Karla Souza
The patriarchal society has made women believe, first of all, you're only valid and valuable when you're young.Collection: Believe
When we see society telling women that they have a certain time, that they make women compete with each other, the older generation competing with the younger generation. They've made us believe that there's not enough men out there for us or that we're only hired because of our looks and not because of our abilities.Collection: Believe
I've been transformed by stories, and I think that storytelling is definitely sacred. I take it very seriously because my life has been changed, whether it was a movie, a play, a piece of writing, poetry, a painting.Collection: Writing
Family is something that I grew up with, and the Mexican culture has a lot of, you know - Sunday is the day you spend with your family, and you have 40 to 50 people at your house, the uncles and the cousins, and I grew up with that.Collection: Cousin
I also have to be careful of what it says about women. I get a lot of scripts that only talk about women's appearances and what they look like. I think we're tired of having to meet this standard and not being asked what our talents or abilities are.Collection: Tired
Something I was adamant about was that the movie [Everybody Lovess Somebody] wouldn't end with, oh, marriage saved [the main character]. They're married and she's OK. I was very pushing on having the ending be that she made an inner growth of healing so that she can then have the ability and the space to love and be loved by someone else, and that love is open-ended and doesn't mean they're going to get married tomorrow and all her problems are solved.Collection: Character
What I do feel with the different scripts that they give me where I feel like this is done for one of those reasons, I share my point of view. I don't just say, "No, thank you." I say, "I feel that this represents Latinos in a wrong way, in a bad way."Collection: Views
Until they hired a Latina to write for Laurel [in How to Get Away with Murder], I was scared that she was going to fall into stereotypes.Collection: Fall
Sadly - and I think this is why it's so important that we do this more - I don't have that guiding light. You know, "Oh, that Sleepless in Seattle bilingual something," like, it doesn't exist. I don't have it in my memory, and that's why I thought it was important to make it.Collection: Memories
Mexican food is one of the best culinary experiences that people can have.Collection: People
I guess that storytelling would be for me to keep making art that touches people in a way that nothing else can.Collection: Art
I think it's not an easy task because there's not enough Latino writers that are being given opportunities to write things - and I say this because I've been given a lot of bilingual movies in the past because of my career in Mexico, and they're like, "Oh, it's going to make sense for her to do this." A lot of studios want to hit that demographic, but they sort of do it without starting in the right way, which is having someone who knows the culture, and enjoys the language as well, to be able to write these things.Collection: Writing
Our society really needs to take a better look at what we're selling, because I think women being empowered will be as beneficial to men as it is to us.Collection: Men
When I was asked to change Laurel into a Latina for How to Get Away with Murder, I was terrified, because I thought, no one's going to know how to do this because the American take on my culture is never accurate.Collection: Culture
The music in the movie [Everybody Loves Somebody] is very much hand-picked specifically because it's our history and our traditions. The themes are universal.Collection: Hands
I love that in this movie [Everybody Loves Somebody], you almost want to go and hang out with this family.Collection: Want
["When are you getting married" in Everybody Loves Somebody] is funny because it's put on by women and men. Society makes women feel like, oh, you're getting old.Collection: Men
I explain that as Latinos, we can also be professionals.Collection: Latino
I tell [scriptwriters] I think [their scripts] has too many stereotypes, that even the way they come in and out of Spanish doesn't really make sense, it feels forced.Collection: Thinking
There's a lot of lies out there that we should catch and that have taken me a lot of time to sort of see, and reading up on it and getting educated on it. I'm reading a book that's about how images of beauty have hurt women along the decades. It's a very educating but infuriating thing to see, how we don't have equal opportunity because they're demanding so much more.Collection: Hurt
All the products that are sold to us - those anti-aging products - are telling us that there's a due date.Collection: Due Date
This movie [Everybody Loves Somebody] is as much for the general market as it is for Latino audiences. That's a really exciting prospect.Collection: Exciting
I feel that the power that storytelling has to change people, to bring them together, to have that cathartic sort of experience, is something that definitely has helped my life be worthwhile and better.Collection: People
I think Shonda Rhimes came to change television for women forever.Collection: Thinking
There's a lot of things, even the landscape that we show in the movie [Everybody Loves Somebody] of Ensenada in Baja is just spectacular. There's so much more - I wish we could have shown more, but I'm glad we didn't see the typical, you know, border-sombrero-tequila thing that we normally do.Collection: Wish
[The main character] is in a forever-growing process. I feel the movie [everybody Loves Somebody] did that very well and not finishing off as "a woman's life ends when she finds the right guy".Collection: Character
I would get very frustrated reading scripts that were bilingual but maybe not bicultural.Collection: Reading
[Everybody Loves Somebody] one really loves both cultures, represents them in a very accurate, genuine, authentic, fun, fresh way, and it includes so many more people because it has that language aspect to it.Collection: Fun
I hope that we start trendsetting [with Everybody Loves Somebody], you know, like having bigger movies also include that. Because I think it'll definitely change a lot of what's going on right now.Collection: Thinking
People follow my movies for a reason, and that's because I believe in them, and I don't want to just make movies for the sake of making movies.Collection: Believe
I felt really strongly about this script [ Everybody Loves Somebody] because, like you said, it's a very specific way of life.Collection: Way
Romantic comedies, if done badly, can be catastrophic.Collection: Done
I knew that [director/screenwriter] Catalina Aguilar Mastretta had an amazing take on the female psyche and the modern woman and the modern immigrant woman living in the U.S., and I really saw the need for a story told of our daily lives without being a statistic and without just trying to hit a demographic, and I felt that with this one.Collection: Trying
I also really pay attention to whether the script embodies a full female character or if they're just wanting a two-dimensional objectified woman. So I also have that aspect to take care of as well.Collection: Character
I think that, for sure, we as women should try and realize that it's more about having someone to share.Collection: Thinking
In the movie [Everybody Loves Somebody], the sister tells my character, "No, don't you want to be with someone?" I think the family - especially in this movie - they know that the reason that Clara doesn't want to have an emotional, intimate relationship is more because she was hurt so badly from heartbreak that she's then being closed off and cynical.Collection: Hurt
Wisdom and white hair might not be as valued [in our society] as in different cultures.Collection: Hair