Ivana Baquero Interview, Star of Pan’s Labyrinth

We had a chance to sit down and talk with Ivana Baquero about her role in Pan’s Labyrinth. Just 12 years old, young Spanish actress Ivana Baquero already has four films to her credit, all produced by the Spanish company Filmax International - more precisely for that company's genre specialist subsidiary, Fantastic Factory. She made her debut in L’ENFER DES LOUPS (ROMASANTA) by Paco Plaza, who also directed her in THE BABY’S ROOM. Baquero has also appeared in Brian Yuzna’s ROTTWEILER, and most recently, in Jaume Balagueró's FRAGILE, alongside Calista Flockhart.

Q: Are you a fan of these fantastical films? This one gets pretty violent.

Ivana: I guess so. I like any movie. My favorite genre, well, not a genre but during the Medieval times. For instance "Lord of the Rings” or "Troy.” I like any kind of movies, scary movies or thrillers.

Q: When you were crawling around in the mud, how awful was that day?

Ivana: In fact, I remember it as my toughest sequence, especially the part where I come out of the fake tree after the toad, I was literally freezing because I was full of mud. I was in Madrid’s mountains, La Sierra and it was raining so I was really freezing.

Q: Are your imaginary fantasies anything like this?

Ivana: Guillermo has this amazing mind and I don’t think mine reaches to his but I guess, like any kid, I sometimes have my imaginary monsters. I’ve never really created one but sometimes I do have nightmares and goosebumps about weird Pans and big toads, that kind of stuff.

Q: What was Sergi like to work with. Was he fun between scenes because he’s frightening on screen.

Ivana: Yeah, he was totally hilarious. He has nothing to do with the real Vidal. Every time we did a sequence, we’d have to get into our characters and be serious, like I’d be crying and he’d be like preparing to slap me, fake slap me, and five minutes later, we’d break out laughing and start joking all around again. He’s a really nice person and, as well as Guillermo, he taught me a lot during the whole filming and he was also one of the people who cheered me up and gave me advice during filming.

Q: What did you take away from this film or learn from Guillermo?

Ivana: He taught me so much stuff. One of the things he did push me to do was keep on reading fairy tales. Before doing "Pan’s Labyrinth,” I did read but I wasn’t that addicted to it. But Guillermo sent me tons of fairy tale books and movies and I started seeing them. I realized, why not read them? They are very pretty and you can learn from them. I started, afterwards, reading fairy tales. Right now, whenever I can, I grab a book and start reading.

Q: How closely did you work with Doug and was there CGI as well or was it just him in a costume?

Ivana: He’s dressed in a suit and make-up. It takes him four hours of make-up. Of course, he sometimes had green screens, but he was basically dressed in a suit with make-up. He’s also great. He’s really outrageous. One of the things that I most appreciate of his work is that, in this movie, all of his dialogue had to be in Spanish and it was hard for him to learn it in Spanish because he had really big chunks of dialogue. That’s something I really did appreciate. He did it and it was great.

Q: Did you speak English with him between takes?

Ivana: Yeah, I did. But, in fact, he did learn some Spanish.

Q: Do you have any little brothers?

Ivana: No. I’m an only child. In fact, that’s one of the reasons my mother is able to come with me on these trips is because she doesn’t have to take care of another baby.

Q: Do you hope to make movies here in the United States or in other parts of Europe?

Ivana: Yes. I’d love to work here or in any other country but what I’m most looking forward to is working on a project that I feel I’m going to learn something and will be good for my career.

Q: You speak English extraordinarily well. Did you go to an English school?

Ivana: Yeah. I went to an American school since I was three in Barcelona.

Q: Whose choice was that?

Ivana: It was my parents because they thought it would be good for my future. They didn’t think I was going to be an actress but in any other profession. I think they made a great decision because it really helped me. The first movie I did was due to my English.

Q: What kinds of music do you like to listen to?

Ivana: I listen to Nirvana, ACDC and I love Pink Floyd and Genesis and Red Hot Chili Peppers and Led Zeppelin.

Q: It’s retro-girl! When you are away from Barcelona, what do you miss?

Ivana: I miss my friends but beyond anything, I miss my whole family because I go to the movies with them and hang out with my cousins and everything. I do call them a lot but I miss my family. My parents come with me but I miss the rest.

Q: Could you talk about how you got the part?

Ivana: After my fifth movie, my parents and I said it would be good for my career to have a manager so we spoke with one and finally started working with him and he spoke with Sara Bilbatua, the casting director of this movie and I went to the audition. It was sort of like a reading and then I went to the second audition and there I made Guillermo’s wife and all the people who were there cry, and the same day, Guillermo came after the sequence with script in hand and he told me he wanted me for the movie and it was really fast, real quickly, everything and he said, ‘Read the script and let me know what you think. If you want to do it, drop me a line.’ I spoke with my parents about it and they seemed to love the script and when I read the script, I was like ‘Whoa! The script is so good that the movie has to be good too. So, why not do it?’ Then, when I told Guillermo I wanted to do it, it was two months of rehearsal and then we started shooting.

Q: Have you seen his other films?

Ivana: Yeah, it’s what I always do with all the directors I work with. I really see most of their filmography just to see if they’re more into comedy or scary movies. I did see Guillermo’s movies and what I thought was that what he does really good is make the scary genre with any other genre. For example, for this movie he makes it scary during the Civil War with the fantasy genre.

Q: Did you like working on the fantasy scenes or the real world scenes?

Ivana: I like both of them. It’s really different. When I had to act in the real world, I was with Maribel and all the great actors who were cheering me up all the time and who give me advice. And, when I was in the fantasy world filming, I had Doug Jones and all these amazing creatures to film with so I guess I liked both a lot.

Q: American girls are growing up too fast. When they are ten, they think they’re seventeen. Is it like that in your country?

Ivana: I guess it’s quite appropriate how they are but like any kid, when you’re younger like me, they want to be older and be themselves but do what older kids do. I think this happens in every country that they want to act older and be able to do other stuff that they’re not supposed to do. But, my friends and I are, I guess, normal. We just live what we have right now.

Q: How much time do you have to be a normal kid?

Ivana: Well, I’m a normal kid all the time including right now. But, it’s really weird. When you are in real life you realize that when you go through all the promotion, it’s just a moment and it’s not real. Everything that’s going on, all the people and all the screenings and the big premiere and all the big celebrities, you do realize in some ways, that it’s not true; that you really have to live your true life where you are and not get it too much into your head and not believe it too much. So, when I come here to do promotion, I love it because I don’t do it every day and when I do do it, I love it. But I also enjoy being at school and being at my house and being with my family.

Q: What are you going to do next?

Ivana: Right now, I’m not working on any specific project but I’m looking for any project that I can see can actually teach me for my acting career; any project that would do good for my actor’s career.

Q: What is your favorite movie?

Ivana: I don’t know. I like Medieval movies like "Lord of the Rings”. But, I’m not sure because I like watching different kinds of movies.

Q: Did your parents have any problems with you doing this because it’s a brutal film? Have you seen the film?

Ivana: Yeah, like eight times. No, they didn’t have problems. When you see the movie, you get into the movie, the movie is put together. You watch it and hear the music and you really get into it. You don’t realize that, when you are actually filming it, it’s not like that. It’s all hilarious. You do a scene and then Guillermo says ‘cut’ and then we’re doing jokes. You don’t feel it that much. And, when we see the movie, we didn’t have any sort of problems because we already knew what was going on when we were filming. In a really brutal scene, we would remember that we were joking around so it wasn’t a problem at all.

Q: Do you have a favorite art place in Spain?

Ivana: No. I don’t visit that much. I guess I like all that stuff but I don’t have much time to visit. I encourage you to go. It has lots of amazing places.

Q: A lot of actors don’t like to watch themselves on screen. Do you get uncomfortable watching yourself?

Ivana: It’s okay. I’m one of the people who, when you see a movie, I see it and say ‘I could have done it better or I could have done it worse.’ I like watching myself to see if I could have improved it or if I did it all right. I have no problem watching myself because, after I do a film, I’m really looking forward to seeing the rest of it and seeing how I did and how the movie came out.

Q: Are you glad you don’t have to wear the clothes your character wore in the film or do you like them?

Ivana: In fact I did like it. Some of it was even vintage. During the four months of filming I grew four centimeters so they had to do the dresses again. They’re like ‘Ivana, don’t grow, don’t grow’!

Q: How long was the production?

Ivana: The filming was four months but I think before, Guillermo planned it for years and the actors rehearsed it for two months so for the actors, it was six months.

Q: What was the scariest creature in it for you, Pan or The Pale Man?

Ivana: It’s really difficult to say in my situation because, out of four months of filming I filmed two months with them. And I ended up getting really used to it because I ate with Pan and we filmed with the Pan and had rehearsal with the Pan and it was like acting with another actor. But, when I saw the movie I think the spookiest one was The Pale Man. But, on set I couldn’t tell. He was like another actor.

Q: Are you doing something next?

Ivana: I don’t have any other projects at the moment. I’m concentrating on school and the promotion of the movie. But, I’m looking forward to doing another movie; movies that can do good for my career.

Q: Do you want to come back for the Oscars, especially if it gets nominated for best foreign film?

Ivana: Yeah, of course. I think any talented movie should at least deserve the respect of the people and I think that’s one of the things that "Pan’s Labyrinth” actually did.

Q: Who would be the actor or actress you would most like to work with?

Ivana: I would pick Natalie Portman. Not only because she is a great actress, which she totally is, but because before continuing with her acting career, she finished her studies in college and that’s one of the things I most appreciate about her career.

Q: Are you going to do the same?

Ivana: Yeah.

"Pan’s Labyrinth” opens in theaters on December 29^th. I invite you to read my interviews with the film’s director, Guillermo del Toro, and the rest of the actors. Check them all out: Pan's Labyrinth Interviews