City her home. To
describe Kika Child as a peaceful human rights activist would be more
than accurate. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and during the unrest
that has enveloped much of the United States she has been translating
the Governor’s and the mayor’s press conferences from English into
Spanish.
Kika Child, we should point out, in addition to being a wonderful
actress is also a trained translator.
“When the pandemic hit in March I was already working in the courts,
with attorneys, physicians, within the medical and entertainment
(fields). Mostly though, I was focused on writing my television series.
I also was cast to star in a play in Washington, but when the pandemic
hit everyone stopped working and the courts closed.
Because I stayed in New York I was wondering what to do with my life.
Everyone was hit with shock and (experienced) trauma. I was praying and
meditating, asking what should I do with my life?
One day when I woke up, I went in front of the computer and I started
recording Governor Cuomo’s briefing. I have a producer here, because of
the television show that we are developing and I was telling him how the
story that I am writing did not make sense, because the world (living
through) a tragedy right now. We came up with the idea to translate the
briefings and I have someone in Colombia who edits the videos.
I was doing it kind of for fun and to see if I could reach people. I
have good friends here who gave me the contacts of news channels and the
mayor’s office and the governor’s office. I haven’t stopped in the last
four months. My mom sent me an article that was written by the president
of the news of a major Hispanic channel here. He was complaining how
millions of migrants, most of whom are Hispanic and account for eighteen
percent of the population of the United States, do not speak the
language and that is unfortunate. They are used to interpretation
services. I added that to my proposal and then I tried to negotiate with
one of these channels. I think the idea was a little bit before my time,
because no one really knew how to implement it.
I just kept recording them and then you noticed and other people
noticed. The idea is that we get (the translation) out to as many people
as possible. A major Hispanic journalist in the U.S. was saying that
journalists were translating the briefings into Spanish and that they
should not be doing that, because they are not interpreters. This was at
the peak when people were dying in the hospitals and nobody could come
and help them. Nobody could talk to them in their language and
everything was just chaos. I kept pushing and calling the mayor’s office
and calling the Governor’s association. I called everyone and offered a
service that I think is simple. Let’s all pitch in and give people a
live translation of what the Governor is saying.
I am still recording and investing my own money, because I know someday
somebody will say let’s put it on this platform. In the (interim) I put
it on Facebook and wherever, so Hispanics can see (and listen). The
reason I focus on the briefings is because this is what the local
government is saying. You get a summary in the news and you get a
summary in the newspaper. They update information from one day to
another and sometimes within one day. Sometimes the information changes,
how to wear a mask. Do you wear one or don’t you?
Here in New York the hardest hit were African Americans, mostly in the
Bronx. The Bronx has 34 percent of the affected population of New York (as
of late May). There is one specific neighborhood in the Bronx and
(it has the highest rate) of infection. Most Hispanics here live in
poverty and they are undocumented. First, they do not have Wi-Fi and if
they do, they don’t have broadband, so how can you reach them. I have
talked to senators and council members and everyone loves the idea (of
the translation services). At one point I was about to give up, but I
can’t give up. I have to do what I have to do. Hopefully someone will
say, let’s start with Spanish, but then let’s add Russian and Chinese
and Arabic and the main languages. New York has 800 languages. This is
an immigrant city by nature,” explains Kika Child.
Let’s make our way back to your career Kika, a few minutes ago you were
telling us about the play that you were cast in.
“There is a
Hispanic theater in Washington called Gala Theater and the play is
called
La Tía Julia y el Escribidor
(Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter)
and it is one of the classics in South America. It was written by
Mario Vargas Llosa.
He was a huge
Peruvian writer and Pulitzer Prize winner and he was a beautiful
novelist. The play was produced here at the Spanish Repertory Theater
probably 10 years ago. It is the same theater that produces
Donna Flor and her Two Husbands
that I have
been in since 2012, but right now we are on a break.
These Latin
American classics are very difficult to adapt. They are very long and
they have a lot of magical realism and there is a duo of a writer and a
director. The writer is
Caridad Svitch and the director is José Zayas.
They have produced
a bunch of these Latin American classics. We are going to go to
Washington next year and put it up in the beautiful theater. God willing
that we will all be alive next year.
It is a true story about how he (the main character) met his first wife
Julia who was also his aunt. They met in the fifties and they fell in
love,” she says.
In 2019 Kika Child appeared in the film Making the Day, which is
tentatively scheduled for release in the fall (2020) and she talks about
that experience, “It
is a fun movie. The director
Michael Canzoniero
is so much fun. He
takes a long time to produce his films and this one was started five
years ago. It is about an aging character actor who needs to have his
film produced. His wife died and this is his tribute to her. It talks
about the adventures and tragedies (associated with) producing a film.
He finds a girl who is so desperate to play the lead that she starts
helping him to find the money. Michael does really good and edgy films.
He works a lot with Dan Fogler (actor who plays Tony Guest). He likes to
cast the same people in his films.
Michael
(originally) invited me to see the last day of shooting. That was the
closing day, two years ago.
Then he asked me to come that day and to act in the film. I got there
without knowing what part I was going to play or without a script, until
two hours before. It was improvised, but he works a lot like that and
does wonderful movies.
I have never done that. You have to learn your lines. I just went and it
was a huge production. There were a hundred people in this big
warehouse.
I kept bugging the assistant, when are you going to give me the script
and what is my role. They gave me the script. It was a small role with
only two scenes, but it was so much fun. I had to learn it on the spot.
The funny thing is he did that with a lot of actors. There are a lot of
cameos in the film.”
Kika Child has also been cast in the horror film The Girl Inside, which
is in pre-production.
“This is a film that a friend of mine has been writing and it is also on
standstill. Who knows what is going to happen with the industry? They
are trying to reinvent and survive, but the industry will (eventually)
come back to where it was. A lot of projects take a long time,” she
says.
We asked Kika Child to take us back to where this all began, back in
Colombia.
“I was in high school and I went to France. I went to France, because
(she laughs) I was failing high school in Colombia. I am a good student,
but I am very undisciplined. It was the only way to get me through high
school. I went and I worked as a nanny. First, I went to the south of
France. The student exchange did not work and all I wanted to do was to
start acting. When I moved to France, I was eighteen and I was staying
with my uncle. He is a painter and on the first floor of his studio was
a theater group called Ophelia. I was completely mesmerized, and I
wanted to study with Ophelia. 1 started with that group in Paris and
when I was still eighteen, I ended up moving back to Colombia.
My mom comes from a family of artists, so she knew how hard it can be to
have a life in the arts. She told me to study and to get a real
profession please.
I went to college and studied social communications. I was very
independent, and I moved out by myself. In 1989 I found a job as a
hostess in a restaurant in Bogota. At the restaurant I met someone, and
we were talking about acting, so he invited me to a casting. I was cast
in a short film. It was about this girl and (for context) it was during
the ’90s in Colombia, so everything revolved around violence, the mafia
and other kinds of stories. To protect her (the character) boyfriend she
kills a guy and then she ends up in jail. For my first short film, it
was with a really professional cast of celebrities. I was lucky. I had a
vision and with the contacts I had in Bogota I was lucky. I also worked
really hard.
Now I am at the age (she laughs) when younger actors come to me (for
advice) and I always tell them if you have a vision and a dream you have
to go for it.
I also met someone else at the same restaurant and (I ended up)
auditioning for a TV show. I was a rebel, I quit college and I was cast
in this TV series. It was a prime time show at 6 pm for young people. It
took place in a boarding house for young students and my character
became a drug addict. I was always signing autographs and stuff and kids
on the street would come to me. My (character’s name) was Lulu and they
would come to me and they would say Lulu are you really doing drugs? I
was like nooo! I took advantage of that to give them a (positive)
message.
Very soon I met a boyfriend whose family was about to move back to
Argentina. Now we are in 1990 and I was young and a rebel. They invited
me to move with them to Argentina. I had signed with one of the major
channels in Colombia. I was going to be the lead in one of their
sitcoms, but I was in love and I didn’t care, so I called them, and I
canceled my contract. Years later I called them, and I apologized. The
director forgave me.
When I moved to
Argentina little did, I know that my boyfriend’s father was a very big
filmmaker. Life always led me because I had that vision, dream and I am
a hard worker. This film is called
Gatica, the Monkey.
I love
telling the story, because this was the most awaited film, fifteen
years. The director
Leonardo Favio
the father of my ex-boyfriend was one of the greatest singers. Julio
Iglesias used to call
Leonardo Favio
and ask him to
record him. He wanted him to be one of his mentors. Leonardo was one of
the big stars in Latin America, as a singer and as a filmmaker. In the
eighties during the dictatorships in Argentina they moved and went into
exile. They lived in Mexico and then in Colombia and that is when I met
his son. When we moved to Argentina it was his return to cinema. It was
an incredible film and it was like magic. It was the biography of one of
the biggest boxers in Argentina. It was a huge production. Argentina has
a huge industry. I played his first wife. He had three wives. He was a
player, a womanizer and a drunk. He died when he was drunk, and he was
running to a bus. The bus hit him.
The film was beautiful to shoot and afterwards it received a lot of
accolades and it received an Oscar nomination. The director Leonardo
Favio was in Spain receiving the Goya for that film (editor’s note:
The Goya is Spain’s most prestigious cinematic honor) and he called
home and he said I am sorry, but I am going to withdraw Gatica the
Monkey from the Academy Awards. My mother-in-law and I were already
planning our dresses. It was competing with the one that Penelope Cruz
did, Belle Epoque with director Fernando Trueba.
The year was 1993. He said I want to withdraw the film, because I
do not want to work in Hollywood,” she says and explains that the
director withdrew the film, as a protest concerning a scandal that was
taking place in the film industry at the time.
Leonardo Favio passed away in November of 2012 after a lengthy illness.
As for her decision to move to the United States from Colombia Kika
Child says, “Things were so unsettled in Colombia in the late nineties
and there was a lot of violence, so it triggered my desire to move to
the U.S. I found a tenant for my apartment and I sold my car. I got rid
of everything. I thought I preferred to be a waitress in New York where
nobody knows me than continuing to live there. That is why I moved here.
I literally came with two suitcases and little money. I was a waitress
here for seven years. I kept on getting offers from TV in Colombia. They
said can you be here on Monday? You can have the lead in a show? I said
I am sorry I can’t.
Many things have changed in Colombia and new people have come in. There
are new producers and young people. They know who I am. My friends who
never left are the ones who are getting the roles. If I want to work in
Colombia, I know I would have to go and stay a season. That is still my
desire, because that is where my family is.
After waitressing here for seven years I read that a friend of mine was
going to direct a play, Donna Flor and Her Two Husbands at the
Spanish Repertory Theater. I was perfect for the role, because of my
age. I was not cast, but he invited me to the premiere of the play in
2008. Then I was cast for a play called House of the Spirits in
2009. It went on for two years and it was a Latin American classic. It
was a beautiful experience. The play was beautifully written and
directed, but it was very difficult to adapt magic realism.
I stayed with the ensemble of the Spanish Rep. In 2012 I entered
Donna Flor and Her Two Husbands as an understudy. My friend
left the play and I have been doing it ever since.”
Kika Child is also a founding member of the Tabula Rasa NYC Theater and
Performance Lab and we asked her to enlighten us concerning what this is
all about.
“Tabula Rasa NYC Theater and Performance Lab originated in 2012. Ramiro
Sandoval is another Colombian actor and director and he broke off from
his other troupe. He wanted to build something that was a little more
experimental. It started with a show based on the Greek tragedy
Clitemnestra, but the play was called There Was Fire. I did
not end up doing that show, because my partner at that time was very
sick and I had to take care of him. There is always something you know
(light laughter). The play was successful, and it went to a lot of
festivals. I have continued with them.
Tabula Rasa has now joined with a peace project in South Korea. He is
also an activist and he fights for peace in Colombia or wherever. There
is an agreement with South Korea for him to go there and (conduct)
workshops.
With Ramiro Sandoval you start with the workshops and the actors feed
off of each other and that is where the ideas are born.”
And these days, “Right now filming has stopped. I had an accident four
years ago and I had to stop acting for a year. I moved back to Colombia
and my family took care of me, while I recovered. I was on a roll,
before the accident. It was a bad year in 2016, even Brad and Angelina
got divorced (some light laughter). Then I came back to New York and
little by little I got back onto my feet. I went back to the Spanish Rep
and they gave me my role in the play back,” she says.
Our conversation has now come full circle and the pandemic sweeps
America, there is civil unrest and the state of the theater, television
and film industries is uncertain. As Kika Child would say there is
always something.
Please take time to visit Kika Child’s
official Facebook page and you can follow Kika on
Instagram here. you
can follow her translation of important events in New York City on
her
YouTube channel.
#KikaChildActress #KikaChild #RivetingRiffs #RivetingRiffsMagazine #NYCActress #ActrizColombiana #ActrizTeatro #TheaterActress #ActrizCine #FilmActress #TelevisionActress #RamiroSandoval #SpanishRepertoryTheater #TabulaRasa #LeonardoFavio
|
I
couldn’t travel to Colombia to go and be of service, which is what I
wanted to do. I wanted to be there for my parents. Colombia has stricter
rules right now than the U.S., but they don’t have the financial help
that people in the U.S. receive. 